Warriors keep their focus on Stanford volleyball

For the Hawaii volleyball team, Stanford is both the journey and the destination.

The Warriors’ ultimate target is the NCAA tournament, which will be played on the Cardinal’s campus in May.

The Warriors’ path could be eased if they are successful in matches against the Cardinal on Friday and Saturday.

These are the final regular-season home matches for the top-ranked Warriors. Hawaii will host a quarterfinal match in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs.

UH is 16-2 in the MPSF, a half-match ahead of second-place UC Irvine (16-3) in the 22-match regular season. Irvine holds the tie-breaker over the Warriors. The winner of the MPSF playoffs earns the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. But the MPSF’s regular-season winner historically has been invited to the NCAA’s.

"We’re not going to think about that right now," UH middle Davis Holt said. "We’re going to focus on Stanford. That’s who’s up next. That’s all that matters. We don’t want to think about anything else."

Pressure?

"Somebody once said pressure is a privilege," said coach Charlie Wade, whose Warriors have been ranked No. 1 nationally for four weeks. "Somebody thinks you’re supposed to be good. I don’t think anybody puts more pressure on us than ourselves. We expect the most from us. Nothing has changed how we approach what we’re doing and how we prepare and, ultimately, how we compete."

It was March 8 when the Warriors last played an MPSF match at home. They played nonconference matches against Hope International the following week, then had a bye before a four-match road trip against UC San Diego and UCLA.

Stanford is battling for one of the league’s eight playoff spots. The Cardinal are in eighth place at 7-11; UCLA is 7-12.

"Fighting for eighth place in the MPSF is not an easy task," Stanford coach John Kosty said. "I think we have a good solid team. As our season has progressed, we keep playing better and better. Our seniors are really taking the leadership role and focusing on the right things. And we get to test ourselves in Hawaii on the floor of the No. 1 team in the country. We’re excited about that."

Freshman Kyle Dagostino is setting in place of injured James Shaw. Dagostino’s father is Randy Dagostino, a Hall of Fame girls volleyball coach. Kyle Dagostino was 12 when he played for the Youth Boys national team.

"He comes from a volleyball family," Kosty said. "Volleyball is a way of life for him. There are a lot of things that already are learned and ingrained in (his) personality and how (he) plays the game. That gives (him) a great advantage when it comes to crunch time."