In a Freaky Friday reversal, UC San Diego dominated all phases in a 25-21, 25-21, 25-22 volleyball sweep of Hawaii in the Stan Sheriff Center.
Both teams are 1-1 overall and in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation after the Tritons avenged Thursday night’s season-opening loss.
“We rose above that (three-game loss),” said opposite attacker Johl Awerkamp, who came off the Tritons bench Friday night to produce eight kills in 13 swings and hit .538. “We put it behind us, and played well as a team.”
In Thursday’s match, the Tritons hit a collective .000, with Awerkamp’s accuracy at negative-.091 and leftside attacker Cart Eberts finishing with as many errors (five) as kills.
That changed Friday, with the Tritons consistently passing the Warriors’ best serves.
“I thought the passers did a great job all night,” UCSD setter Mike Brunsting said. “They were passing nails all night. It allowed me to make everybody play as well as they could.”
In Thursday’s match, Brunsting was lifted after the second set. Instead of being discouraged, Brunsting decided to begin plotting his strategies for the rematch.
“I think my mentality of how I wanted to run the offense changed a little bit,” Brunsting said. “I wanted to keep the middles close to me. I’m much more comfortable with them there. And it really opened up the pins. The pins did a great job. I kept it high for them, and fast. They did a good job of finding the holes in the (UH) block.”
Eberts pounded a matchhigh 14 kills, hitting .478.
Awerkamp, who entered early in the first set, blasted spikes from both front corners and the back right.
“I knew I had to be a big part of the team coming off the bench,” Awerkamp said. “I played my heart out. It was really fun.”
The mood was quite different across the net. Leftside hitter Steven Hunt had 13 loud kills, but he committed six attack errors. The other left-side hitter, J.P. Marks, was blocked three times. Opposite attacker Johann Timmer struggled with his accuracy.
“Our outsides didn’t play well,” UH head coach Charlie Wade said. “They didn’t serve very well. They didn’t pass very well. They didn’t hit very well. That’s the problem.”
Wade tried several combinations. He opened with different rotations in the second and third sets. He summoned outside hitter Taylor Averill, and started freshman Brook Sedore in the second set.
“The (sets) were close, and we were playing as bad as we could play,” Wade said. “We couldn’t get over. I thought we’d dig a ball, and we’d get a chance for a real point. But on the second or third swing, we’d hit out of bounds. We have to learn to be more efficient.”
The Warriors scored 13 points on their 76 serves. The Tritons had 24 natural points. “They were in system all night,” Wade said. “We hit jump serves hard, but they passed it well.”
And when the Warriors had their chances, they often committed self-inflicted mistakes. They had 18 attack errors.
“We’re shrinking the game for the other team way too much,” Wade said. “Too many unforced errors, whether it’s from the service line or attacking. In some respects, it’s predictable from a relatively inexperienced team, but a physically talented one.”