Call it the “Senior Zone.”
As Hawaii’s seniors see their volleyball careers wind down, they continue to wind it up. It showed on a record-setting Saturday night with the fourth-ranked Rainbow Warriors clinching a berth in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation postseason tournament.
Neither senior middle Hendrik Mol nor senior setter Jennings Franciskovic had a hitting error when combing for nine kills, and the two were in on eight of the team’s 13 blocks as Hawaii extended several impressive streaks via a 25-13, 25-19, 25-20 sweep of No. 8 Stanford.
A season-high crowd of 4,560 saw the Warriors (20-2, 10-2 MPSF) run their consecutive sets won mark to a school-record 32, eclipsing the 29 set by the 1996 squad. Hawaii also extended several other streaks: 15 consecutive wins this season, 19 straight victories at home dating back to last year, 10 victories in a row in the MPSF, 11 straight MPSF wins at home dating back to last season and 10 sweeps in a row.
“It’s great but we’re not done yet,” said Franciskovic, who had the Warriors hitting .370. “We want to host, that’s the goal right there. The seniors all know it’s coming to an end. I’m getting chicken skin just talking about it. It gives us extra motivation to play hard and make these last games count.
“Hopefully, by the time playoffs come, we’re in the top spot. It’s a special team this year and the crowd was amazing. We want to share it with everyone on the island.”
Hawaii, No. 2 Long Beach State and No. 3 BYU have clinched berths in the eight-team tournament. The top four will host the quarterfinals and the Warriors’ goal to be back at home April 15 could hinge on next week’s trip to Provo, Utah, and two matches with the Cougars (17-2, 11-1).
Saturday night’s victory gave Hawaii some breathing room in terms of top-four finish. In fourth is UC Irvine (15-6, 9-5) and the Warriors have the tiebreaker on the Anteaters.
In fifth is UCLA (13-7, 8-6) and Hawaii finishes out the regular season in Westwood, Calif., with two against the Bruins. Long Beach State has the tiebreaker on the Warriors having won both matches at The Pyramid to open the MPSF season.
“While clinching is nice, that hasn’t been our focus,” Warriors coach Charlie Wade said. “I think this team is good enough to host and that’s what we want.
“We were hoping we could get all six victories (in the homestand) and then that gets us on the road with a lot to play for. They are significant matches for both of us.”
The Warriors were led by senior hitter Kupono Fey and sophomore opposite Stijn van Tilburg, both finishing with 11 kills. Van Tilburg didn’t have a hitting error until his 16th swing when he was blocked midway through Set 3.
Junior hitter Clay Jones had 10 kills for the Cardinal (11-9, 6-7). Although outblocked by the Warriors 13-8, five of Stanford’s blocks came in Set 3. Freshman middle Patrick Gasman had six blocks for Hawaii.
Hawaii also won the dig war, 28-24. Junior libero Tui Tuileta, sophomore hitter Brett Rosenmeier and van Tilburg all had six for the Warriors and junior libero Evan Enriques (Kamehameha-Hawaii) had a match-high seven to lead Stanford.
“Hawaii’s good, they’re a good ball-control team and they outplayed us tonight,” Enriques said. “It was fun to play where I grew up and cool to see the support growing.”
The Warriors played as well as they have when getting off to a hot start in Set 1, breaking the school record for consecutive sets won (30). By the time Franciskovic went back to serve a second time, the Warriors were up 17-7, had 3.5 blocks, and the Cardinal were out of timeouts, hitting negative .067.
Set 2 was tight early with ‘Iolani product and senior hitter Gabriel Vega’s kill giving Stanford a short-lived lead at 8-7. Gasman broke an 8-8 tie with his second ace of the match and the Warriors had two consecutive blocks to pull away for good at 11-8.
The most notable parts of Set 2 may have been the first hitting error of the night by any of the Hawaii senior starters (Fey, Mol and Franciskovic) with Fey being blocked on a tight set; and Cardinal coach John Kosty running his record to 7-0 in video replay challenges. He was 3-for-3 last week at Penn State and 4-for-4 at the Sheriff Center through Set 2. Kosty lost the challenge on match point when questioning a net violation. It gave Fey his 11th kill and ended the match after 95 minutes.
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