UH battles back to defeat USC in 5 sets

A new week. A new ranking. A new result.

Hawaii, which dropped a spot to No. 5 in Monday’s national poll, refused to drop a fourth consecutive Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball match.

Led by junior hitter Kupono Fey’s career-high-tying 19 kills and an offense revived by junior setter Jennings Franciskovic returning full time in Set 4, the Rainbow Warriors picked up a much-needed victory Monday night in Los Angeles, rallying past unranked USC 25-15, 22-25, 19-25, 25-19, 15-10 at the Galen Center.

Senior hitter Siki Zarkovic added 15 kills and senior libero Kolby Kanetake had 17 of Hawaii’s 48 digs in the match that lasted two hours and 23 minutes. Hawaii junior middles Iain McKellar and Hendrik Mol combined for 16 kills — their best production this season — and McKellar was in on a career-high eight blocks for the Warriors, who won the block war 14.5-11.

Hawaii (10-4, 5-4 MPSF) finishes its four-matches-in-five-days road trip facing USC again tonight. Monday was the second five-set loss in the last three home matches for the Trojans (2-11, 2-9).

“It wasn’t pretty, but it’s a win, and they all count the same,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “We’ve got to be ready to go tomorrow.

“The guys are a little banged up, our fourth match in five days. We need to stay focused and just hope we don’t have to go five.”

After being down 2-1, Hawaii was happy that it did go to a fifth. The Warriors had dropped their only other five-setter back on Feb. 5 at home to UCLA, the first of three straight losses.

Freshman setter Joe Worsley, getting his first start, played well, particularly in Set 1. Hawaii opened the match with two consecutive blocks and never trailed, leading by as many as 11 (20-9), hitting .379 to USC’s .100.

Both of the Warriors’ hitting errors in Set 1 were from freshman opposite Stijn van Tilburg, who gave way to freshman Brett Rosenmeier with UH trailing 12-6 in Set 2. After struggling to find a lineup early — the Trojans traded setters and used 11 players in Set 1 — USC got it together.

The best connection came between cousins Jack Yoder, a sophomore setter coming in off the bench midway through Set 1, and Lucas Yoder, a junior hitter. Lucas Yoder finished with a team-high 16 kills.

Hawaii did its own setter switch while trailing 15-10 in Set 3. Wade went with the 6-foot-5 Franciskovic over the 6-foot Worsley.

“Joe played great in the first set and what happened (in Sets 2 and 3) wasn’t all on him,” Wade said. “We were making too many errors.

“Jennings was hungry to get back in. He blocked well (1 solo, 2 assists), ran the offense well. Just look at the production from our middles. He gained some perspective and our middles had a really nice night.”

Playing catchup the whole way in Set 2, Hawaii closed to 17-16 on a solo block of Andy Benesh. After Zarkovic hit long to give the Trojans set point at 24-20, two kills by Fey prolonged the inevitable; Benesh ended it with his fifth kill.

Behind the serving of Benesh, USC began to pull away in Set 3. The Trojans picked up their ninth block on a stuff of van Tilburg en route to a 12-7 lead.

It never got better for the Warriors. Hawaii rallied to 17-15 but could get no closer, with Lucas Yoder’s 10th kill helping USC finish it out on a 8-4 run, capped by Fey’s third service error.

Set 4 was a near repeat of Set 1 for the Warriors, who went back to Franciskovic, who had started the previous 13 matches.

McKellar tied his career high with his ninth kill to put Hawaii ahead 17-11. Three Trojans hitting errors helped expand the margin to 23-15 and the Warriors ended it on their third set-point attempt on Rosenmeier’s first kill to send it to a fifth.

Hawaii used three straight USC hitting errors, a kill by Zarkovic and a block of Woody Cook to break a 6-6 tie with five consecutive points.

Zarkovic’s final kill gave the Warriors match point at 14-10 and, one Yoder kill later, Fey ended it, tying his career high set last year at BYU.

No. 5 Hawaii def. USC 25-15, 22-25, 19-25, 25-19, 15-10

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 4 (van Tilburg 2, Zarkovic, Franciskovic). USC none. Service errors — Hawaii 14 (Worsley 3, Fey 3, van Tilburg 2, Mol 2, McKellar, Zarkovic, Rosenmeier, Franciskovic). USC 18 (Slaught 5, Yoder, L. 4, Leonard 3, Benesh 2, Cook 2, Yoder, J. 2). Assists — Hawaii 57 (Worsley 25, Franciskovic 22, Kanetake 4, Fey 3, Zarkovic 2, van Tilburgh). USC 49 (Yoder, J. 37, Lisha 8, Varni 3, Rios). T — 2:23. Officials — Syd Church, Burt Fuller. A — 450.

MPSF Volleyball

Monday
Hawaii def. USC 25-15, 22-25, 19-25,
25-19, 15-10
Today
Hawaii at USC, 5 p.m. HST