Mango chutney and malasadas anyone?
Playing as if they couldn’t wait to get to the nearby Punahou Carnival before it closed, the fifth-ranked Rainbow Warriors swept their way to a 12th consecutive home victory Friday night. Led by senior opposite Stijn van Tilburg’s 15 kills and a defense that showed up when needed, Hawaii defeated No. 11 UC Santa Barbara 25-22, 30-28, 25-23 in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball match at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Junior libero Larry “Tui” Tuileta finished with 11 of Hawaii’s 25 digs and senior middle Hendrik Mol was in on six of the 12 blocks over the 1 hour and 52 minutes. A crowd of 2,702 saw the Warriors improve to 9-2 overall, 2-2 in the MPSF heading into tonight’s rematch with the Gauchos (6-4, 3-4).
The match may have been won from the service line, and not just last night. With the Sheriff Center set up in volleyball configuration for the past week, the Warriors were able to come in on their own time and practice serving.
It showed in the performance of freshman middle Patrick Gasman, who had key runs in Sets 1 and 2.
“Gasman spent a lot of time in here and he really won that first set for us, and probably the second,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “Our young guys continue to get better and we know we haven’t played our best volleyball yet. We were able to bring some guys in … when Austin (freshman hitter Matautia) struggled, we were able to bring in Brett (sophomore hitter Rosenmeier) and I thought he steadied us out.
“We started off a little slow, weren’t putting the effort in defensively. Toward the ends of the sets we started groveling and making those defensive plays.”
In Gasman’s mind, it was the tough serving and his teammates making the big plays that gave Hawaii its fifth sweep of the season.
“We made big plays at the end,” he said. “It was having big plays, like Brett making the digs, having Stijn as our great opposite.”
It was Gasman who helped turned things around in Set 1; his 5-0 stint from the back line included an ace and led to the Warriors leading 14-13. Hawaii expanded it to 21-18, but UCSB closed to tie it for the fifth and last time at 22.
Matautia’s third kill started the Warriors’ 3-0 closing run that ended with consecutive solo blocks by Gasman and then senior setter Jennings Franciskovic.
Set 2 was literally challenging, with both teams using the video replay challenge system. UCSB won both of its and Hawaii its lone one. The one call that couldn’t be challenged was an apparent “thrown” ball by the Gauchos’ Jacob Delson, his kill holding off what would be the first of six Warrior set points to close the gap to 24-23.
Van Tilburg was blocked to knot it at 24, the first of four ties during the final stretch. Van Tilburg finished it out himself, putting down the final two kills — his ninth and 10th of the set — to give Hawaii the 2-0 lead.
Set 3 was equally tight, with six ties, the final at 18. Rosenmeier’s ace gave the Warriors some breathing room at 23-21 and UCSB’s 14th service error made it 24-21.
The Gauchos then made it interesting, prevailing on their third challenge, the call being reversed to extend the match. Instead of the Warriors winning 25-21, it was 24-22, then 24-23 on a kill by Delson.
In volleyball’s version of icing the kicker, Hawaii called timeout. Junior hitter Hayden Boehle netted his last serve to end it.
Delson finished with 14 kills and sophomore hitter Corey Chavez 10.
Hawaii finished with a 12-8.5 edge in blocks and 25-21 advantage in digs.
Wade made an interesting substitution while leading 21-19 in Set 3, trading setters — sophomore Joe Worsley for Franciskovic — and opposites — freshman Rado Parapunov for van Tilburg.
“It’s something we want to use, it changes the rhythm of the match,” Wade said. “Joe’s so different from Jennings and it’s hard for teams to adjust in such a short time. “
Note
Among the other MPSF matches Friday, No. 4 BYU took advantage of top-ranked UCLA being without two (injured) All-Americans to hand the Bruins their first league loss, 28-26, 25-23, 13-25, 22-25, 18-16, in Provo.
