Matautia delivers 15 kills, ‘local energy’ in Hawaii win

There was a different vibe Friday night in the Stan Sheriff Center, Patrick Gasman said. The Hawaii sophomore middle called it “the local energy” when referring to what sophomore hitter Austin Matautia brought to the court in the nonconference match against No. 13 Concordia.

Matautia, in his second start of the season, had match-highs of 15 kills, 10 digs and three aces as the Rainbow Warriors swept the Eagles, 25-15, 25-13, 25-21 in 88 minutes. It was the first double-double of the season for the Moanalua High graduate who didn’t learn that he would be starting until prematch warmups.

“It’s like every day, you just go out, play your best, and hopefully, it works out,” Matautia said. “You do what you can to help the team out.

“The goal is to come out strong on Sunday, do our best, and hopefully come out with another win.”

Hawaii (10-2) and Concordia (8-7) meet again at 5 p.m Sunday.

Junior setter Joe Worsley said there was a concerted effort to set Matautia, who took 25 swings and hit .440 in front of a crowd of 2,199.

“He had a fresh arm,” said Worsley, who had Hawaii hitting .443 on the night, including .531 in Set 1. “He bailed us out on a number of plays tonight.

“There’s a different type of set for each of our players. Austin jumps high, has a quick arm swing so there’s more tempo on the ball. I’m pretty happy with the results tonight. We have a lot of good players.”

After last Sunday’s loss to UC Irvine, Hawaii’s focus was on serving and defense. The Warriors had no aces against the Anteaters but finished with six on Friday, half by Matautia.

Concordia came into the match as the top blocking team in the country and sixth in digs. The Eagles got schooled in both those departments with the Warriors winning the block battle 9-6.5 and the dig war, 32-22.

“We knew they were a good blocking team. We just had to play our game,” said Gasman, who was in on three stuffs. “It was good to get back in our element. Great offense, great defense, great blocking.

“We’re looking forward to doing it again on Sunday.”

Sophomore opposite Rado Parapunov added 11 kills with just one error. Junior hitter Brett Rosenmeier, whom Matautia replaced in the starting lineup, came in for junior Stijn van Tilburg in Set 3 and finished with five kills with one error.

Sophomore hitter Raymond Barseman had 11 kills for the Eagles, who saw their three-match winning streak snapped. Concordia is in its first season in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, Hawaii’s former conference.

Of the three Hawaii high school products on the Eagles roster, two played on Friday: freshman defensive specialist Addison Enriques (Kamehameha-Hawaii) and junior setter Isaiah “Pono” Kaaa (Punahou). Kaaa had six assists and two digs when running the offense for most of Set 3.

Hawaii dominated much of the night as Concordia led only twice, both times early in Set 3. Gasman put down two consecutive service overpasses in the middle of a 5-0 run in Set 1 as the Warriors jumped out 8-3.

Matautia had nine kills in the opening set with one hitting error, that coming when blocked on Hawaii’s second set point at 24-15. His 5-0 serving run in Set 2 had the Warriors rolling at 22-10 with sophomore hitter Brandon Rattray finishing it off with an ace.

Hawaii led by as much as 16-6 in Set 3, helped by a 6-0 serving run from Matautia. Concordia hung in there, taking advantage of five Warrior hitting errors and five kills from Barseman.

Barseman’s final kill closed the gap to 23-20 but all Hawaii had to do was sideout, getting the final points on kills by Rosenmeier.