The last time Hawaii won at Robertson “Rob” Gym, the sets were played to 30 points, the majority of the current Rainbow Warriors were in middle school, and Joshua Walker was a junior outside hitter who put down 14 kills in a sweep of UC Santa Barbara.
On Friday night, Walker again was on the court — this time as an assistant coach — and Hawaii again walked out of Rob Gym with a straight-sets victory, Hawaii’s first win there since 2010. Sophomore opposite Rado Parapunov put down 11 kills and sophomore middle Dalton Solbrig added a career-high 10 as the sixth-ranked Warriors took just 83 minutes to dispatch No. 11 UCSB 25-16, 25-15, 26-24 in Goleta, Calif.
Sophomore middle Patrick Gasman tied his personal best with eight blocks and junior outside hitter Brett Rosenmeier had his second consecutive errorless match, putting down eight kills. Junior hitter Stijn van Tilburg had the match-ending ace as well as eight kills, bringing him to within nine kills of becoming the 17th Warrior to reach 1,000.
Junior hitter Corey Chavers had a match-high 13 kills for the Gauchos (10-10, 3-4). The teams meet again at 4 p.m. today.
“We came out and played good early, similar to how we played last weekend,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said, referring to last week’s two sweeps of UC San Diego. “In Set 3, we got behind early, got blocked a couple of times. But we served better late and hit smarter in transition.
“This is a tough place to play and we know (UCSB) will play better tomorrow.”
It was Hawaii’s first true road victory of the season. The Warriors had three neutral-site wins at January’s Grow The Game Challenge in Nashville, Tenn.
Hawaii, which plays twice at UCSB in alternating years, snapped a six-match losing streak at UCSB aided by fast starts in Sets 1 and 2. In the opener, a kill by Gasman broke a 5-5 tie and the Warriors used 5.5 blocks to pull away.
In Set 2, Rosenmeier had both of his aces as the Warriors went up 5-1 and had just one error while hitting .684.
The Warriors chased for most of Set 3, including being down 19-16.
Parapunov’s solo block of Keenan Sanders capped a 4-0 run, giving the Warriors their first lead of the set at 20-19. Sanders’ kill tied it at 20, the first of five ties down the stretch.
Van Tilburg’s kill gave Hawaii its second chance at ending it and the Dutch national did so with his ninth ace of the season.
Wade said the success of his middles — Solbrig and Gasman combined for 15 kills with just two errors — took pressure off the pin hitters (on the outside) and opened it up. He also said he was pleased with the steady performances of both Parapunov and Rosenmeier, “two guys who have had their struggles but have worked really hard,” Wade said.
One of the focuses had been to slow down Sanders, who was a freshman All-American in the middle last season and move to opposite this year. He came into the match averaging 3.80 kills per set; he finished with seven, hitting .062.
Hawaii hit .459, the highest for a UCSB opponent this season.
The victory has Hawaii sharing second place with UC Irvine at 4-3. The Anteaters pulled out a 25-17, 25-23, 22-25, 22-25, 22-20 win over visiting Cal State Northridge on Friday, dropping the Matadors into a tie for fourth place with the Gauchos at 3-4.
No. 1 Long Beach State clinched a share of the inaugural Big West regular-season title with Friday’s 25-22, 25-19, 25-17 sweep of UC San Diego. It kept the 49ers (22-0, 7-0) unbeaten as well as gave coach Alan Knipe his 300th victory at his alma mater.
