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Past, present and future all came together for the Hawaii men’s volleyball team on Friday night. The second-ranked Rainbow Warriors wrapped up a second bye week with some serious competition and serious fun, celebrating with and against their alumni at the Stan Sheriff Center.
How serious could it be when:
>> Former liberos Tui Tuileta and Mikey China took swings on the outside, both having career hitting nights;
>> The alumni had nine players on the court at the end of Set 2 — six inside the baseline on serve-receive — after being torched by consecutive aces from Rado Parapunov;
>> Hawaii coach Charlie Wade’s young sons Makana and Kainoa each served in Set 4. This came right after Wade went asking the alumni bench, “Anyone want to play libero for us?”
>> And the running joke was that the alumni colors were not green and white but rust and grey.
Some 600 fans watched Hawaii end up replicating the past week of practices with ‘A’ and ‘B’ side split squads. After a 25-11 blowout in Set 1, varsity players began augmenting the alumni team, which led to more even results.
The varsity took Set 2 25-19 and the alumni won the next two 25-23, 25-20.
“We’ve been doing split squad in practice and the practices were very competitive, the teams very even,” said Warriors junior middle Patrick Gasman, who played for both sides Friday night. “It was like that tonight.
“It was a lot of fun playing with the older generation. They’re hilarious.”
Not only did the Warriors get a glimpse of their program’s past, they got a peek at their future, with a number of reserves getting playing time. Freshman opposite Filip Humler had 10 kills in the final two sets and both reserve setters Jakob Thelle, a freshman, and sophomore Jackson Van Eekeren ran the offense.
It was good prep for the rest of the season, which continues next week. Hawaii (3-0) hosts No. 8 Stanford (6-1) on Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.
“It was good fun,” Tuileta said after playing in his first alumni match. “It was good to see all the old guys that I used to see play when I was growing up.”
One who was before Tuileta’s time, however, was former All-American Tom Pestolesi (1982-83). The current coach at Irvine Valley got in for a cameo appearance with one serve in Set 2.
“This was great,” said Pestolesi, whose pregame ritual included taking a selfie with the Circle of Honor plaque belonging to his wife, Rainbow Wahine great Diane Sebastian Pestolesi. “We talk about it all the time that things happen here that don’t happen anywhere else, how people actually remember you played here. That’s amazing.
“This was probably one of the biggest crowds that we had when I was playing in Klum (Gym). It’s a cool thing that being 36 years removed from play that you still feel part of the program.”
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