Warriors quiet Cal Baptist for a 2-match sweep

Hawaii used a spread-the-wealth offense and disruptive serves to hush California Baptist in a 25-20, 22-25, 25-20, 25-23 victory Friday night in the Stan Sheriff Center.

A crowd of 1,341 saw the Rainbow Warriors answer the Lancers’ smack-talking to win their fourth in a row and improve to 9-4 overall and 7-3 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Lancers fell to 3-9 and 2-8.

"It’s not the greatest wins we’ve ever had," said opposite Brook Sedore, who led the Warriors with 17 kills. "A win is a win. We scratched it out. It doesn’t matter how we did it. We did it."

Each team was assessed a yellow card for taunting in a match in which words crossed sides as often as spikes. In particular, CBU setter Brett Anderson used running commentary that pulled the emotional string that unraveled the Warriors in the second set.

Jace Olsen’s kill gave the Warriors a 21-19 lead. But then UH middle Nick West was given a yellow card for mouthing to the Lancers. After a discussion, the officials decided to present the yellow card to the entire Hawaii team.

The Lancers then scored the next five points. After Sedore’s crossing shot cut it to 24-22, Anderson, who is optimistically listed at 5-10, blocked the 6-5 Olsen.

"I’ve always been like that," Anderson said of his chatty style. "I’m always bringing positive reinforcement. The guys know I’ll battle for them. I’ll go through a wall for them. I’ll run through 30 chairs if I have to."

UH coach Charlie Wade said Olsen tried to "thunder" spikes past Anderson three times late in the second set instead of "going up and going over him. Jace got anxious and swung at him. That happens."

It did not recur. Instead, the Warriors relied on powerful serves to force the Lancers out of system several times in the final two sets.

"When you put (serves) in the way we were, it’s easy to put up a solid block," said UH middle Taylor Averill, who contributed to five of the Warriors’ 11 blocks.

And whatever went past Averill or middle West, libero Kolby Kanetake was likely to dig. On one play, Kanetake hurdled the courtside seats to save a play. On another, he passed a spike with no block in between.

The Warriors received a boost from West, who was playing in only his fourth match since recovering from a fractured left pinkie on his non-hitting hand. His pinkie and left ring finger are heavily taped and padded for matches.

"I call it the ‘crab hand,’ " West said. "I’m down to limited digits."

Of West’s 14 serves, the Warriors scored seven natural points. He had four of UH’s six aces.

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 — Cal Baptist 2 (Burge, Blocksom). Hawaii 6 (West 4, Ramos, Averill).  Service errors — Cal Baptist 10 (Lugo-Rodriguez 3, Blocksom 3, Burge 2, Brink, Anderson). Hawaii 15 (Zarkovic 5, Ramos 3, Olsen 3, Sedore 2, West, Averill). Assists — Cal Baptist 46 (Anderson 42, Blocksom 2, Brink, Burge). Hawaii 54 (Ramos 47, Olsen 3, Zarkovic 2, Averill 2). T — 2:09. Officials — Dan Hironaka, Ernest Ho.  A — 1,341.

Friday
Hawaii def. Cal Baptist, 25-20, 22-25, 25-20, 25-23
UC Irvine def. Pepperdine, 27-25, 25-23, 25-19
UCLA def. CSU Northridge, 25-15, 25-18, 34-32
BYU def. Pacific, 25-19, 25-16, 20-25, 25-18
UC Santa Barbara def. Long Beach State, 30-28, 23-25, 25-21, 25-20
USC def. UC San Diego, 25-13, 25-21, 25-15

Saturday
BYU at Stanford
Pepperdine at UC San Diego