Eminem was singing it at Aloha Stadium.
No. 2 Hawaii was humming along at the Stan Sheriff Center.
“Don’t Back Down.”
The Rainbow Warriors remained focused and disciplined in hitting a program record .667 on Friday night, needing just 81 minutes to finish off Lincoln Memorial, 25-12, 25-14, 25-12. It was the ninth straight sweep for Hawaii (9-0), one off the record of 10 set in 2017.
“We don’t ever want to get complacent, no matter who we’re playing,” said senior middle Dalton Solbrig, who was in on six of Hawaii’s 10.5 blocks. “We’ve been working hard on our blocking and it was good to see results.”
The Warriors were efficient at the net and the service line, not committing a hitting error until midway through Set 3, and finishing with nine aces, five by junior opposite Rado Parapunov. Junior hitter Colton Cowell had a match-high nine kills in playing the entire way and the distinction of the team’s first hitting error on a net violation when attempting to put down an overpass.
That cut the Warriors’ lead to 12-5 in Set 3. Hawaii had been errorless on its first 40 swings, putting down 31 kills.
“I thought Hawaii played exactly how we thought they would,” coach John Cash said after his Railsplitters dropped to 7-5. “And we played unbelievably undisciplined. I couldn’t be more disappointed. We wanted to take away some things and then we move the wrong way, weren’t there in the mental sense of the game.
“That’s to take nothing away from Hawaii. They’re No. 2 for a reason. They’re very hungry. We need to come back Sunday, play focused and disciplined volleyball.”
The teams meet again at 5 p.m. Sunday. It’s the Warriors’ last match before opening Big West play at UC Irvine on March 1 and 2.
“We have UC Irvine in two weeks and we need to work on some things before that,” said Hawaii freshman reserve setter Jakob Thelle, who replaced senior Joe Worsley at 17-6 in Set 3. “I think we’re doing a great job but could do a better job on defense, communicate better.
“Every time, no matter who we play, we want to focus on our game, how we play.”
A crowd of 2,205 saw senior hitter Stijn van Tilburg continue to climb the career kill chart, putting down eight without an error when playing in the first two sets. He moved past Jonas Umlauft (1,128) for No. 12 and is 33 away from passing Naveh Milo (1,168) for No. 11.
Hawaii came into the match hitting a national-best .472. The Warriors hit .769 in Set 1 and .778 in Set 2; the three hitting errors in Set 3 led to a .500, and .667 overall. The previous mark of .638 came against Cal State Northridge in 2001.
The match featured the top two blockers in the country, Warriors junior middle Patrick Gasman (1.68 bps) and Railsplitters junior middle Pedro Carvalho (1.62). It was no contest with Gasman finishing with four stuffs to go with five kills, and Carvalho and LMU with none.
LMU got five kills each from senior hitter Jordan Walley and junior opposite Evan Cory. Cory was No. 4 nationally in kills (4.32 per set); he didn’t pick up his first kill until the middle of Set 2.
“This is why we’re here,” Cash said of his program that is in its third year of existence. “We want to see the speed, the size. So that when we go back home and we start playing other teams on our schedule … we’ve seen the best. So you know what you have to do every day to be that. Doing a better job to emulate that is important.
“Hawaii’s not going to back down. I don’t blame Charlie (UH coach Wade). I’d keep coming, too. I’d go for the shutout every chance I’d get.”
Hawaii outdug LMU 20-10 with sophomore Gage Worsley finishing with six digs. The Warriors had 12 service errors; they had a total of 13 in the previous eight matches.
