Frantic rally falls short

Stanford weathered a frenetic Hawaii comeback, then dominated the fifth set for a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball victory in the Maples Pavilion on Saturday night.

UH and Stanford entered the two-match series tied for seventh in the MPSF. By sweeping the series with Saturday’s 25-23, 25-12, 17-25, 21-25, 15-7 win, the Cardinal improved to 14-7 overall and 11-7 in league play. Stanford won its fifth in a row and earned its first five-set win in six attempts.

"We’re only getting started," All-America outside hitter Brian Cook said in a post-match interview. "We’re coming out hot for the end of the year. We’re going to earn a good spot in the playoffs."

It appeared Stanford was going to sweep Hawaii for the second night in a row after ruling the first two sets. The Cardinal surged from a 20-16 deficit in the first set.

But then the Rainbow Warriors seized control, using disruptive serves to force the Cardinal out of system. Jace Olsen and Brook Sedore hit back-to-back kills to close the fourth set.

"Hawaii’s a really good serving team, and to beat them, you’ve got to match their service pressure," Cook said. "Right off the bat in the fifth (set), we went off on a couple of big runs. We got a big lead and maintained it. We can sideout with anyone."

It was tied at 2 when Cook served five consecutive points. The Cardinal’s sixth and seventh points were achieved when outside hitter Steve Irvin and middle Spencer Haly teamed to block Sedore twice.

Stanford led 11-7 when a UH over-pass headed toward Cook, who was about 8 feet from the net.

Coach John Kosty recalled thinking: "Hit it."

Cook said his first reaction was: "Hit it." He then slammed a kill through UH’s stunned defense.

"He was going to get set no matter what," Kosty said. "So would you like a triple block against you or would you like nobody up. He chose nobody up, and he made the right decision."

Cook said: "In practice, we do a lot of over-pass hitting drills because half of our team is inadequate at over-pass hitting sometimes. It’s a good chance to get reps. We take advantage of it in games."

After a UH timeout, Stanford scored the next three points to complete a 5-0 run.

"We were aggressive," Kosty said. "I think that’s the biggest thing in volleyball, period. You have to continually be aggressive. We were definitely that in the fifth game. Brian Cook showed you why he’s an All-American. He took over the second half of that fifth (set), and basically put it away for us."

Cook had four of his 21 kills in the fifth set.

Cook out-dueled Sedore, who amassed a career-high 25 kills.

Stanford was boosted by its pin hitters they had 52 of 60 kills and the sideline support, including Kosty.

"I try to give what the team needs," Kosty said. "And tonight, we needed energy. We needed what we used to call ben-ergy.’ We needed energy from the bench to keep the starters focused and in line. That’s my job. My job is to figure out what the team needs, and try to give it to them the best I can. Tonight, I thought they needed excitement. The bench did a really great job in that fifth (set) to really swing that momentum our way."

The Warriors, who fell to 11-10 overall and 9-9 in the MPSF, will travel to Stockton, Calif., today. They play Pacific on Monday and Tuesday in the final matches between the teams. Pacific is ending its men’s volleyball program after this season.

Saturday
Stanford def. Hawaii 25-23, 25-13, 17-25, 21-25, 15-7
USC def. UCLA 25-20, 19-25, 25-17, 25-23
BYU def. UC San Diego 25-15, 25-21, 25-15
*Erskine def. Cal Baptist 15-25, 26-24, 18-25, 25-15, 19-17
*non-league game

Active Ankle Classic (at LBSU)
Long Beach State def. Penn State 25-21, 25-23, 25-17
CS Northridge def. Ohio State 25-22, 23-25, 29-31, 25-21, 15-13

Monday
Hawaii at Pacific, 4 p.m.

Tuesday
Hawaii at Pacific, 4 p.m.

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 3 (Averill 2, Sedore). Stanford 4 (Irvin, Kaminski, Mochalski, Shaw).  Service errors — Hawaii 17 (Sedore 4, Averill 3, Zarkovic 3, Olsen 2, West 2, Holt, Ramos, Timmer). Stanford 11 (Kaminski 3, Shaw 3, Irvin 2, Mochalski 2, Cook). Assists — Hawaii 56 (Ramos 52, Zarkovic 3, Holt). Stanford 53 (Shaw 46, Delgado 4, Cook 3). T — 2:22. Officials — John Kinyon, Kent Kitade.  A — 909