Hawaii fails to spoil USC's playoff run
POSTED: Saturday, April 18, 2009
There would be no feel-good Disney movie ending for Hawaii last night. The Warriors, trying their best to win for senior captain Sean Carney—whose father died earlier this week—just couldn't make the fairy tale ending come true.
Instead, No. 5 Southern California played the perfect villain while trying to keep its hopes alive for a home playoff berth in next week's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball tournament. Led by Tony Ciarelli's 20 kills and 18 by Murphy Troy, the Trojans (17-9, 13-8 MPSF) snapped a three-match losing streak to sweep the Warriors 30-26, 30-18, 30-23 at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Hawaii (8-18, 5-16), eliminated from the playoffs two weeks ago, was led by Joe Strotman's 13 kills.
Carney's loss was felt on both sides of the court.
“;It's been brutal all week,”; UH junior libero Ric Cervantes said. “;Hopefully, we can give him a good senior night.”;
The Trojans signed a sympathy card for Carney and “;we all really respect Sean,”; said USC coach Bill Ferguson, who coached Carney on the U.S. junior national team.
But the reality of what was at stake for the Trojans overrode all that.
“;We were scoreboard watching,”; Ferguson admitted. “;Tomorrow is everything.”;
USC (17-9, 13-8) moved into a tie with Stanford for the No. 4 seed in the MPSF tournament. The Trojans need a win over the Warriors in tonight's rematch at 7—combined with a loss by the Cardinal to UCLA—to be at home next Saturday.
The Warriors will try to prevent that, as well as send their three seniors and retiring coach Mike Wilton off on a winning note.
“;We just want to do ourselves proud,”; said Wilton, who is leaving after 17 years as the program's winningest coach. “;We'll start the three seniors and go from there.
“;It was pretty even tonight, but we have to stop their serving runs. I was surprised by how well Tri (Bourne) played. We didn't have much tape on him and he did well.”;
In his eighth straight start, Bourne (AOP '06) finished with 12 kills and was in on four of the Trojans' nine blocks. Hawaii had five blocks, with Strotman in on three.
“;I was happy with how we played,”; Ferguson said. “;We haven't seen Jimbo (UH senior Jim Clar) hit a ball in a long time. It was good to see him out there.”;
The injury-prone Clar finished with seven kills.
The most telling statistic for the Warriors was the lack of offense from freshman Steven Hunt. He had just nine attempts, with no kills in hitting negative .333.
Having the most efficient night for UH was junior middle Matt Rawson, who had seven kills with one error in 10 swings.
MPSF
| W | L | Pct. | GB | All |
|
| x-UC Irvine | 18 | 3 | .857 | — | 23-4 |
| y-Pepperdine | 18 | 4 | .818 | 1/2 | 20-4 |
| y-CSU Northridge | 16 | 6 | .727 | 2 1/2 | 23-6 |
| Stanford | 13 | 8 | .650 | 5 | 20-9 |
| USC | 13 | 8 | .619 | 5 | 17-9 |
| BYU | 13 | 9 | .591 | 5 1/2 | 18-12 |
| Long Beach State | 11 | 11 | .500 | 7 1/2 | 1413 |
| UCLA | 10 | 11 | .476 | 9 | 14-14 |
| UC San Diego | 8 | 14 | .363 | 10 1/2 | 12-16 |
| Hawaii | 5 | 16 | .238 | 13 | 8-18 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 4 | 18 | .181 | 14 1/2 | 8-19 |
| Pacific | 0 | 21 | .000 | 18 | 3-25 |
x-top seed
y-clinched host for MPSF quarterfinal match
Yesterday
USC def. Hawaii 30-26, 30-18, 30-23
BYU def. Pepperdine, 22-30, 30-21, 30-27, 30-26
Long Beach State def. UC San Diego, 28-30, 30-25, 31-29, 30-28
CSU Northridge def. UC Santa Barbara, 30-23, 30-21, 30-28
UCLA def. Pacific, 30-26, 30-21, 30-21
UC Irvine def. Stanford, 30-28, 30-24, 30-22
Today
USC at Hawaii, 7 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center
UC Irvine at Pacific
UCLA at Stanford
Grand Canyon at UC San Diego
End regular season
USC def. Hawaii
30-26, 30-18, 30-23
Trojans (17-9, 13-8)
| s | k | e | att | pct | d | bs | ba | pts |
|
| McKibbin | 3 | 5 | 2 | 8 | .375 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 6.0 |
| Troy | 3 | 18 | 3 | 33 | .456 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 19.0 |
| Ciarelli | 3 | 20 | 8 | 37 | .324 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 20.5 |
| Zahn | 3 | 6 | 1 | 13 | .385 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 7.5 |
| Bourne | 3 | 12 | 6 | 24 | .250 | 11 | 0 | 4 | 15.0 |
| Current | 3 | 4 | 1 | 12 | .250 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 7.5 |
| Pavlovich | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Morris | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Hackett | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.5 |
| Altamura | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Totals | 3 | 65 | 21 | 127 | .346 | 45 | 1 | 16 | 76.0 |
Warriors (8-18, 5-16)
| s | k | e | att | pct | d | bs | ba | pts | |
| Rawson | 3 | 7 | 1 | 10 | .600 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 8.0 |
| Grgas | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | -.200 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.5 |
| Clar | 3 | 7 | 5 | 26 | .077 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 7.0 |
| Hunt | 3 | 0 | 3 | 9 | -.333 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Carney | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0.5 |
| Strotman | 3 | 13 | 4 | 29 | .310 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 15.5 |
| Walker | 2 | 3 | 1 | 11 | .182 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3.5 |
| Tuaniga | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | .000 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2.0 |
| Cervantes | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Lofy | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | -.250 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1.0 |
| Zemljak | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| China | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Totals | 3 | 32 | 18 | 103 | .136 | 33 | 0 | 10 | 38.0 |
Key—s: sets played; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills + blocks + aces)
Aces—USC (2): Bourne, Current. Hawaii(1): Strotman. Assists—USC (59): McKibbin 51, Morris 5, Ciarelli 3. Hawaii (32): Carney 31, China.
T—1:40. Officials—Dan Hironaka, Dickson Chun. A—N/A.
