The streaks continued in a very businesslike, matter-of-fact way.
Again led by the workhorse effort of sophomore opposite Stijn van Tilburg and a defense anchored by junior libero Tui Tuileta, No. 4 Hawaii won its 12th straight volleyball match courtesy of a 25-20, 25-23, 25-23 sweep of No. 14 USC.
Van Tilburg finished with 17 kills with just one error, and Tuileta had 11 of the team’s 32 digs as the Rainbow Warriors (17-2, 8-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) ran their home winning streak to 16 in a row and extended their consecutive sets won to 23. It also was Hawaii’s seventh straight sweep.
Senior hitter Lucas Yoder, who leads the country in kills (4.91 kps), had 11 for the Trojans (6-11, 5-9). Sophomore hitter Gianluca Grasso added 10 kills.
The teams meet again at 7 tonight, a match that only counts in the overall records.
Van Tilburg credited the set distributions of senior setter Jennings Franciskovic as a key. The balanced attack saw senior hitter Kupono Fey and sophomore hitter Brett Rosenmeier each finish with 10 kills, with the Warriors hitting .407 over the 1 hour and 47 minutes.
“Jennings once again did a great job distributing the ball, getting the outsides involved,” said van Tilburg, whose only error came on his 11th swing, pulling the Trojans to 6-5 in Set 2. “We know how good they are, they beat No. 1 in our league (Long Beach State on Jan. 11). But with our atmosphere at home, we are confident to face anybody here.
“We need to play harder tomorrow. We are not satisfied with how we played, it was a little loose and not enough blocks. We can have way more energy tomorrow.”
A rain-braving crowd of 2,033 saw Hawaii, the top blocking team in the country, not have a block until Set 3. The Warriors finished with four, the first three on solo stuffs by van Tilburg, Rosenmeier and freshman middle Patrick Gasman pushing Hawaii out to a 13-8 lead in the third.
It was a bittersweet night for Tuileta, who played his freshman year at USC in 2015 before transferring home.
“I still know a lot of the guys and we’re still friends,” Tuileta said. “And we can talk after the match.
“Tonight was about winning. We want to get better. It was good to take care of business. If we can play efficient volleyball from start to finish, we have a good chance against anyone.”
It was apparent that Yoder wasn’t at 100 percent. He sat out last week’s match at Long Beach State with an abdominal strain and the Trojans lost 3-0.
Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said there was discussion to take advantage and target Yoder on serve.
“We talked about it but decided against it, focusing on strong serves inbounds,” said Wade, although the Warriors had just one ace to nine errors.
Conversely, the Trojans had four aces to eight errors.
As happened late in Sunday’s match with Pepperdine, Hawaii was good when it counted, and that was late in Sets 2 and 3. USC challenged, closing to 24-23 both sets, but the Warriors hung tough, with Rosenmeier giving his team the 2-0 margin going into the break, and van Tilburg ending the night on Hawaii’s second swing at aloha ball.
“I thought they played well,” Trojans assistant Gary Sato said of the Warriors.
As for tonight’s match not counting in the MPSF records, “I don’t think the mind-set changes,” Sato said. “We just want a win.”