It would have been easy — very easy — for No. 2 Hawaii to look ahead to this week. The Rainbow Warriors are hosting their 24th Outrigger Resorts Invitational, arguably the premier tournament this men’s volleyball season with its loaded field of No. 5 BYU, No. 7 Lewis and No. 10 Penn State.
And, arguably, whichever team leaves next Saturday with the championship trophy will have a strong case for an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament should it fail to win its conference’s automatic bid.
However, Hawaii (11-2) remained focused on Sunday’s rematch with No. 13 Concordia with junior setter Joe Worsley running a very efficient (.446) and very balanced offense over the 83 minutes at the Stan Sheriff Center. Three Warriors had double-figure kills and middles Patrick Gasman, a sophomore, and junior Dalton Sobrig combed for 11 kills without an error in the 25-20, 25-15, 25-16 sweep of the Eagles (8-8).
A crowd of 1,952 saw sophomore hitter Austin Matautia and sophomore opposite Rado Parapunov put down 12 kills each, and junior hitter Stijn van Tilburg add 10. Matautia had all three of the Warriors’ aces and Hawaii outdug Concordia — No. 6 nationally in digs — 27-14.
“The best thing about tonight was how clean we played,” Hawaii senior libero Tui Tuileta said, finishing with a match-high eight digs. “Our serve-receive was good (giving up one ace) and Joe was really good at spreading it around.
“Matt (freshman middle Larson) and Colton (sophomore hitter Cowell) came in on their birthdays, got some playing time and did well. Now we can get ready for three really good teams this week. It will be a good test for us.”
Tuileta may have had the highlight of Set 2 with his dig-kill that landed in the middle of Concordia’s defense, giving the Warriors a 23-13 lead. Larson, who turned 22 Sunday, definitely had the highlight run of Set 3, serving Hawaii out to a 22-14 lead with a career-high two digs in just his sixth appearance this season.
The plan had been for Larson to stay in at middle for Gasman, but Hawaii finished it before Larson made it to the front row.
“I don’t know if it’s a good thing that I served too much or a bad thing that I served too well,” joked Larson, who redshirted last season following a two-year church mission. “But I’ll take it.”
Both of the Warriors’ losses this season have come on a Sunday following Friday victories: UCLA and UC Irvine. Sunday, Hawaii avoided that, overcoming a somewhat sluggish performance midway through Set 1 where Concordia pulled to 17-13 after being down 6-1.
Matautia had a kill and two aces, and van Tilburg two kills when jumping out early.
“We don’t give up that 5-0 run and we’re looking at a deuce game,” Eagles coach Shawn Patchell said.
It wasn’t close the rest of the way. Concordia got nine kills from reigning MPSF defensive player of the week Taylor Falduti. The senior middle also was in on two of five blocks for the Eagles, who had come in as the top blocking team in the country (2.87 bps).
All three of the Hawaii prep products on the Concordia roster played briefly on Sunday. Reserve junior setter Isaiah “Pono” Kaaa (Punahou) served twice, freshman defensive specialist Addison Enriques (Kamehameha-Hawaii) served three times, and freshman opposite Owen Chun (Hanalani) put down his only attempt late in Set 2.
Two-time defending champion Hawaii seeks its third consecutive Outrigger title beginning Thursday against No. 7 Lewis (13-5) at 7 p.m. Opening the 24th annual event will be No. 5 BYU (14-4) against No. 10 Penn State (10-4) at 4 p.m.
