Two of the top opposites in the country faced off Friday night in Hawaii’s junior Rado Parapunov and Stanford’s Jaylen Jasper, both of whom are vying for the Bryan Ivie Award for the best at that position.
Give the early edge to Parapunov, whose 17 kills kept the No. 2 Rainbow Warriors unbeaten after 107 minutes at the Stan Sheriff Center. A season-high crowd of 3,945 saw senior hitter Stijn van Tilburg continue to move up the career kills chart, finishing with 11, as Hawaii (4-0) turned in its fourth sweep, turning back the eighth-ranked Cardinal in a nonconference men’s volleyball match 25-15, 27-25, 25-22.
Jasper, son of former Rainbow Warriors quarterback Ivin, finished with seven, with five coming in Set 2. Stanford (7-2), playing its first road match, was led by senior hitter Jordan Ewert’s 14 kills and 10 digs.
The teams meet again at 6 p.m. Sunday.
“I was feeling good tonight, felt I was in rhythm,” Parapunov said after Hawaii’s first match in 20 days. “With (senior setter) Joe Worsley by my side, my team having my back, I got this.
“Stijn is our best player and everyone will go after him. He’s still our best.”
It was an off night — by his standards — for van Tilburg, now No. 13 in the UH record book with 1,105 kills. He had a total of four errors in the Warriors’ first three matches; the Dutch national had six Friday night.
“It was rough, they were serving me a lot and got me out of rhythm a little,” said van Tilburg, whose national-best hitting percentage of .585 dropped to .434 after Friday’s .167. “But when the hitting isn’t going well, I have to focus on other things. I think I stepped up in passing and my serving was good (with two aces).
“As long as it’s 3-0, I’m happy. Rado is always amazing. People have to prepare for a lot of offensive weapons when they play us.”
It may have been the Warriors’ defensive weapons that came up the biggest.
Besides outblocking the Cardinal 8.5-1 — with senior middle Dalton Solbrig in on five — Hawaii outdug Stanford 33-31.
Anchoring the Warriors was sophomore libero Gage Worsley, who finished with 11 digs. His brother, Joe, kept his attackers in-system even on off passes, including the match-ending kill by junior hitter Colton Cowell.
“Some points we thought we were going to get just didn’t drop,” Stanford coach John Kosty said. “It was just a little point here, a little point there, and Gage Worsley came up big at the end of the match that gave them a little bit of that edge and that momentum.
“Credit to them. They’re a talented team. They deserve the No. 2 ranking. We’ve got some work to do. We had some opportunities and hopefully on Sunday we can take advantage of them.”
Parapunov tied Set 2 at 22 and it was tied three more times, the last at 25. Van Tilburg’s ninth kill gave Hawaii its third set point and Parapunov’s 11th kill sent the Warriors into the locker room up 2-0.
There were some anxious moments in Set 3 when Hawaii had four straight hitting errors that had its 13-9 lead turn into a 13-13 tie. Stanford hung around, closing to one four times, the last at 22-21 on a kill by sophomore middle Kyler Presho, son of former Rainbows All-American Mark.
Hawaii was better when it counted … at the end. The crowd, Warriors coach Charlie Wade said, was a big difference.
“That’s the kind of game where such a great crowd supporting us will kind of help push it over the edge,” he said. “Usually the team that wins the first night isn’t making too many adjustments. For us, we were pretty productive and pretty efficient. There’s a few loose points in serve-receive, but there’s not a lot (to change).”
