It was a golden anniversary for Stijn van Tilburg on Thursday night. When the junior hitter finished with a match-high 13 kills in No. 2 Hawaii’s sweep of No. 8 Lewis on Thursday night, it was his 50th match in double-figure kills as a Rainbow Warrior.
The Dutch national made an early case for his third consecutive most outstanding player award and Hawaii made an equally strong case to win its third straight Outrigger Resorts Invitational championship after toppling the Flyers 25-12, 25-22, 25-19 at the Stan Sheriff Center. A crowd of 1,749 witnessed the Warriors win their seventh straight match in the 24th annual men’s volleyball tournament.
Van Tilburg got plenty of help over the 104 minutes, with sophomore hitter Austin Matautia making the most of his third consecutive start, finishing with 10 kills and tying his career high with four aces.
The Warriors ended up with nine aces, two by junior setter Joe Worsley and one by his younger brother Gage, a freshman defensive specialist. The Brothers Worsley had critical serving runs late in the last two sets that allowed Hawaii to notch its 11th sweep and third in a row.
“We talked at intermission how we had to be saved by that serving run (in Set 2),” said Joe Worsley, who had 35 assists and was in on one of Hawaii’s six blocks. “We’ve got to clean up our defense and our block. The next two nights we’ll be seeing some big hitters.”
First up for Hawaii will be No. 11 Penn State (10-5) today at 7 p.m. in a rematch of last May’s NCAA tournament quarterfinal. The Nittany Lions will want to clean up their serving after committing 23 service errors while falling to No. 4 Brigham Young in Thursday’s first match, 21-25, 29-27, 25-22, 19-25, 15-13.
The Cougars (15-4) take on the Flyers (13-6) in today’s first match at 4 p.m.
Hawaii’s serving set the tone early in Set 1, with Matautia serving up three consecutive aces for a 6-3 lead. It ended with van Tilburg 7, Lewis 6 in kills, including a dig-kill by van Tilburg that gave the Warriors their first set point at 24-11.
“It is so much fun to play so well in the first set and then we let it go a little bit,” van Tilburg said. “We have to understand how much fun it is to play so well that we need to keep it going.
“They are a good team and we knew they’d come back.”
The Flyers, who have a sweep of two-time defending national champion Ohio State on their resume, regrouped in Set 2. Sophomore hitter Ryan Coenen, the reigning AVCA newcomer of the year, had two aces in a 4-0 run that put Lewis up 21-18.
Julian Moses, son of Olympic track great Edwin, put down his first kill to give the Flyers a 22-19 lead. Hawaii held, with a kill by sophomore middle Patrick Gasman putting Gage Worsley on the service line.
He never left, with an ace coming in the middle of his extended stay. At 23-22, the 6-foot-10 Gasman stuffed 6-10 freshman middle Tyler Mitchem, then teamed with Joe Worsley to block Moses, sending Hawaii to the locker room up 2-0.
Set 3 was equally tight, with four lead changes and eight ties, the last at 17. Joe Worsley put Hawaii ahead for good with an ace that jump-started a 6-0 serving run. By the time he was done, he had his second ace and the Warriors had rolled out to a 23-17 lead.
Coenen led the Flyers with 11 kills.
BYU 3, Penn State 2
Brenden Sander put down 20 kills and Gabi Garcia Fernandez added 19 as the Cougars prevailed in 2 hours and 27 minutes. BYU survived 22 service errors and the loss of starting senior libero Erik Sikes in Set 2 and senior middle Miki Jauhiainen late in Set 5 to injuries.
Junior hitter Matthew McLaren had 19 kills and sophomore opposite Calvin Mende 18 for the Nittany Lions. Sophomore middle Kevin Gear added 10 kills and junior libero Royce Clemens 13 digs for Penn State, which lost its second straight.
