’Bows fall to Stanford in 4

STANFORD, Calif. >> Kupono Fey and Evan Enriques met up behind the baseline Saturday night while crew broke down the seating in Maples Pavilion. The two old friends — Fey went to Punahou and Enriques to Kamehameha-Hawaii — hugged and then chatted for a few minutes behind a rack of chairs.

Some 30 minutes earlier, Enriques’ sixth-ranked Stanford Cardinal had finished off a 25-17, 18-25, 28-26, 25-15 win over Fey’s No. 4 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, completing a two-match sweep in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball.

Hawaii played much better on Saturday than it did the night before. But the end result was the same, with the Warriors losing a third straight for the first time since 2014.

“I knew we’d play better tonight,” Warriors coach Charlie Wade said.

The match likely came down to the end of Set 3. Stanford had raced to a 6-1 lead, but Hawaii battled back and tied it at 22.

The teams then went back and forth. A kill by the Cardinal’s Gabriel Vega, an ‘Iolani grad, gave Stanford set point at 24-23.

Fey answered with a kill. Conrad Kaminski’s kill for the Cardinal was followed by two in a row from Hawaii’s Siki Zarkovic, giving the Rainbow Warriors set point at 26-25.

But Stanford’s Madison Hayden brought the hammer down to tie the score at 26. Cardinal setter James Shaw won a joust at the net over Zarkovic, and Hayden finished it off with an ace.

“They made some great plays at the end and we didn’t, that’s really what it came down to,” Fey said. “We fought back hard and there’s lots to grow on this. It was a good game to learn some stuff and we’ll be stronger.”

Wade made a strategic change after Set 1, inserting freshman Joe Worsley at setter for junior Jennings Franciskovic. Worsley, who grew up on the other side of the San Francisco Bay in Moraga, responded with 39 assists over the final three sets.

Vega had a big night, leading Stanford with 17 kills. He struggled in Friday’s match, but came out firing on Saturday.

“To say the least,” Vega said. “I tried to come out and have a little more fun.”

Said Cardinal coach John Kosty: “Gabriel is a good, solid player for us. And everybody has a rough night. He knew he was going to get an opportunity to come back tonight and he took full advantage of it. He built and got better as the match went on.”

For Vega, it’s fun going against a team stocked with players he played against growing up.

“This is the most exciting game of the year for me,” Vega said. “I know most of these guys pretty well. I’ve played with them a fair amount. I love them all, they’re great guys, but it’s really fun to get the better against them.”

Enriques had another strong night at libero — he was perfect in all 26 serve-receive opportunities and had 13 digs.

Fey led the Warriors with 17 kills and freshman opposite Stijn van Tilburg added 15. Zarkovic overcame a slow start to finish with 11, his 13th consecutive match with double-figure kills.

Next up for Hawaii is another back-to-back, this time in Los Angeles against USC on Monday and Tuesday.

Meantime, Saturday’s post-match was a chance for a lot of old friends to catch up. At the end of the night, Fey and Enriques walked off the court together, still talking, throwing their arms around each other’s shoulders.

MPSF VOLLEYBALL

Saturday

Stanford def. Hawaii 25-17, 18-25, 28-26, 25-15

UCLA def. UCSD 25-16, 25-17, 25-18

BYU def. NJIT 25-22, 25-19, 25-19

Monday

Hawaii at USC, 5 p.m. HST

Tuesday

Hawaii at USC, 5 p.m. HST

No. 6 Stanford def. no. 4 hawaii 25-17, 18-25, 28-26, 25-15

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 (van Tilburg, Zarkovic). Stanford 6 (Kaminski 2, Shaw 2, Hayden, Rakestraw). Service errors — Hawaii 12 (Mol 3, Zarkovic 3, McKellar 2, van Tilburg 2, Franciskovic, Worsley). Stanford 9 (Hayden 3, Shaw 3, Kaminski 2, Ewert). Assists — Hawaii 56 (Worsley 39, Franciskovic 8, Kanetake 4, van Tilburg 2, Fey, Mol, Zarkovic). Stanford 50 (Shaw 47, Enriques, Rakestraw, Vega) T — 1:56. Officials — Kent Kitade, Michael Yoshikawa. A — 1058.