Warriors notch SAN DIEGO >> After the Rainbow Warriors had several recent dominating performances from the service line, coach Mike Wilton warned them about becoming too reliant on the serve.
sweep of Tritons
on the road
No. 2 Hawaii has no problem with
the MPSF's last-place teamFrom staff and wire reports
Had the Warriors been playing a different opponent, their iffy serving production in the beginning of last night's match might have been costly. But No. 2 Hawaii smoothed out enough serving-wise and controlled the other aspects of the game to pick up its first sweep of a conference opponent in more than a month.
When: Tomorrow, 5 p.m. Hawaii time Hawaii at UC San Diego
Where: RIMAC Arena
TV: None
Radio: KKEA 1420-AM
Before a gathering of 462 at RIMAC Arena, No. 2 Hawaii defeated UC San Diego 30-25, 30-19, 30-26 as expected. The Warriors (18-5, 12-5 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) ran their winning streak to eight. The Tritons dropped to 5-17 and 1-16.
Freshman Matt Bender got his first start yesterday. The 6-foot-3 outside hitter played for All-American Costas Theocharidis, who spent the match in sweats on the bench. Bender swung 14 times and finished with eight kills.
Senior Eyal Zimet led Hawaii in kills with 13 on .611 hitting.
A flu-weakened Tony Ching (seven kills, .375) started the match before ceding his spot on the court to freshman Pedro Azenha, who was blistering at the net and from the service line.
Azenha hammered nine kills in 14 swings with no errors for the best Hawaii hitting percentage (.643) of the match. The rookie also had three of Hawaii's four aces.
"Tony was efficient. He hit for a pretty good percentage," Warriors coach Mike Wilton said. "He doesn't have all of his strength back, there's no question about that, but he needs to play a little bit. I'm hopeful that we have the same good fortune on Friday to play a lot of people."
The Warriors didn't get the chance in Game 1, as the Tritons gave them plenty to handle. UCSD middles Kevin Keyser (11 kills, .625) and Andy Rupp (10 kills) combined for half of the Tritons' kills in Game 1. Hawaii had its hands full before distancing itself after the last tie at 20. The Warriors would made quick work of the Tritons the next two games.
"Their middles gave us problems," Wilton said. "They were setting the middle a lot. We had a little trouble with that. It wasn't going to beat us or anything.
"Game 1 was a little exercise in getting in sync, getting used to not having Costas on the floor. They (the Tritons) played very well in Game 1. They scored almost every time we served them. They had a couple of nice serving runs, so that made the first game pretty close. We took care of business at the end. The wheels kind of came off for them in Game 2."
Hawaii ran the score up to 20-10 in Game 2 before Wilton replaced most of his starters with the reserves. Seldom-used Arri Jeschke replaced Zimet and joined Daniel Rasay, Bender, Azenha and Josh Stanhiser on the court. The Warriors' second team did fine, with Azenha blasting a kill to bring Hawaii to game point. Bender finished the game with one of his two blocks.
Wilton kept in most of the reserves for Game 3, which was close until Azenha's serving took over. With Hawaii protecting a slim lead (16-13), the Sao Paolo, Brazil, native launched back-to-back aces that started a four-point spurt that allowed the Warriors to pull away. His final ace gave Hawaii a 27-21 lead. Jeschke put down the second and third kills of his Hawaii career to conclude the sweep.
"The guys that came in did a great job too," Wilton said. "I don't think we really served great tonight. We served quite a few balls out in Game, 1 but once we got into a nice rhythm and played some pretty good defense. I was pleased. I was expecting a tougher match."
He might get one tomorrow. The second match of the series starts at 5 p.m. Hawaii time.
30-25, 30-19, 30-26 Hawaii def. UC San Diego
Warriors g k e att pct. bs ba d Tuyay 2 0 0 0 .000 0 3 4 Zimet 3 13 2 18 .611 0 2 4 Bender 3 8 3 14 .357 0 2 6 Ching 2 7 1 16 .375 0 1 0 Nordberg 3 8 1 14 .500 0 1 0 Thomas 2 5 0 8 .625 0 7 0 Muise 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 7 Jeschke 2 3 1 6 .333 0 0 1 Azenha 3 9 0 14 .643 0 0 3 Rasay 2 0 2 3 -.667 0 2 0 Stanhiser 2 1 0 3 .333 2 2 1 Totals 3 54 10 96 .458 2 20 27 Tritons g k e att pct. bs ba d Waller 3 11 6 30 .167 0 0 2 Urton 3 3 3 11 .000 0 0 5 Keyser 3 11 1 16 .625 0 2 2 Toren 3 5 6 11 -.091 0 2 2 Rupp 3 10 4 21 .286 0 1 0 Perrine 3 2 0 3 .667 0 1 5 Tai 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Young 2 3 2 6 .167 0 0 1 Kimball 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Mortimer 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 6 Totals 3 45 22 98 .235 0 6 23
Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- Hawaii (4): Azenha 3, Nordberg; UCSD (6): Perrine 4, Waller 2. Assists -- Hawaii (52): Tuyay 28, Rasay 19, Bender 2, Muise 2, Zimet.
T -- 1:20. Officials -- Patsy Malta, Jesse Martinez. A -- 462.
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