Most nights, good would be good enough.
Sunday wasn’t one of those nights.
Not when good was trumped by great.
No. 8 UC Irvine outplayed No. 10 Hawaii in the things that matter most in volleyball — serving and passing — and left the Stan Sheriff Center with the championship trophy of the 21st Outrigger Resorts Invitational. The Anteaters (3-1) also left with three all-tournament awards, including the Most Outstanding Player won by sophomore opposite Tamir Hershko.
Hershko, an Israeli national, had a match-high 17 kills with one hitting error as UCI swept Hawaii 27-25, 25-21, 25-19 in 1 hour and 48 minutes. Sophomore setter Michael Saeta, also named to the all-tourney team, had five of his team’s nine aces and had the Anteaters hitting at a .526 clip, including an outrageous .652 in Set 2.
The victory over the Rainbow Warriors was the 10th straight for the Anteaters, who kept Hawaii from its first Outrigger title since 2010. The Rainbow Warriors also saw their five-match home winning streak dating back to last season snapped.
Junior hitter Siki Zarkovic was the lone Hawaii player in double-figures with 13 kills, his fourth consecutive match of 10 or more. He and senior opposite Brook Sedore were named to the all-tournament team.
"Hats off to them, they played great, kept us out of system all game," Hawaii sophomore hitter Kupono Fey said. "It all comes down to passing and serving and they were better at it than we were.
"We’ll learn from this and move on. We have another great team in (UC) Santa Barbara coming in and we need to get ready for them."
Hawaii has Monday off and will begin preparing for its Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opener on Tuesday. The Rainbow Warriors host the fourth-ranked Gauchos (4-0) on Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.
The key to regrouping? Pressure, handling it and putting it on the opponent.
"We never put pressure on Irvine, never got them out of system," Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said after his team’s first loss. "We were playing pretty good through the first two sets, hitting over .400, had five aces. But Irvine played great.
"We thought we could get a couple of their passers in trouble with our serves, but we weren’t able to. They were in system and that’s what wins games."
The match started out fairly even.
Set 1 was tied early (10 times through 10-10) and late (five consecutive times through 25-25). The Warriors held off three set points but not a fourth; Sedore was blocked by Hershko and Jason Agopian — UCI’s lone stuff of the set — and Saeta’s ace ended it.
The Anteaters carried the momentum over to Set 2, jumping out to a 3-0 lead. The Warriors battled back, with two consecutive aces by Taylor Averill helping Hawaii take its first lead at 7-5.
UCI caught Hawaii at 8-8 and used a 4-0 serving run by Kyle Russell to take control for good. Set 3 was more of the same, with the Warriors getting down early (9-5 and 15-9) and never able to string runs of points together when playing catch-up.
"We’re a physical team and we played pretty well tonight," said UCI assistant Mark Presho, a former All-American for the Warriors (1990-93).
UCI outblocked Hawaii 7.5-4.
Hall selected sand volleyball coach
Hawaii is expected to announce on Monday that Rainbow Warriors associate head coach Jeff Hall will become the associate head coach for the Rainbow Wahine as well as head coach of the school’s sand volleyball team.
Hall, 43, fills the vacancy created when Scott Wong was hired as the women’s indoor head coach at his alma mater Pepperdine last month. Hall has been the men’s associate coach under Charlie Wade since 2011. Prior to UH, he was the men’s assistant at Pacific (2004-07), assistant coach for UC San Diego men’s and women’s teams (2000-04); and men’s assistant at Grossmont College in San Diego (2000-04).
Hall played at Pacific (1993-94) and was the Tigers’ Offensive Player of the Year both seasons. He also was an all-conference player at Orange Coast (Calif.) Junior College and Park College in Los Angeles.
The San Diego native also played four professional seasons on the AVP Tour.
NO. 8 UC IRVINE DEF. NO. 10 HAWAII 27-25, 25-21, 25-19
| Anteaters (3-1) |
| |
S |
K |
E |
ATT |
PCT |
D |
BS |
BA |
| Benz |
3 |
5 |
1 |
6 |
.667 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| Hershko |
3 |
17 |
1 |
23 |
.696 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
| Saeta |
3 |
4 |
2 |
8 |
.250 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
| Russell |
3 |
11 |
2 |
15 |
.600 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| La Cavera |
3 |
10 |
3 |
17 |
.412 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
| Agopian |
3 |
4 |
2 |
7 |
.286 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
| Woloson |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Brinkley |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
| Dominquez |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Totals |
3 |
51 |
11 |
76 |
.526 |
19 |
2 |
11 |
| Rainbow Warriors (3-1) |
| |
S |
K |
E |
ATT |
PCT |
D |
BS |
BA |
| Franciskovic |
3 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
.667 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| Sedore |
3 |
8 |
4 |
24 |
.167 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
| Averill |
3 |
6 |
1 |
8 |
.625 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| Zarkovic |
3 |
13 |
3 |
20 |
.500 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
| Fey |
3 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
.167 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
| Holt |
3 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
.250 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| Komisarek |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Hartley |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Kanetake |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Hiehle |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Totals |
3 |
32 |
9 |
65 |
.354 |
13 |
2 |
4 |
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 — UC Irvine. 9 (Saeta 5, Benz, Hershko, Russell, Woloson). Hawaii 5 (Sedore 2, Averill 2, Zarkovic). Service errors — UC Irvine 16 (Russell 4, Benz 3, Saeta 3, Hershko 2, Woloson 2, Agopian, La Cavera). Hawaii 8 (Averill 4, Holt 2, Fey, Zarkovic). Assists — UC Irvine 45 (Saeta 41, Agopian, Brinkley, Hershko, Russell). Hawaii 30 (Fracniskovic 26, Fey, Hartley, Sedore, Zarkovic). T — 1:48. A — NA. Referees — Ernest Lee, Dickson Chun.
All-Tournament team — UCI: Tamir Hershko (MOP), Zack La Cavera, Michael Saeta; Hawaii: Siki Zarkovic, Brook Sedore, Penn State: Aaron Russell, Ohio State: Michael Henchy
