Never underestimate the energy from a home crowd. No. 5 Hawaii felt the embrace of the 2,520 in the Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday night in turning back No. 11 UC Santa Barbara in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball match.
Behind 24 kills from sophomore opposite Stijn van Tilburg and 11 from senior hitter Kupono Fey, the Rainbow Warriors won their 13th straight at home, 25-19, 23-25, 25-23, 25-19. Sophomore hitter Brett Rosenmeier came off the bench for six kills without an error in 14 swings and junior libero Tui Tuileta added 13 digs — his career high in a UH uniform — as Hawaii improved to 10-2 overall, 3-2 in the MPSF.
“It’s the energy in this place … that’s what really gives us the momentum,” Rosenmeier said of the difference after Set 2. “In the middle section of the match, it’s hard to get energy. But when you get to the end and the crowd is all rooting for you, it makes it easy.”
It was anything but easy for much of the 2 hours and 17 minutes. UCSB (6-5, 3-5) had much to do with that, its offense led by senior Jacob Delson (23 kills) and sophomore Corey Chavers (18).
But the Warriors steadied out when needed and head back out on the road Wednesday riding a four-match winning streak. Hawaii has matches at UC San Diego and Cal Baptist before making its first regular-season trek to the Midwest, playing at McKendree and Lindenwood the following week.
“This gives us a boost for the road,” senior middle Hendrik Mol said, finishing with five kills and four of the team’s 7.5 blocks. “The crowd can take a big part of the win tonight, giving us energy. Getting that extra boost is beneficial for us.
“We had two key changes, with Brett coming in (for freshman hitter Austin Matautia) and Dalton (sophomore middle Solbrig for freshman Patrick Gasman). Dalton helped with the block and Brett for his passing stability. We came out (after Set 2) with a better mind-set and were able to overcome when we needed to.”
In a fast-paced Set 1, the Warriors used a 3-0 run to pull away from an 8-8 tie and take the lead for good at 11-8. The Gauchos’ serving problems carried over from the previous night when they had 15 errors; UCSB had six in Set 1, killing any chance at momentum, something further stifled by Hawaii’s deflating defense.
Set 2 was tight throughout with 11 ties and four lead changes. Hawaii appeared poised to take a 2-0 lead after winning a video replay challenge and blocking Delson for a 22-20 margin.
The Gauchos strung together three unanswered points, punctuated by a block of van Tilburg, to retake the lead. Matautia’s third kill tied it for the last time as UCSB used two UH mistakes — a serving error by Mol and a hitting error by Matautia — to even the match.
Set 3 was even tighter, with 20 ties. Hawaii survived an out-of-rotation call that tied it at 23, with Fey putting down his 10th kill and then a UCSB hitting error closing it out.
Siding out at nearly 90 percent, the Warriors rallied to tie at 10, then used two Gauchos hitting errors to go ahead for good at 12-10. Van Tilburg continued to drill through the UCSB block, while Hawaii’s block held with Mol in on consecutive stuffs to help push the margin to 22-16.
All the Warriors had to do was sideout the rest of the way with van Tilburg capping his impressive night with his 24th kill.
Asked if his offense relied too much on his outside hitters, UH coach Charlie Wade said no.
“Stijn had another nice night, so did Kupono (one hitting error) and Brett,” Wade said. “When it’s going like that, that’s where you should go.”
Note
Also Saturday, UC San Diego upset host USC 23-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-23. It snapped a 49-match conference losing streak for the Tritons dating back to 2014.
