Men’s volleyball moves on to face Ohio State in the semifinals

COLUMBUS, Ohio >> They are … moving on.

About the time that the time zones caught up with Hawaii, the Rainbow Warriors caught fire.

Led by sophomore Stijn van Tilburg’s 20 kills and a solid off-the-bench coming-of-age performance by freshman Austin Matautia, fourth-seeded Hawaii prevented a repeat of two years ago, sending fifth-seeded Penn State on a five-hour bus ride back home to not-so Happy Valley in Tuesday’s NCAA volleyball tournament play-in match. The Warriors quieted the “We are Penn State” chants that echoed in the cavernous St. John Arena with an even louder, emphatic rally in the final two sets of a 23-25, 27-25, 17-25, 25-14, 15-4 victory.

A pro-Hawaii crowd of 695 watched for 2 hours and 11 minutes as the Warriors (27-5) tied a program record for season wins, tied their season high in blocks (17.5) as well as reached the NCAA semifinal for the first time since 2002, the year they won the (since vacated) national title. Hawaii will face defending national champion, host and top-seeded Ohio State (30-2) in Thursday’s second semifinal.

The first semifinal (at noon) is an all-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation showdown between second-seeded Long Beach State (27-3) and third-seeded Brigham Young (24-4). The Cougars advanced by sweeping Conference Carolinas champion Barton 25-19, 25-11, 25-15.

That the Warriors are still playing is a surprise to many who gave up on them after Set 3. That they did so without two senior starters — injured middle Hendrik Mol and struggling hitter Kupono Fey — isn’t a surprise to the Hawaii players.

“You’ve got to play for everyone,” said van Tilburg, in on six blocks, including an impressive solo midway through Set 5. “I love Kupono, I love Hendrik, I love everyone on the court.

“I looked at Kupono on the side and I wanted to play another time with him.”

And also with Mol, who may be cleared to play Thursday. He has been aggressively rehabbing a sprained right ankle suffered in the April 22 loss at Long Beach State in the MPSF tournament final.

Without Mol, the Warriors went with sophomore Dalton Solbrig, making his third start of the season, fourth of his career. He didn’t take many swings — just four with two kills and an error — but he kept the Penn State block honest enough that it often opened up Hawaii’s outside hitters.

“I’m really proud of the guys. We obviously got off to a slow start, making too many uncharacteristic errors,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “We battled back in the second set. That was a big turning point in the match.

“We found a rhythm and played at a pretty high level. As it has been all year, it was a good team win for us. Austin came off the bench, gave us a big lift. We’ve been a pretty veteran team with Jennings (senior setter Franciskovic), Kupono and Hendrik. I look out there and all of a sudden it’s a couple of freshmen, 3-4 sophomores. They did a great job.”

Matautia, replacing Fey in Set 2, had seven kills and no errors on nine swings with an ace.

“I could see that we were physically there but not mentally in it,” Matautia said. “The coaches asked me to come in and bring the fire. The energy picked up a lot.”

The one constant was Franciskovic, who successfully dealt with the various lineup changes.

“Other than different guys getting different sets, the team is so close that it doesn’t matter who is on the court because everyone has bought into what we’re doing,” said Franciskovic, who had five kills with no errors in seven attempts and was in on five blocks, including two solo, in addition to an ace and 49 assists. “Our passing in the last two sets was great and it made my job a lot easier.”

The Warriors came back from an ugly performance in Set 3 in turning the tables on the Nittany Lions. Leading 17-12, Hawaii went to reserve sophomore setter Joe Worsley as a serving substitution; when he left, it was 22-13, he had his ninth ace of the season and the Warriors had the momentum that would go crazy in Set 5.

The fifth set started at 4 p.m., about the time the Warriors would begin a normal weekday practice. They found that rhythm while the Nittany Lions lost theirs.

Penn State opened the fifth with three consecutive hitting errors, forcing coach Mark Pavlik to call a timeout. It was 6-1 when Pavlik used his second and last.

At the changeover, Hawaii led 8-4 and Matautia was on serve. He never left, serving out the match, a 7-0 run capped by Hawaii’s final block that ended it, a stuff of Aiden Albrecht by Patrick Gasman and Brett Rosenmeier.

Rosenmeier, a sophomore hitter, finished with 13 kills and six block assists. Sophomore libero Tui Tuileta had a match-high 10 digs.

For Penn State, Calvin Mende had 18 kills — just three after Set 3 — and Kevin Gera 10.

Pavlik had said before the match that he was concerned about Hawaii’s serving. The Warriors had just three aces, but they disrupted the Nittany Lions’ offense, with freshman setter Luke Braswell having a difficult time staying in system.

“They were serving the middle of the court,” Pavlik said, “and we couldn’t pass it within the confines of this gym, the nearby skating rink, (adjacent) French Field House. They didn’t do much more than hand us the ball and say, go ahead and self-destruct.

“All season, this is how we lost matches. All of sudden it’s Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde. It’s that first contact that sometimes turns into shrapnel. They realized, hey, they can’t pass.”

BYU 3, Barton 0

Brendan Sander put down 11 kills and the Cougars needed just 71 minutes to eliminate the Bulldogs (23-6). Sander was in on eight blocks and Price Jarman six.

BYU hit an outrageous .692 in Set 2, with 10 kills on 13 swings and one error. Ben Patch, coming into the match late in Set 2, had five aces in Set 3 and the Cougars had half of their blocks (9.5) in closing it out.