Warriors start slow but finish with a flourish

The University of Hawaii rebounded from a slow start to defeat UC San Diego 23-25, 25-19, 25-10, 25-18 in RIMAC Arena in San Diego on Saturday night.

In winning its 12th in a row, the top-ranked Warriors improved to 19-3 overall and 14-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

The Warriors, who beat the Tritons in three sets on Friday night, have won 49 of the 53 matches in this series.

The Tritons, who fell to 2-21 and 0-17, built a 24-20 lead before holding on to win the first set. It was only the 11th set the Tritons won this season.

The Warriors gave away 15 points on errors in the first set.

"And San Diego played very well," UH coach Charlie Wade said. "But you’re not going to beat anybody making 15 errors."

The Rainbow Warriors turned the momentum when they turned the rotation — and the lineup — for the second set. Middle blocker Davis Holt, who usually serves in the sixth rotation, started the second set behind the service line. The strategy was twofold. Holt’s float serve has been a knuckleball in a rotation of spin servers. Holt put each of his nine serves in play.

The move also allowed middle Taylor Averill to be in the front row for the first three rotation spots.

"And (Averill) was unstoppable," Wade said. "He did a phenomenal job blocking."

Averill had a team-high 14 kills, hit .500 and contributed to 13 of the Warriors’ 19.5 blocks.

Outside hitter Kupono Fey and opposite Ryan Leung started in place of seniors Scott Hartley and Brook Sedore in the second set.

Hartley had three kills in six swings in the first set, but he was the target of nine Tritons serves.

Hartley "was doing OK," Wade said, but serve-receive is kind of Kupono’s strength. If they’re picking on one guy and the other guy is a better passer, let’s go. I put Kupono in and he did a nice job and steadied out the passing."

The Warriors were plus-27 in scoring when Fey was a primary passer.

Wade said he wanted to rest Sedore and give extended time to Leung.

"We tried to change it up a bit," Wade said. "Ryan’s been playing great, and we wanted to get him out there."

Leung had eight kills, hit .500 and made seven digs.

In the middle of the fourth set, Hendrik Mol, the serving specialist, replaced Leung at opposite. Mol finished with three kills in six swings.

Libero Kolby Kanetake, who has back issues, missed his second consecutive match, although he would have been available if needed.

"We didn’t feel any real need to push it," Wade said.

Several parents will host a barbecue for the team on Sunday in Long Beach. The Warriors will practice at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion on Sunday night ahead of matches against UCLA on Monday and Tuesday.

Saturday

Hawaii def. UC San Diego 23-25, 25-19, 25-10, 25-18

UC Irvine def. BYU 23-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-18

Long Beach State def. Stanford 25-20, 25-17, 25-21

UC Santa Barbara def. Cal Baptist 25-22, 25-18, 25-21

Pepperdine def. CSUN 25-22, 20-25, 19-25, 25-23, 15-12

USC def. UCLA 19-25, 25-22, 14-25, 25-22, 15-11

Monday

Hawaii at UCLA, 4 p.m.

Tuesday

 Hawaii at UCLA, 4 p.m.

NO. 1 HAWAII DEF. UC SAN DIEGO 23-25, 25-19, 25-10, 25-18

Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists. Service Aces — 

Hawaii 3 (Averill, Fey, Sedore). UC San Diego 3 (Bearmer 2, Schnitzer). Service errors — Hawaii 13 (Averill 4, Fey 2, Mol 2, Sedore 2, Franciskovic, Leung, Zarkovic). UC San Diego 10 (Syftestad 5, Beamer, Colbert, Rudenko, Schickling, Stojcic).  Assists — Hawaii 53 (Franciskovic 30, Jones 14, Komisarek 4, Zarkovic 2, Fey, Hartley, Sedore). UC San Diego 34 (Stojcic 30, Colbert 2, Martinez, Syftestad). T — 1:45. A — 301. Referees — Tom Saunders, Ed Lopez.