UH outhits CS Northridge in sweep on the road

Olé with a flourish.

No. 8 Hawaii earned its first sweep in six weeks, downing No. 11 Cal State Northridge 25-21, 27-25, 25-16 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball Saturday night in Northridge Calif.

Senior hitter Siki Zarkovic and freshman opposite Stijn van Tilburg each had 11 kills as the Rainbow Warriors (12-9, 7-9) took just 92 minutes to move into sole possession of seventh place in the MPSF. It also was the first time Hawaii took a road series this season; the Warriors had split their earlier road series at Pepperdine and USC, and dropped two at Stanford.

“To win 3-0 on the road on night two is pretty good,” Warriors coach Charlie Wade said. “We played against a good team at their place and won both.

“We knew (CSUN) would block better (Saturday) and we knew we’d have to play without Kolby (senior libero Kanetake). I’m proud of the way we played as a team and made the adjustments we had to make.”

A recurring back problem sidelined Kanetake, who is five digs away from passing Allen Allen for No. 4 on the UH career dig list. With him out, the Warriors employed a two-libero system for the first time this season, alternating freshmen Brett Rosenmeier, normally an outside hitter, and Mamane Namahoe.

It came with mixed results. Rosenmeier was aced three straight times by Matadors freshman Dimitar Kalchev late in Set 1, which helped CSUN close to 21-20. Hawaii withstood the challenge, using kills by van Tilburg and junior hitter Kupono Fey to close it out.

The Matadors, outblocked 12.5-2 on Friday, finished with an 11-6 edge Saturday. Three of CSUN’s stuffs came in the middle of Set 2, when they turned a 19-11 deficit into a 24-23 lead.

Hawaii held off two set points, tying it for the last time at 25 on a kill by Fey. Wade brought in junior setter Jennings Franciskovic — the starter for all of last season and most of this year — for blocking purposes and the 6-foot-5 Franciskovic teamed with 6-8 junior middle Hendrik Mol to stuff the 6-4 Kalchev on consecutive plays to end it … according to the official play-by-play.

Wade disputes it, saying it was “clearly a solo block by Jennings, a one-on-one in the middle against (6-9 Josiah) Byers,” the coach said. “I’m super stoked for him. I know he’s bummed, has been used to being out there all the time setting. He made a huge difference for us at the end.”

CSUN didn’t have much left in Set 3. Hawaii pulled away from a 6-6 tie on consecutive Matadors hitting errors and pulled away at 18-11. Unlike Set 2, the Warriors held. Zarkovic had three kills and van Tilburg two in the closing run.

While Hawaii’s two liberos were credited with just one dig between them, the other Warriors made up for it on defense, finishing with a 30-15 edge in digs. Freshman setter Joe Worsley, in his third consecutive start, had a career-high 10 to go with 31 assists for his first career double-double.

Junior hitter Jakub Ciesla led the Matadors with 12 kills.

Hawaii has the week off and will next host UC Irvine (7-13, 5-11) on March 25 and 26.

MPSF VOLLEYBALL

Saturday

Hawaii def. CSUN, 25-21, 27-25, 25-16

Pepperdine def. Stanford, 22-25, 21-25, 25-20, 25-21, 16-14

Long Beach Invitational

UC Irvine def. Lewis, 25-17, 25-22, 23-25, 20-25, 15-13

Ohio State def. Long Beach State 24-26, 25-21, 15-25, 25-21, 15-13

No. 8 Hawaii def. no. 11 csun, 25-21, 27-25, 25-16

Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces).Service Aces — Hawaii 3 (van Tilburg 2, Frank). CSUN 5 (Kalchev 2, Porter, Ciesla, Toth). Service errors — Hawaii 12 (Zarkovic 4, Mol 3, Fey 3, Frank 2). CSUN 14 (Kalchev 5, Ciesla 3, Sakaida, Porter, Byers, Theisen, Greene, Toth). Assists — Hawaii 39 (Worsley 31, Namahoe 3, Zarkovic 2, Frank, Fey, Franciskovic). CSUN 28 (Porter 27, Suarez). T — 1:32. Officials — Burt Fuller, Rene Marcellus. A — NA.