Passing, setting woes plague Warriors

In volleyball, as in real estate, location is everything.

Hawaii struggled with its passing accuracy and set location in Friday’s 25-18, 25-22, 25-17 loss to Brigham Young in the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah.

It was the season opener for both Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams. The rematch is today.

The Warriors used 12 of the 14 players on their travel roster, including both setters — Max Wechsung and Joby Ramos.

"The setters need to have a little better set location," UH coach Charlie Wade said. "The set location wasn’t great. The passing wasn’t great. We never got any great rhythm."

The inconsistencies often put the pin hitters in difficult situations. Jace Olsen, a left-side hitter who transferred from Penn State, had 10 kills but committed 11 errors and hit negative-.034. JP Marks, who moved from the left side to opposite, had as many kills (7) as errors. Only Sinisa Zarkovic, a first-year Warrior from Serbia, has a positive hitting percentage (5 kills, 4 errors).

"You can’t put the numbers on the outsides," Wade said. "They made some nice plays. They were dealing with quite a range of locations."

The Warriors’ middles hit well but not enough. Davis Holt had five kills in eight swings. Nick West had four kills without an error. Aniefre Etim-Thomas was set only once.

"We have to get the middles more involved," Wade said.

The Cougars also did not utilize the middles frequently, but that was by design. Their best player — outside hitter Taylor Sander — is also the nation’s best player.

Sander is 6 feet 4, but has a vertical jump of 43 inches. He is so good he has two nicknames — "Ironman" and "Sandman."

Sander slammed 14 kills and hit .542. His only error came in the middle of the third set. One of his three blocks ricocheted off his face. Sander was an offensive threat for several points. Four of his kills were off pipe sets from behind the 3-meter line. He smashed two more from the front right.

Sander’s approach? "Play loose and have fun," he said. "Listening to these fans, it’s certainly easy."

With UH tracking Sander, it allowed freshman opposite Ben Patch and outside hitter Phil Fuchs to face solo blocks. Patch had eight kills; Fuchs had seven with one error.

"Their pins were really strong," Wade said. "Our blocking has to get better. We’ll do a better job (after) watching film."

The Warriors played well in the middle set. They closed to 17-15, but then served long and hit into two blocks.

"In the second set, we had a bunch of point-scoring chances — balls we got back on our side from making a good defensive play or good serve — and we just didn’t score," Wade said. "We would make a mistake or we didn’t make a good set or a good hit."