Tone Def

Hawaii curbed its enthusiasm, then produced a workmanlike 25-21, 26-24, 25-12 victory over Springfield in Thursday’s opening round of the Outrigger Hotels Volleyball Invitational.

A crowd of 1,472 in the Stan Sheriff Center saw the Warriors improve to 2-1 entering tonight’s match against Lewis.

In the second match of last week’s opening series, UH head coach Charlie Wade believed the Warriors had lost their focus.

"We tried to tone it down a little bit," Wade said. "We talked about being professional in everything we do. Last week, I thought, we got away from it a little bit. We got caught up in the start of the season. The testosterone bubbled over a little bit. There was a conscious effort to be a little more businesslike this week."

The result was a cerebral-aggressive approach from serving to constructing the block.

The Warriors scored 28 points on their 74 services, including 14 in the one-sided third set. The Warriors did relinquish 14 points on service errors, but the tough serves kept the Pride from finding an offensive rhythm.

"We worked on our serving during training," UH opposite attacker Johann Timmer said. "Everyone has served well in training. We wanted to do it on the court (in a match)."

UH middle blocker Nick West had committed four errors on his first five serves. Before his first serve in the third set, he considered going from a jumper to a float serve. Wade nixed that approach.

"He had a really good week of serving in practice," Wade said. "We said stay with it."

West then served four consecutive points, all on jumpers, to stake the Warriors to an 8-3 lead in the third set.

"Nick had a high percentage of scoring with the balls he served inbounds," Wade said. "In the game, he gets ramped up a little bit. That’s an excitable guy."

Early in the match, UH setter Sam Biscaro frequently fed left-side hitter Steven Hunt, who finished with a match-high 16 kills on an arm-numbing 35 swings.

"Sam was giving me a lot of sets," Hunt said.

Biscaro said: "He’s a great player. If we can get him going the whole match, it’s better for us."

The Pride eventually tried to jump the play, quickly shifting a double block in front of Hunt. That opened the way for J.P. Marks (12 kills, .429 percentage), Timmer (five kills, no errors) and the middles to face solo blocks.

The Warriors hit .407 for the match, committing seven errors. Five of those attack errors came on blocks, all in the first two sets. The Warriors did not have an attack on wide or long spikes until their 74th swing of the match.

"They went on runs, and that got us in trouble," Springfield coach Charlie Sullivan said.

It was the season opener for Springfield, which traveled 5,000 miles and five time zones. The Pride had three practices since returning from the holiday break.

While the Warriors had an advantage in match experience, Wade was concerned about his team’s concentration.

"They’re 18-, 19-year-olds who are really into it," Wade said. "You want them to be fired up, but also be businesslike. There’s absolutely a way to do both. I thought we did a good job of it."

In Thursday’s opening match, Jeremy Casebeer slammed 16 kills to lead UCLA to a 27-25, 23-25, 25-15, 25-18 victory over Lewis.