Rainbow Warriors work out kinks in Tennessee

Good early, better late. No. 4 Hawaii sandwiched some inconsistency with solid play and remained undefeated Saturday.

Sophomore hitter Austin Matautia came off the bench for a team-high 13 kills and served the final five points of the match as the Rainbow Warriors fended off Barton 25-16, 20-25, 25-17, 25-22 in Off The Block’s Grow the Game Challenge volleyball tournament in Nashville, Tenn. Junior hitter Brett Rosenmeier added 12 kills and a career-high four aces for Hawaii (4-0) in the 95-minute match at Allen Arena.

The Warriors ended up with a 13-8 edge in blocks, with sophomore middle Patrick Gasman in on six and sophomore middle Dalton Solbrig five. Five of the stuffs came in Set 4, including three that helped Hawaii rally from a 21-18 deficit.

“We blocked well early and we blocked well late,” Warriors coach Charlie Wade said in a telephone call. “We need to be more disciplined on our block. It wasn’t well formed.

“We’re still a work in progress. We’re getting a lot of guys on the court. We’re still working on a lot of stuff.”

Consistency is the main thing. Hawaii hit .478 with just two errors in Set 1, then had almost as many errors (8) as kills (10) while hitting .074 in Set 2.

“We made some ridiculously unforced errors,” Wade said of Set 2. “We let it get away. They (Barton) got some confidence and then it was game on.”

Set 2 was the first set Hawaii dropped this season. It nearly doubled, with the Bulldogs (0-2) poised to force a fifth, leading 21-18 in Set 4.

Wade called a timeout and asked for more focus and discipline on the block. The Warriors responded with a 7-1 run, scoring six straight on two kills by junior hitter Stijn van Tilburg, two Barton hitting errors and two blocks to pull it out. Gasman and junior setter Joe Worsley stuffed Aleksa Brkovic to end it.

Sophomore hitter Angelos Mandilaris led the Bulldogs with a match-high 15 kills and Brkovic, a junior hitter, added 12. Junior middle Justice Lord, a Hilo High product, finished with two kills and was in on four blocks for the defending Conference Carolinas champions.

The Warriors won the dig battle 36-27, with senior libero Tui Tuileta finishing with 12. The Bulldogs got a match-high 13 digs from freshman libero Wilfredo Rivera.

Hawaii concludes the tournament today with two matches, taking on No. 13 Grand Canyon (5-0) at 7:30 a.m. Hawaii time and Lincoln Memorial (0-1) at 10:30 a.m. The Warriors return home to host No. 3 UCLA (4-0) on Jan. 26 and 28.