WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
UH's Maulia La Barre, left, celebrated a kill with teammates during last night's match at the Stan Sheriff Center.
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Warriors turn it around
Hawaii gives UC Irvine a taste of its own medicine in a sweep that takes 101 minutes
The weather spoiled UC Irvine's beach plans Thursday.
A storm named Jose further ruined the Anteaters' visit last night.
Next Up Vs. Pepperdine
Feb. 9
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Senior hitter Jose Delgado put down 17 kills to help No. 7 Hawaii sweep No. 4 UC Irvine and gain a split of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation series. Lauri Hakala added 12 kills for the Warriors (5-3, 2-2) in the 30-21, 30-22, 34-32 victory at the Stan Sheriff Center.
It lasted 1 hour and 41 minutes, exactly the same as Wednesday's sweep by the Anteaters (6-3, 3-2). That was where the resemblance ended.
"We wanted to send a message that we could do the same thing to them that they did to us," Hawaii setter Brian Beckwith said. "We did not want it to go four. This is a very big win for us. Irvine is a very, very good team and they crushed us Wednesday."
Beckwith channeled his frustrations at the end of Game 3, making three key plays that helped finish off the match. The Warriors held off four game-point attempts by the Anteaters, the last when Beckwith made a remarkable save of a pass that was headed over the net, setting Dio Dante for a kill to tie it at 32.
Beckwith then gave Hawaii its first match point at 33-32 on a dump off a dig by Alfred Reft. Beckwith and Dante then teamed to block UCI's Jayson Jablonsky to avenge Wednesday's loss.
"I saw the opening, took advantage of it and had no problem making that choice," Beckwith said of his third kill of the match.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Mauila La Barre of UH put down one of his six kills against UCI's Aaron Harrell last night.
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The UCI coaching staff saw it coming. Reft's pass to the net "was tight and the setter is going to jam," Anteater coach John Speraw said of predicting Beckwith's dump. "The ball isn't even to the net yet and (assistant coach Mark) Presho's screaming, 'He's jamming.' We didn't have one guy up there. Smart play by Brian, but at that point of the game, you've got to make him do something else.
"Our guys have got to make plays and they didn't make very many plays tonight."
Hawaii's passing was such that it allowed Beckwith to run a varied offense. With the exception of Matt Carere (eight kills, .250), all of the Warrior attackers hit above .310.
Hakala hit .316, Dante finished with nine kills and senior middle Maulia La Barre, in his first start in three weeks, had six kills with no errors in 11 attempts.
But the star may have been Reft. The senior libero anchored Hawaii's passing with 20 digs, two off his career best. He passed former UH All-American Aaron Wilton for seventh place on the UH career dig list midway through Game 2 and now has 603 (Wilton had 593).
"The key was the passing, and Alfie is a true leader," Delgado said of Reft. "We realized we have to do a better job of getting the ball to Beckwith, and then the offense is going to come.
"Every single minute of the game, Alfie is positive. He's my MVP, truly an amazing libero."
Hawaii's receiving was near perfect, allowing only one ace, a shot by David Smith that hit the tape and rolled over to bring UCI to within 17-12 in Game 1.
"I thought we lost the match in the first five points of the match," said Speraw, whose team fell behind 5-1 in Game 1. "I flat-out knew Hawaii would pass better, so I knew we'd have to figure out a way to score points, and we didn't do a good job of it.
"In the middle of Game 3, I started thinking about all the lessons we were going to learn from this match. And as long as we can apply them, then I can swallow this loss a lot better."
The Anteaters were led by Jablonsky's 17 kills. Freshman libero Brent Asuka, an Iolani graduate, had 15 digs.
"This was a big win for us," UH coach Mike Wilton said. "It's always a good thing to be emotionally invested in a match, which was missing the other night."
Hawaii has a bye week before playing at defending NCAA champion Pepperdine on Feb. 9-10.
Hawaii def. UC Irvine
30-21, 30-22, 34-32
Anteaters (6-3, 3-2 mpsf)
|
g |
k |
e |
att |
pct. |
bs |
ba |
d
|
Thornton |
3 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
.500 |
0 |
2 |
4
|
Spittle |
3 |
4 |
1 |
13 |
.231 |
0 |
2 |
2
|
Jablonsky |
3 |
17 |
5 |
29 |
.414 |
0 |
1 |
3
|
Webber |
3 |
9 |
9 |
26 |
.000 |
0 |
2 |
7
|
Smith |
3 |
6 |
1 |
17 |
.294 |
0 |
1 |
0
|
Harrell |
3 |
6 |
0 |
11 |
.545 |
0 |
3 |
2
|
Wilson |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
-.1000 |
0 |
0 |
0
|
Asuka |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
15
|
Simpson |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0
|
Rangel |
2 |
2 |
3 |
7 |
-.143 |
0 |
0 |
2
|
Totals |
3 |
46 |
20 |
108 |
.241 |
0 |
11 |
35 |
Warriors (4-3, 2-2 mpsf)
|
g |
k |
e |
att |
pct. |
bs |
ba |
d
|
Delgado |
3 |
17 |
5 |
38 |
.316 |
0 |
2 |
3
|
Hakala |
3 |
12 |
2 |
25 |
.400 |
0 |
3 |
4
|
Carere |
3 |
8 |
3 |
20 |
.250 |
0 |
2 |
2
|
Beckwith |
3 |
3 |
0 |
5 |
.600 |
0 |
1 |
3
|
La Barre |
3 |
6 |
0 |
11 |
.545 |
0 |
3 |
1
|
Dante |
3 |
9 |
4 |
16 |
.312 |
0 |
3 |
0
|
Kalima |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0
|
Carney |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0
|
Reft |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
20
|
Totals |
3 |
55 |
14 |
115 |
.357 |
0 |
14 |
33 |
Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- UCI (1): Smith. Hawaii (2): Delgado, Carere. Assists -- UCI (43): Thornton 39, Jablonsky, Smith, Harrell , Asuka. Hawaii (49): Beckwith 44, Reft 3, Carere, La Barre. T -- 2:45. Officials -- Dan Hironaka, Wayne Lee. A -- 2,440.
MPSF Standings
|
Conference |
Overall
|
|
W |
L |
Pct. |
W |
L
|
Brigham Young |
5 |
0 |
1.000 |
7 |
0
|
Pepperdine |
5 |
0 |
1.000 |
5 |
0
|
Long Beach State |
4 |
1 |
.800 |
8 |
1
|
UC Irvine |
3 |
2 |
.600 |
6 |
3
|
USC |
2 |
2 |
.500 |
3 |
4
|
Hawaii |
2 |
2 |
.500 |
4 |
3
|
UC Santa Barbara |
2 |
3 |
.400 |
3 |
5
|
CS Northridge |
1 |
2 |
.333 |
5 |
3
|
Stanford |
1 |
4 |
.200 |
2 |
7
|
Pacific |
1 |
4 |
.200 |
2 |
6
|
UCLA |
0 |
2 |
.000 |
4 |
4
|
UC San Diego |
0 |
4 |
.000 |
0 |
6 |
Yesterday
UCSB def. Pacific, 30-25, 30-27, 30-27
CS Northridge def. Stanford, 30-23, 30-25, 30-23
Pepperdine def. UCSD, 30-28, 30-19, 30-25
Hawaii def. UC Irvine, 30-21, 30-22, 34-22
Long Beach State def. USC, 31-33, 30-18, 30-20, 30-26
Today
BYU at UCLA
USC at UC San Diego
Stanford at UC Santa Barbara
Pacific at CS Northridge