No. 4 ’Bows prepare for battle against No. 14 USC

The potential pothole in the middle of Hawaii men’s volleyball’s road to a top-four league finish is visible from 2,555 miles away. It is 6 feet, 5 inches deep; wears No. 25 and is scheduled to arrive today from Los Angeles literally armed with the top stats in the country.

The No. 4 Rainbow Warriors know they won’t be able to swerve to avoid this puka when they host No. 14 USC on Thursday and Friday. Hawaii knows all about Trojans senior hitter Lucas Yoder — he of the somewhat gaudy 4.91 kills and 5.25 points per set averages — and knows that Yoder is going to get set … a lot.

The task is how to slow him down, something that only injury has seemingly been able to do. Yoder has missed three matches this year, two with an ankle sprain in mid-January, and the other last Friday with an abdominal sprain. USC lost all three, all on the road.

“It’s a big difference if he’s not on the court,” said Warriors assistant coach Joshua Walker, who is in charge of the scouting report. “His productivity is high. Everyone knows he’s getting set. The key is stopping him.

“If he’s in the game, he’s going to be the main reason they win.”

The Warriors have other plans, particularly for Thursday’s outcome, which is the only one that will count in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings. The final year of the current MPSF — next season five teams move to the Big West — has a scheduling quirk where that is the case, with designated two-match series and the second counts only in the overall record.

However, every match counts in the Warriors’ collective eyes as they look to continue several streaks. Hawaii has won its last 11, and has extended its home winning skein to 15 dating back to last season.

The Warriors also have swept their last six opponents, and have not dropped a set since Feb. 4, when they lost the second against UC Santa Barbara 25-23. Hawaii took the next two sets and takes a 20-set streak into Thursday’s match.

“Hawaii is a very good volleyball team,” second-year USC coach Jeff Nygaard said. “They do a lot of things well and at a very high level.

“Lucas is cleared to play and we’re expecting him to travel. That could change, like things sometimes do. We are different without him. Our last match (at Long Beach State on Friday) they played really well and we played really poorly.”

That combination resulted in the Trojans leaving the Walter Pyramid after a 25-17, 25-12, 25-15 loss. It snapped USC’s season-high three-match winning streak, one that included a home sweep of Stanford and 3-2 victories over Pepperdine (at home) and on the road at Cal State Northridge.

USC also has the only MPSF win over No. 2 Long Beach State, that in four on Jan. 11 at the Galen Center. Yoder had 28 kills, hitting .404, and the Trojans outdug the 49ers 41-25 in the league opener for both.

“They’ve had some nice wins,” UH coach Charlie Wade said. “My assumption is Yoder will play. He’s a big-time talent, one of the dominant point-scorers in the league, and we need to be aware of him all the time.

“We’ve been playing pretty well for a few weeks now. I don’t think anyone thinks we’re a finished product. We continue to focus on the things we need to work on and want to continue to improve.”

This will be Nygaard’s first visit to Hawaii as a head coach but not his first time against the Warriors. Besides his five seasons as a Trojans assistant, the two-time national player of the year at UCLA holds the distinction of playing against Hawaii in the final men’s match in Klum Gym in 1994 and also the inaugural Outrigger Invitational, the season-opening tournament in the Stan Sheriff Center in 1995.

“I loved Klum Gym,” the MVP of both the ’95 Outrigger and NCAA tournament championship teams said. “But the SSC … you couldn’t ask for anything better. It wasn’t just 10,000 fans, it was 10,000 knowledgeable fans who appreciated good, high-level volleyball. You didn’t see that in the U.S. back then.”