Warriors aim to gain some momentum

Maybe the Hawaii volleyball team should rethink the nickname debate.

Road Warriors?

“This is our fourth of five road trips before the playoffs,” UH coach Charlie Wade said of matches against California Baptist today and Saturday (4 p.m. both days). “We do travel a lot.”

The Warriors already have played matches in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s unique venues. They opened the season at Brigham Young’s Smith Fieldhouse, where the thin air affects the volleyball’s flight and visitors’ stamina. They also played in Long Beach State’s architecturally named Pyramid and UCLA’s famed Pauley Pavilion.

Now they will play in the MPSF’s smallest arena. Van Dyne Gym has a seating capacity of 1,100. For this weekend’s matches, the Warriors are entering a different dimension.

The narrow areas behind the end lines will impact the Warriors’ takeoff on serves as well as the space to chase down errant passes.

“We’re not a huge 5,000-seat arena with 100-foot ceilings,” Cal Baptist coach Wes Schneider said. “It’s different. It’s a lot cozier than a lot of teams are used to.”

Wade is hopeful the Warriors can adjust. His team sits ninth in the MPSF at 6-10. The top eight teams qualify for the MPSF playoffs. The Warriors have four two-match series remaining against opponents with a combined 19-44 league record.

“We just need to win some games,” Wade said.

The Warriors have settled on a lineup of strong servers. Pin hitters JP Marks, Siki Zarkovic and Brook Sedore are blast-away jump servers. Johann Timmer, who serves twice each set in place of middle blocker Davis Holt, and setter Joby Ramos are effective on spin tosses. Middle blocker Taylor Averill rotates between spinners and floaters.

“It’s really important to put service pressure on the other team,” Wade said. “The game gets really simple. With a tough serve, they’re off the net, everybody goes for blocks, you score more. But you have to maintain that pressure.”

The Lancers counter with their strong-armed servers.

Of the matchup, Schneider said: “We’ll keep blasting each other. For those of us who are serving teams, we tend to live and die with the serves. We’re going to try to be on with our serves and passes. That’s where the battles are really drawn. It should be a fun creative battle to see who handles what.”

Outside hitter Levi Cabral has a team-high 36 aces, but left-side hitter Guilherme Koepp and opposite Aaron McCalmont are consistent in serving opponents out of system.

This is the Lancers’ first MPSF season. They made the ascent from NAIA to NCAA the past few years. With an interim head coach last year, recruiting was hindered.

“It’s been one of those situations where out of necessity we had to be creative,” Schneider said.

Amir Lugo-Rodriguez, who has recruited as an opposite, has played in the middle. Rocky DeLyon, a Seabury Hall graduate, also has made the move from outside to middle. DeLyon had eight kills without an error and contributed to 10 blocks in a loss to Brigham Young last week.