Thirteen was a lucky number for Hawaii on Friday night.
The Rainbow Warriors were able to go deep into their bench, using all available players and getting a glimpse of the future.
On a night when senior hitter Stijn van Tilburg continued his climb up the program’s career kills chart, Hawaii got short but impressive outings from reserve junior hitter James Anastassiades and true freshman hitter Filip Humler. Van Tilburg had nine kills in two sets to move to No. 15, Anastassiades had a career-high five and Humler added three on four errorless swings in the Warriors’ 25-13, 25-12, 25-20 sweep of Concordia-Irvine.
As a Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 1,873 watched for 104 minutes, Hawaii set up a true championship in the Hawaiian Airlines Classic with USC at 7:30 tonight. The Warriors (2-0) face the Trojans (2-0) in a rematch of last year’s title game of the Texaco Classic, won by Hawaii.
USC turned back New Jersey Institute of Technology in Friday’s first match, 25-17, 24-26, 25-23, 25-15.
Looking for their first win of the season, the Highlanders (0-4) and Eagles (0-5) meet for third place at 5:30 p.m. The match times are later due to the Big West women’s basketball game between the Rainbow Wahine and UC Davis at 1 p.m.
Hawaii hit .435 on the night, the average dipping with a .333 effort in Set 3 with a number of subs on the court. The Warriors were again efficient on defense, winning the block battle 9-6 and the dig war 30-24.
“I don’t know what adjustments to make, we’re playing pretty well,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “The adjustments are more about tweaking the offense, not trying to do everything all night and retaining some balance.
“It’s always good to get as many players as we can in. Filip is going to be a really good player for us, had the highest hitting percentage in fall at .350, and that’s going against the ‘A’ side. James has put himself in the best shape of his life, is in a tough spot as the back-up at both opposite and outside, and he’s really appreciative of any time he gets in the game.”
It was particularly gratifying for Anastassiades, playing in front of his parents, who flew in from California.
“I have no words, I’m just grateful, and want to take advantage of every opportunity,” Anastassiades said. “I’m feeling way more comfortable coming in to serve and I have got to give my coaches and teammates thanks for pushing me.”
Hawaii’s big guns — van Tilburg and junior opposite Rado Parapunov — set the stage for the reserves. Parapunov had eight kills with no errors on 12 swings, six digs and an 8-0 service run in Set 2 that had the Warriors pulling away at 9-2.
“Rado ate us up last year and he did it again tonight,” said Concordia coach Shawn Patchell, whose Eagles lost two in Honolulu last season. “They’re a big, physical team and I thought we didn’t do a great job taking their tendencies away.
“If we can take one of their weapons away, then I’d give us a shot. But they were very efficient.”
Patchell started three Hawaii high school products on Friday: senior setter Pono Kaaa (Punahou), sophomore opposite Owen Chun (Hanalani) and sophomore libero Addison Enriques (Kamehameha-Hawaii). Enriques was the only one to play the entire match, finishing with 13 digs.
Patchell pointed to Hawaii’s serving as a key.
“Hawaii serves the ball really well, maybe the best in the nation,” the former BYU All-American said. “To hold them to three aces … I think is something to be proud of.
“We’ve played some really good teams and we feel they are really the best serving team we’ve faced.”
The Warriors had just three aces, compared to 12 on Thursday against NJIT. Still, Wade said he was happy with the serving percentage of .932 (three aces, five errors on 73 serves).
“I’ve heard it said that if you’re serving at 90 percent, you’re serving too soft,” Wade said. “But our guys are stepping back and bombing it.”
Note
Van Tilburg is 11 kills away from passing Aaron Wilton (1,089) for No. 14 on the career kills list.
USC 3, NJIT 1
Senior hitter Ryan Moss put down 15 kills and the Trojans survived in four against the Highlanders. Tied 1-1, NJIT led the third set 23-22 but gave up two points on two hitting errors, with Moss ending it with his last kill after 1 hour and 47 minutes.
Highlanders junior opposite Piotr Namiotko finished with a match-high 17 kills and senior libero Chris Wise (Kamehameha) a match-high 11 digs.
