Familiarity bred success Saturday night as No. 5 Hawaii returned to the lineup it used to begin this volleyball season with a 5-0 record. With sophomore Stijn van Tilburg returning as the starting opposite and senior Kupono Fey on the left after not starting Friday, the Rainbow Warriors picked up their first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation victory in Irvine, Calif.
Van Tilburg put down a season-high 19 kills and Fey added 10 in the 25-16, 25-23, 15-25, 25-23 win over No. 6 UC Irvine at the Bren Events Center. Hawaii (6-2, 1-2), which had no blocks or aces while being swept at No. 4 Long Beach State on Friday, outblocked UCI 13-9 and finished with a 7-5 edge in aces over the 1 hour and 52 minutes.
Senior hitter Thomas Hodges led the Anteaters (6-2, 3-2) with 21 kills and senior opposite Tamier Hershko added 10.
Van Tilburg had moved to left-side hitter for most of the two Long Beach State matches while freshman Rado Parapunov made his first starts at opposite in both Wednesday’s five-set loss and Friday’s which went three. Parapunov played briefly Saturday, coming in late in Set 3.
“I felt we needed some stability back, going with what the guys were more comfortable with,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said of his decision on van Tilburg. “It gave us better ball-control. UCI is a very aggressive serving team.
“I give (assistant coach) Josh Walker credit for our blocking tonight. He didn’t get much sleep and got us some really good info.
“All league wins are good, all league wins on the road are better and finishing the trip with a win makes for a better plane ride back home.”
Hawaii was to return today and will host Grand View in nonconference matches Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.
The Warriors snapped a six-set skid by being very efficient in Set 1, hitting .455. Van Tilburg and Fey combined for seven kills with no errors on 12 swings in pacing the team.
The key, Wade said, was pulling out Set 2 after trailing until late. Sophomore libero Larry Tuileta set Fey to give Hawaii its first lead at 23-22 and, after a service error tied it for the third and last time, the Warriors used a hitting error by Karl Apfelbach and a block of Hershko by Hendrik Mol and Austin Matautia to take a 2-0 lead.
Hawaii never found a rhythm in Set 3, with both van Tilburg and Fey committing their first hitting errors during a 6-0 run that gave UCI the lead for good at 8-4.
A dump shot by senior setter Jennings Franciskovic put the Warriors in front at 10-9 in Set 4 and the Anteaters were never able to get closer than one point, the last when they held off one match point at 24-23. The match ended anticlimactically on Matthew Younggren’s service error.
