The carnival going on about a mile away at Punahou School had nothing on the show inside the Stan Sheriff Center on Friday night.
No. 1 Hawaii (11-0), going with its usual starters on Night 2 of the 26th Outrigger Hotels & Resorts Invitational, threw quite the party to celebrate Charlie Wade’s 300th match as Rainbow Warriors volleyball coach. Led by senior opposite Rado Parapunov’s 17 kills and a middle attack from senior Patrick Gasman and freshman Guilherme Voss (a combined 14 kills with no errors), Hawaii finished off No. 14 Concordia Irvine 25-19, 25-21, 25-15 in 94 minutes.
The victory, watched by 3,284, was the Warriors’ 24th straight at home and sets up a true championship match tonight with Big West rival UC Irvine (7-3). In Friday’s opener, the fourth-ranked Anteaters needed 93 minutes to turn back third-year program Queens 25-19, 21-25, 25-10, 25-16.
The title match features two past winners. Hawaii, the defending champion, is going for its 10th in its signature event, while UCI is seeking No. 2, having won in 2015 in its only appearance.
In the de facto third-place match, Concordia Irvine (5-6) meets Queens (4-6) at 4 p.m.
>> PHOTOS: Hawaii vs. Concordia Irvine
Hawaii was as effective as it was efficient, hitting .469, siding-out at 82%, and with all five starting attackers with seven or more kills, including senior Colton Cowell with 15. Gasman had seven on nine errorless swings, Voss seven without an error in 12 attempts, and the two middles were in on five of the Warriors’ 10.5 blocks.
Hawaii went with a completely different starting lineup than Thursday with one exception: libero Gage Worsley. The junior had 12 of the team’s 36 digs and “nothing really changed from last night,” Worsley said. “It was cool seeing the connection between our hitters and setters. We have a world class player at every position.
“I think everyone made a cool play tonight. It’s been fun to be a part of this.”
The coolest play of the night came early in Set 1 when sophomore hitter Filip Humler, on the ground after a dig, slapped the third contact, hitting the top of the tape with the ball going over. On the ensuing play, Cowell and Voss teamed to stuff senior hitter Jordan Hoppe for a 12-6 lead.
It was the ninth sweep of the season for the Warriors, and seventh at home. Hawaii also has swept UCI in the previous three meetings, including the conference tournament semifinals last April 19.
If there was a complaint from the Warriors about Friday, it was the number of service errors. Hawaii had 13 to just two aces.
“We’ve got to get better at serving,” Wade said. “And we just didn’t execute the game plan we intended.
“We are by no means a finished product. I thought we were pretty good defensively. We had 17 digs in that first set and we’ve been averaging about eight. There was good energy tonight. And Brett (freshman setter Sheward) did a nice job keeping the middles involved. We were pretty balanced, didn’t wear one guy out.”
Parapunov passed the 900-kill mark and needs 96 to become the 18th Warrior with 1,000 kills. Gasman, with 376 career blocks, is four shy of tying Costas Theocharidis for No. 6 all-time at 380.
Senior hitter Raymond Barsemian led CUI with 11 kills and junior Owen Chun (Hanalani) had four kills and was in on four blocks. Junior libero Addison Enriques (Kamehameha-Hawaii) finished with six digs.
“I think we need to play defense like we did tonight,” said Voss, who tied his career high in kills (7) and finished with a career high in blocks (5). “Our defense, both the back court and in front blocking, was very good today.”
No. 4 UCI 3, Queens 1
Junior hitter Joel Schneidmiller put down a season-high 23 kills and senior hitter JB Kam (Punahou) added 10 as the Anteaters won their third straight. Senior middle Scott Stadick, the nation’s block leader, had a season-low five stuffs; he had a combined 31 in the previous three matches.
UCI freshman libero Davis Lau (Punahou) had four digs.
The Royals got 11 kills from freshman Nic Cavallaro and won the block (9.5-8) and dig (35-34) battles. It was the second time in program history that Queens had taken a set off a Top 15 team; the Royals also went four in losing their season opener at then-No. 14 Purdue Fort Wayne.
