The University of Hawaii volleyball team stuck with the same formula in a 25-22, 25-19, 25-21 victory over Cal State Northridge in the Matadome.

Coupled with Friday night’s victory, also in three sets, the Rainbow Warriors produced consecutive road sweeps over a ranked opponent for the first time since 2006.

"Winning two on the road is big for us," said UH coach Charlie Wade, whose Warriors lost back-to-back road matches against UC Santa Barbara a week earlier. "We really felt we left one up there last week."

In Friday night’s match, the Warriors relied on accurate passing, creating quick-set chances for the middles, which opened the attack lanes for the pin hitters. The strategy for Saturday’s matinee was to hit "repeat."

With accurate passing, the Warriors went early to the middle. As expected, the Matadors tried to contract the block.

"We knew that was going to happen," Wade said. "Joby (Ramos, the setter) did a decent job of getting everyone involved early. Once you establish the middle like that, man, it opens up a lot."

Left-side hitter Siki Zarkovic had a team-high 10 kills. Outside hitter Jace Olsen had six kills and hit .385. Opposite Brook Sedore had seven kills and hit .333.

It all began with steady passing from libero Kolby Kanetake and Zarkovic, who received 21 serves without an error.

Ramos, in his second season as UH’s setter, has become less predictable. In one sequence, Ramos fed middle Taylor Averill, who was blocked. On the next play, Ramos went back to Averill, who hammered a kill.

"Joby’s learning to repeat as a setter," Wade said. "Some setters never repeat. Some setters always repeat. Joby is learning more, especially with his middles, he can go back to them. They’re scoring at a high enough clip."

The Warriors were also active defensively. Olsen frustrated Northridge opposite Damani Lenore, who entered the series averaging 4.34 kills and 10.76 swings per set. On Friday night, Lenore slammed six kills in eight swings in the first set. But with Olsen in his way, Lenore slumped thereafter, with three kills in his next 18 swings of the series.

"We had a pretty good scouting report going in," Wade said. "We wanted to make sure we slowed down that opposite. He’s been their go-to guy. When they’ve had big nights, he’s gone off. We wanted to neutralize him again, and we did."

On Saturday, Lenore had two kills and six errors in 11 swings. He finished minus-.364.

MPSF VOLLEYBALL

Saturday
Hawaii def. CS Northridge
25-22, 25-19, 25-21
Pacific def. UC?San Diego
22-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-23
Stanford def. UC Irvine
25-20, 25-21, 25-19
UC Santa Barbara def. Pepperdine
25-22, 25-19, 25-27, 16-25, 15-12

Today
UCLA at USC

NO. 11 HAWAII DEF. NO. 13
CS NORTHRIDGE 25-22, 25-19, 25-21

RAINBOW WARRIORS (7-4, 5-3 MPSF)

MATADORS (3-6, 3-5 MPSF)

Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces). Service Aces — Hawaii 2 (Sedore 2). CS Northridge 3 (Ciesla, Earnest, Lenore). Service errors — Hawaii 13 (Averill 3, Olsen 3, Ramos 2, Sedore 2, West 2, Timmer). CS Northridge 18 (Freiha 5, Lenore 5, Sakaida 3, Beskeen, Ciesla, Faulkner, C. Magorien, Wellenreiter). Assists — Hawaii 34 (Ramos 31. Averill, Kanetake, Olsen). CS Northrige 34 (T.Magorien 31, Ciesla, Condron, Sakaida). T — 1:27. Officials — Russell Combs, Marvin Hall. A — 216.