It was senior night all over again, perhaps even better, magnified by the magnitude of what was at stake. It went beyond ensuring a perfect home season because Saturday night WAS the season for No. 4 Hawaii.
Lose and wait ’til next year.
Rainbow Warriors seniors Kupono Fey, Hendrik Mol and Jennings Franciskovic made sure that didn’t happen. Bolstered by a season-high crowd of 6,301 at the Stan Sheriff Center, Fey put down 14 kills, Mol was in on five of Hawaii’s season-high 17.5 blocks and Franciskovic had the Warriors hitting .344 in a 25-23, 25-20, 25-15 sweep of No. 8 Pepperdine.
Sophomore opposite Stijn van Tilburg added his first career double-double (14 kills, 10 digs) and Franciskovic finished with six blocks to put third-seeded Hawaii on a plane Tuesday to Long Beach State. The Warriors (25-4) will face second-seeded Brigham Young in a 2 p.m. semifinal match on Thursday at the Walter Pyramid.
The Cougars (24-3) swept Stanford 25-19, 25-21, 25-18 Saturday in Provo, Utah.
Thursday’s second semifinal will have the top-seeded 49ers (25-3) against No. 4 seed UC Irvine (20-6). Long Beach State advanced with a 25-22, 24-26, 25-18, 25-23 victory over USC, and the Anteaters topped UCLA 23-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-22.
The 101-minute win over the Waves (10-11) extended Hawaii’s home winning streak to 22 dating back to last season. The Warriors, 18-0 at the Sheriff Center this season, also defeated Pepperdine for the 10th straight time in Honolulu going back to 2010. The 25 victories ties the second-most in program history with the 1988 squad. The record of 27 came in 1996.
“It was pretty amazing tonight,” Franciskovic said. “It hasn’t hit me yet that this is the last time we’d be playing in here.
“As awesome as the win was and seeing everyone playing so great, it was even more important to us that we had this kind of atmosphere. We won’t forget it.”
There was little doubt who was going to get the aloha-ball set. Getting the ball to his fellow senior Fey “was the plan,” Franciskovic said. “During the rally, he let me know he’d be ready. I’m really proud of him, and our team. That was a good team we played.”
Pepperdine, swept in its two previous matches here in February, never got its offense going. The Waves managed just 29 kills on the night — 17 in Set 1 — with David Wieczorek putting down nine and Noah Dyer eight.
Hawaii, the top blocking team in the country, had just two blocks in Set 1. The Warriors capped the night with nine in Set 3, including three straight while pulling away at 23-13.
“We played great volleyball tonight,” Mol said. “Having this big crowd was a nice way to end it.
“Everyone did a good job, especially the blocking. We shut them down. They’re a big team, but they could get through us. I’m really proud of Jennings and Patrick (freshman middle Gasman).”
The Warriors finished with a 17.5-2 edge in blocks, led by Gasman’s match-high eight. Fey also had six blocks and van Tilburg five.
“Tonight was so unreal and so much fun,” Fey said. “We served well and blocked well. I think we’re peaking at the right time.”
Hawaii will see BYU, one of two teams to defeat the Warriors this season, with all four losses on the road. The Cougars swept UH twice in Provo, while the 49ers took two, one in five and one in three, in Long Beach.
“BYU … a good team, big and athletic,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “We’ll see them on a neutral site, which is better than what we had last month. We’ll have a big challenge.”
Hawaii was challenged early by Pepperdine, taking the lead for good in Set 1 at 13-12, breaking the sixth tie on Brett Rosenmeier’s 3-meter attack. Pepperdine closed to within one five times after that, the last at 24-23 on the Warriors’ first set-point attempt.
Mol and van Tilburg teamed to stuff Dyer to end it, just the second block for the Warriors. It was a portent of things to come, as the Warriors added another six stuffs in a flurry, including a solo by the 6-foot-5 Franciskovic on the 6-8 Wieczorek, to run away at 19-8.
Hawaii’s cruise control got stuck in neutral, with Pepperdine taking advantage of some loose play and suspect serve-receive. Three aces led to an 11-4 spurt for the Waves and some anxious moments for the Warriors. Hawaii held, trading service errors before Fey put down his 10th kill.
The Warriors returned from the break focused and set on cleaning up the sloppy play of Set 2. It was tied for the eighth and final time at 10, with Hawaii pulling away for good behind a 4-0 serving run from Fey.
