There’s hitting efficiency. Then there’s Hawaii’s performance Saturday night.
The Rainbow Warriors hit .461 with just six errors — one in each of the first two sets — in sweeping past Thompson Rivers 25-17, 25-16, 25-22 for the championship of the inaugural Waikiki Beachcomber Classic men’s volleyball tournament on Saturday night. Junior All-America hitter Stijn van Tilburg put down 14 kills without an error, hitting .636, and sophomore opposite Rado Parapunov added six kills without an error in playing just the first two sets at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The finale of the round-robin event lasted just 87 minutes, but it was long enough for the crowd of 1,864 to appreciate the night that UH junior Joe Worsley turned in. Although the statistics won’t count — the contest against the Canadian team is considered an exhibition — the 6-foot setter had 27 assists, an ace and was in on a team-high five blocks, including two solo.
The solo stuffs included one on 6-7 Joshua Mullaney and another on 6-6 Jordan Foot, and helped Worsley earn most outstanding player honors for a second consecutive home tournament. Hawaii didn’t drop a set in the three-day event.
“I felt coming into the match we were really focused, there was a calm focus,” Worsley said. “I thought we executed pretty well, but something we have to tighten up is how we come out after the second set. Seems like we’ve had a little bit of a letdown this season after the 10-minute break. We need to be consistent the whole way.”
If there’s something Hawaii (8-1) wants to clean up before its Big West opener Feb. 23 against UC Irvine, it is its service errors. The Warriors had 13 but did finish with seven aces.
“Offensively, we were pretty good tonight,” Warriors coach Charlie Wade said. “Joe’s been working on some stuff — you’ll notice there’s more diversity, he’s moving guys around and he’s making the right choices.”
Hawaii outblocked TRU 9.5-2.5, with junior middle Dalton Solbrig in on four. Solbrig joined Worsley on the all-tournament team along with van Tilburg and senior libero Tui Tuileta, TRU’s Tim Dobbert, Robert Bowling of Lees-McRae and former Warrior Nemanja Komar of Academy United.
Former BYU hitter Dobbert, playing as a graduate student, led the WolfPack with 15 kills.
Academy United 3, Lees-McRae 0
In Saturday’s de facto third-place match, Peter Edwards put down 10 kills to lead Academy United of the National Volleyball Association over Lees-McRae of Conference Carolinas, 25-19, 25-17, 25-9.
Hawaii is back in the Sheriff Center on Feb. 18 for an alumni match.
