Faster than what’s legally allowed on H-3.
No. 4 Hawaii’s serves would have gotten a number of speeding tickets Thursday night with the Rainbow Warriors bombing away from the service line against New Jersey Institute of Technology. Hawaii had 12 aces, many clocked at well over 60 mph, including one of senior middle Dalton Solbrig’s career-high four that lit up the baseline radar gun at 72.3 mph.
When the smoke cleared after 89 minutes, Hawaii had swept its way to its sixth straight season-opening victory, shredding the Highlanders’ serve-receive 25-17, 25-11, 25-13 in the second match of the Hawaiian Airlines Classic. The Rainbow Warriors (1-0) were equally hot on their attack, hitting .619 for the night, including .867 in Set 3 while putting down 13 kills with no errors on 15 swings.
Junior hitter Colton Cowell led the way with a career-high 12 kills, with no mistakes on 15 attempts, and senior hitter Stijn van Tilburg added 11 kills in two sets to move into No. 16 in the program’s all-time kills list.
Hawaii takes on Concordia-Irvine in today’s second match at 7 p.m. The Eagles (0-4) were swept by USC in Thursday’s opener, 25-14, 25-18, 25-14.
The Trojans (1-0) face the Highlanders (0-3) at 4 p.m. today.
“Before the match we talked about having a cerebral game plan, to play efficient,” Cowell said.
That the Warriors did, with just five hitting errors all match.
Senior setter Joe Worsley had five aces, the final two sending the crowd of 1,541 home. All four of Solbrig’s aces came in Set 2, where Hawaii was rolling at one point 18-3.
“Serving is something I’ve worked on in the offseason,” said Solbrig, who put down all four of his swings. “It’s one of the things I wanted to improve on, something I knew could help my team.
“When we’re serving and passing like that, we are tough to beat. It’s nice when you have a big lead to be able to go back and bomb.”
Solbrig’s first service turn of Set 2 came with a 7-2 lead. By the time he left, he had three aces and it was 14-2. His fourth, clocked at 72.3, gave Hawaii a 2-0 lead.
“They’re a really good team,” NJIT junior libero Parker Lui, a Moanalua graduate, said. “No, you can’t see that speed from tape. It was a lot of fun out there. Tomorrow we need to be better at serve-receive.”
The Highlanders got half of their 22 kills from junior opposite Alvaro Gimeno, seven of his 11 coming in Set 3.
Hawaii outdug NJIT 22-12, with the Worsley brothers combining for 13 — Joe with seven and sophomore libero Gage six.
Hawaii’s serving broke open a tight Set 1 that was tied 12 times, pulling away at 16-15 with two aces and three service overpass cutbacks for a 23-16 lead. Van Tilburg had five kills in the opener, his third lifting him over Brian Poppinga (1986-90) in all-time kills.
Van Tilburg (1,070) needs seven to pass Steven Hunt (2009-12) for No. 15.
USC 3, Concordia-Irvine 0
Senior hitter Jack Wyett put down 15 kills and senior hitter Gianluca Grasso added 10 as the Trojans handled the Eagles in 70 minutes.
Reserve senior setter Pono Kaaa (Punahou) had seven assists and sophomore libero Addison Enriques (Kamehameha-Hawaii) six digs for Concordia.