Back and just as good as ever. Maybe better.
The Stan Sheriff Center crowd got its first look at Ben Patch, the 2013 National Freshman of the Year, who spent the past two seasons on a church mission.
There was a lot to see. A little too much where No. 7 Hawaii was concerned.
Patch was near-perfect in his Honolulu debut Wednesday night, putting down 22 kills with just one error to lead No. 2 Brigham Young to its 11th consecutive Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball sweep, 25-20, 25-20, 25-23. It was the fourth straight loss for the Warriors (10-8, 5-8), who have dropped seven of their last eight.
“They were big and physical, (Patch) maybe the most physical player we’ve seen this year,” said Hawaii junior middle Hendrik Mol, in on four of the team’s 6.5 blocks. “He has a big arm, took big swings.
“We need to play better (Friday).”
The teams meet again at 7 p.m. as Hawaii tries to snap a three-match losing skid to BYU (15-2, 11-2).
The 6-foot-9 Patch hit .700, his only error in 30 attempts coming early in Set 3 when freshman Stijn van Tilburg and freshman middle Daltong Solbrig teamed to block him. It gave Hawaii its largest lead of the 99-minute match at 8-5.
The Cougars caught the Warriors at 13, using a 7-2 run to swing the momentum. Hawaii fought back, closing to 23-22 and 24-23 – the last on Zarkovic’s final kill that held off one match point.
BYU didn’t need another as almost all of the 1,760 in the arena knew where the aloha ball would be set … to Patch for the match ender.
“He’s fun to watch,” first-year BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said. “He’s a strong, physical player and he took some very big swings for us tonight.”
So did Hawaii’s Zarkovic, who was back in double figures for the first time in three matches. Junior hitter Kupono Fey finished with nine as the Warriors hit .190 to the Cougars’ .464.
“I know, I know,” Zarkovic said when addressing the team’s losing streak. “We’re playing as good as we can. I think we lost focus on some plays, some of the easy balls.”
With the exception of the loss at USC to finish a four-match road trip, all of Hawaii’s losses have come against the top four teams in the MPSF.
“We had an answer for everyone else except Patch,” Warrior coach Charlie Wade said. “At one point in Set 2, we were siding out at 80 percent, hitting .500, and we were still losing. We had a good scouting report, followed it, but there was one guy.
“He was very impressive, very physical. After two years on a mission, he’s gotten even better.”
Wade took a moment to express his condolences to former Rainbow Wahine All-American Kim Willoughby , whose 3-year-old daughter died on Tuesday in Puerto Rico. Wade was on the Wahine staff during Willoughby’s career (2000-2003) and “hearing something like that really puts things in perspective,” Wade said.
BYU, ranked second nationally in blocks, finished with a 14-6.5 edge. Price Jarman, a 6-9 sophomore middle, was in on nine.
Olmstead said he was impressed with Hawaii’s serving. The Warriors had an ace and six errors to the Cougars’ 17 errors and one ace.
“They got us into a little trouble,” he said. “I was bummed about our serving. That’s something we’ll work on (Thursday).”
MPSF VOLLEYBALL
| Conference |
Overall |
|
W |
L |
Pct. |
GB |
W |
L |
| x-LBSU |
12 |
2 |
.857 |
— |
15 |
2 |
| x-Stanford |
12 |
2 |
.857 |
— |
14 |
2 |
| x-BYU |
11 |
2 |
.846 |
1/2 |
15 |
2 |
| x-UCLA |
12 |
3 |
.800 |
1/2 |
16 |
3 |
| UCSB |
9 |
6 |
.600 |
3 1/2 |
13 |
7 |
| Pepperdine |
7 |
5 |
.583 |
4 |
8 |
5 |
| CSUN |
5 |
7 |
.454 |
6 |
10 |
7 |
| Hawaii |
5 |
8 |
.385 |
6 |
10 |
8 |
| UC Irvine |
3 |
11 |
.214 |
9 |
4 |
12 |
| USC |
3 |
11 |
.214 |
9 |
3 |
13 |
| Cal Baptist |
3 |
11 |
.214 |
9 |
8 |
11 |
| UCSD |
0 |
14 |
.000 |
12 |
4 |
15 |
| x-clinched MPSF tournament berth |
Wednesday
BYU at Hawaii
UCLA def. UC Santa Barbara, 21-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-18
Pepperdine def, UC San Diego, 21-25, 21-25, 25-16, 25-22, 15-12
Today
USC at Cal Baptist
Friday
BYU at Hawaii, 7 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center
UCLA at UC Santa Barbara
UC San Diego at UC Irvine
CSUN at Penn State
Long Beach State vs. Mt. Olive at Penn State Invitational
No. 2 BYU def. No. 7 Hawaii, 25-20, 25-20, 25-23
| COUGARS (15-2, 11-2 MPSF) |
|
S |
K |
E |
ATT |
PCT |
D |
BS |
BA |
| Jarman |
3 |
5 |
1 |
6 |
.667 |
0 |
0 |
9 |
| Durkin |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
-1.00 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
| Langlois |
3 |
14 |
5 |
27 |
.333 |
5 |
0 |
3 |
| Patch |
3 |
22 |
1 |
30 |
.700 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
| Sander |
3 |
7 |
3 |
16 |
.250 |
5 |
0 |
4 |
| Hatch |
3 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
.500 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
| Meretev |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Sikes |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
| Dobbert |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Sutton |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| TOTALS |
3 |
50 |
11 |
84 |
.464 |
22 |
0 |
28 |
|
| RAINBOW WARRIORS (10-8, 5-8 MPSF) |
|
S |
K |
E |
ATT |
PCT |
D |
BS |
BA |
| van Tilburg |
3 |
5 |
4 |
13 |
.077 |
6 |
1 |
2 |
| Mol |
3 |
5 |
1 |
9 |
.444 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
| McKellar |
2 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
-.333 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Franciskovic |
3 |
0 |
1 |
5 |
-.200 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
| Zarkovic |
3 |
12 |
6 |
26 |
.231 |
5 |
0 |
2 |
| Fey |
3 |
9 |
4 |
20 |
.250 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| Worsley |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| Kanetake |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
| Solbrig |
1 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
.333 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| TOTALS |
3 |
33 |
18 |
79 |
.190 |
22 |
1 |
11 |
Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces).
Service Aces — BYU 1 (Sander). Hawaii 1 (van Tilburg). Service errors — BYU 17 (Sander 5, Langois 3, Patch 3, Durkin 2, Hatch 2, Jarman, Sutton). Hawaii 6 (Franciskovic 2, Fey, McKellar, van Tilburg, Zarkovic). Assists — BYU 47 (Durkin 44, Jarman, Langois, Sander). Hawaii 31 (Franciskovic 18, Worsley 9, Kanetake 2, Fey, Zarkovic). T — 1:39. Officials — Ron Stahl, Ernest Ho. A — 3,038.
