On Hawaii volleyball’s senior night, it was set, match and love.
After the top-ranked Warriors swept Stanford 25-16, 25-12, 25-17 and the seven seniors were celebrated, opposite attacker Brook Sedore, covered in lei and emotion, took the microphone and then a knee. Before about 7,000 of his closest friends and fans, Sedore proposed to his girlfriend, Keola Kahaulelio.
"She said … Yes!" the Stan Sheriff Center scoreboard proclaimed.
"Words can’t explain how much I love him," said Kahaulelio, a former UH water polo player.
Sedore, with moistened eyes, said: "She’s the love of my life. I’ve been planning this since the day I met her my freshman year. It’s amazing. I couldn’t have planned it any better."
Teammates also were lost in emotion.
"This was a good night of volleyball, but (the proposal) was even more incredible," setter Jennings Franciskovic said. "I have chills."
There were a few reasons to celebrate. The Warriors completed their regular-season home schedule with their 16th consecutive victory. They boosted their lead a skosh in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. They are 18-2 in the MPSF with two road matches against Brigham Young remaining. UC Irvine is second at 18-3 with one match left.
The largest crowd since Feb. 28, 2004 saw the Warriors dominate every phase.
The Warriors hit .408, and did not commit an error until late in the second set, on their 37th swing.
"That was Alex (Jones) running a zinger (set) to Ryan (Leung), which he wasn’t ready for," UH coach Charlie Wade said, smiling.
Jones and Leung, both senior reserves, were summoned after the Warriors ruled the net (13.0 blocks to Stanford’s 2.0), service line (eight aces) and serve-receive (94.3 passing accuracy).
3
HAWAII
0
STANFORD
KEY: Hawaii hit .408, led by Taylor Averill’s nine kills in 11 error-free swings
NEXT: UH at BYU, 3 p.m. Friday |
"Jennings (Franciskovic) set a nice match," Wade said. "The hitters were impressive. The blocking was good. The serving was good. This was a nice performance."
Stanford was playing without injured 6-foot-8 setter James Shaw. Kyle Dagostino is a crafty coach’s son, but he also is only 5-9. Even when accompanied by 7-foot middle Kevin Rakestraw in the front row, the Warriors were able to slide a double team on the pin hitter and pipe attacker.
UH middle Davis Holt was particularly disruptive. He had six blocks through the middle of the second set and finished with eight. It took a year for Holt’s block-read awareness to match his 6-foot-9 frame. As a fifth-year senior, he is a complement to Taylor Averill, regarded as the nation’s best middle.
"I’m so proud of Davis," Wade said. "He’s come a long way."
Wade, who had numbness in the meaty part of his right hand on Friday night, appeared to be pain-free in Saturday’s rematch. Holt also had four kills without an error and hit .500. Averill’s line was 9-0-11.
Sedore contributed nine kills without an error, earning four points on launches from behind the 3-meter line.
All seven seniors played.
Stanford also went deep, but for a different reason. Stanford also was without middle Spencer Haly, who suffered an injury in Friday’s match. But the way the Warriors’ blistering serves were forcing Stanford out of rhythm, the quick-middle attack was rarely an option. The Warriors scored 37 natural points. Stanford scored seven points on plays initiated by its serves.
Averill said the Warriors were fueled when they noticed the seats filling during warmups.
"How could we not be pumped up?" Averill said. "We had a core of us who played together for so long. We knew what this night meant. We knew the crowd we had. We had to put on a show."
MPSF VOLLEYBALL
| |
Conference |
|
|
|
Overall |
| |
W |
L |
Pct. |
GB |
W |
L |
| xy-Hawaii |
18 |
2 |
.900 |
— |
23 |
3 |
| xy-UC Irvine |
18 |
3 |
.857 |
1/2 |
24 |
4 |
| xy-Pepperdine |
17 |
4 |
.810 |
1 1/2 |
22 |
4 |
| x-USC |
13 |
7 |
.650 |
5 |
16 |
8 |
| x-BYU |
12 |
8 |
.600 |
6 |
15 |
9 |
| x-UCSB |
11 |
9 |
.550 |
7 |
15 |
9 |
| x-Long Beach St |
10 |
11 |
.476 |
8 1/2 |
14 |
12 |
| UCLA |
8 |
13 |
.381 |
10 1/2 |
12 |
13 |
| Stanford |
7 |
13 |
.350 |
11 |
10 |
16 |
| CSUN |
7 |
14 |
.333 |
11 1/2 |
10 |
17 |
| Cal Baptist |
2 |
18 |
.100 |
16 |
6 |
20 |
| UC San Diego |
0 |
21 |
.000 |
18 1/2 |
2 |
25 |
x-clinched MPSF Tournament berth
y-clinched MPSF Tournament quarterfinal home match
Saturday
Hawaii def. Stanford, 25-16, 25-12, 25-17
BYU def. CSUN, 26-24, 25-23,25-22
UCLA def. UCSD, 26-24, 25-17, 25-18
NO. 1 HAWAII DEF. NO. 15 STANFORD, 25-16, 25-12, 25-17
RAINBOW WARRIORS (23-3, 18-2)
| |
S |
K |
E |
ATT |
PCT |
D |
BS |
BA |
| Franciskovic |
3 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
.500 |
7 |
1 |
8 |
| Sedore |
3 |
7 |
1 |
21 |
.286 |
3 |
0 |
5 |
| Averill |
3 |
9 |
0 |
11 |
.818 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
| Zarkovic |
3 |
6 |
3 |
18 |
.167 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
|
| Fey |
3 |
4 |
1 |
6 |
.500 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
|
| Holt |
3 |
4 |
0 |
8 |
.500 |
1 |
2 |
6 |
| Kanetake |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
| Hartley |
2 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
1.000 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Jones |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Leung |
1 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
.333 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| TOTALS |
3 |
35 |
6 |
71 |
.408 |
35 |
3 |
20 |
CARDINAL (10-16, 7-13)
| |
S |
K |
E |
ATT |
PCT |
D |
BS |
BA |
| Dagostino |
3 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
-.333 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
| Kaminski |
3 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
.200 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
| Vega |
3 |
7 |
6 |
22 |
.045 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
| Tublin |
2 |
1 |
2 |
9 |
-.111 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Rakestraw |
3 |
2 |
3 |
8 |
-.125 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| Hayden |
3 |
12 |
6 |
32 |
.188 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| Delgado |
3 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1.000 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Stephanus |
2 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
-.250 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Enriques |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
| Aiello |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
-1.00 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Jones |
2 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
-.333 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
| Kemper |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Totals |
3 |
25 |
22 |
92 |
.033 |
23 |
0 |
4 |
Service Aces — Hawaii 8 (Sedore 3, Averill 2, Zarkovic 2, Franciskovic). Stanford 2 (Kaminski, Stephanus). Service errors — Hawaii 12 (Fey 3, Sedore 3, Franciskovic 2, Holt 2, Averill, Zarkovic ). Stanford 10 (Dagostino 2, Hayden 2, Rakestraw 2, Aiello, Delgado, Kaminsky, Tublin). Assists — Hawaii 34 (Franciskovic 26, Jones 3, Sedore 2, Averill, Fey, Kanetake). Stanford 25 (Dagostino 20, Enriques, Kemper, Vega). T — 1:33. A — 6,311. Referees — Joe Sloate, Ernie Ho, Irene Kobayashi.
