[ WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL ]
RONEN ZILBERMAN / RZILBERMAN@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Brian Beckwith tried to block Lewis' Enrique Escalante last night during the the Outrigger Invitational.
UH wins Outrigger
in 5-game thrillerThe Warriors come from behind
to beat defending national
champion Lewis
It was theirs to win or lose. And the Warriors won it in a big, emotional way.
In a marathon that lasted 2 hours and 42 minutes, Hawaii rallied past defending national champion Lewis 26-30, 30-23, 33-31, 28-30, 15-10 to earn the championship of the 10th Outrigger Hotels Volleyball Invitational last night.
HAWAII 3 LEWIS 2
NEXT UP
at Santa Barbara on Thursday
A loud crowd of 4,408 at the Stan Sheriff Center saw the Warriors claim the title for the first time since 1999. They did it behind Pedro Azenha's career-high 33 kills, 17 from Delano Thomas and 15 from Josh Stanhiser.
Hawaii and Manitoba finished with 2-1 records, with the Warriors winning the head-to-head tie-breaker. The Warriors swept the Bisons on Friday.
Lewis and Penn State ended with 1-2 records. Based on Friday's 3-1 win over the Nittany Lions, the Flyers placed third.
Hawaii won the deciding Game 5 behind the serving of sophomore Mauli'a LaBarre. The Warriors had pulled to 5-3 on Azenha's 31st kill and LaBarre served for five straight points and an 8-5 UH lead.
The teams traded points, with the Warriors (1-1 overall, 2-1 tournament) maintaining a two- to three-point cushion. Lewis closed to 11-9 on a UH serving error but missed a chance for another point when Jon Bergmann netted his attempt.
Thomas' final kill gave the Warriors match point at 14-9. Barreto's 19th kill kept Lewis alive briefly; the 6-foot-6 Barreto was then stuffed by Azenha (6-5) and LaBarre (6-8).
"We knew they were going to set their go-to player Fabiano (Barreto)," LaBarre said. "We went over with a big block and we got lucky. It was a big stuff to the end the game. I'm really happy."
Azenha accepted the MVP trophy with his left ankle wrapped in ice. He was stepped on under the net by a Lewis player at the end of Game 3, "but I couldn't come out of the game," said Azenha. "I know tomorrow it's going to hurt a lot. But the joy we have today will help.
"I told Mau that they would go to No. 10 (Barreto) and to come with me (on the block). He got some of it, I got some of it. It was a team block."
He was joined by teammates Stanhiser and Thomas on the all-tournament team, along with Jeff Soler of Lewis, Manitoba's Murray Laidlaw and Mike Munday, and Penn State's Keith Kowal and Rickey Mattei.
"It was a great match," said Lewis coach Dave Deuser. "It was exciting, everything you could want in a championship match with Hawaii. We came up a couple of points short."
Lewis again played without senior All-American setter J.R. Martins (flu). Sophomore Brandon Sisk "was phenomenal but you have to understand that the biggest match Brandon has ever set was against Clark College, a Division III school," said Deuser. "I think J.R. would have made a huge difference. He's won a national championship. He's a little more accurate and more experienced, plain and simple."
Hawaii won Game 3 despite giving up two points, the first on a service rotation error, the second when Warrior assistant Aaron Wilton received a yellow card for continuing to argue a controversial call.
Hawaii trailed 11-9 in Game 3, then outscored Lewis 3-1 to tie it at 12, getting an ace by Brian Beckwith, a kill by LaBarre on a service overpass and a kill by the 6-2 Arri Jeschke, tooling off the much bigger Flyer block.
It stayed close the rest of the way, with Hawaii gaining game point first at 29-28 when the Flyers couldn't return a free ball that Azenha softly bumped over.
Lewis fought back to tie it at 30 and fought off another Hawaii swing for the game. Soler hit long to give the Warriors another shot at 32-31 and Soler went into the net to give UH a 2-1 lead in games.
Game 4 followed the same pattern, only it was Lewis that took the late lead, breaking an 18-18 tie with four straight points. Stanhiser put down his 13th kill, and a block of Enrique Escalante brought the Warriors to 22-20.
Lewis maintained the lead, but Hawaii kept scrambling back. Azenha had three kills during a 3-2 run to bring the Warriors to within 27-26. A kill by Fabiano Barreto made it 28-26 and an attempt by Azenha was ruled long, giving Lewis game point.
Another Azenha kill and his fifth ace gave Hawaii hope at 29-28. The Flyers got away with two sloppy sets, the last from libero Ryan Stuntz that set up Barreto for the game-winner.
In last night's first match, Manitoba outlasted Penn State 30-26, 30-24, 33-31, 30-28. The Bisons, the defending Canadian university champion, went 2-1 in the tournament, while the Nittany Lions fell to 1-2.
Hawaii def. Lewis
26-30, 30-23, 33-31, 28-30, 15-10FLYERS (1-1, 1-2 tournament)
WARRIORS (1-1, 2-1 tournament)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Escalante 5 7 3 15 .267 1 1 1 Castellano 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Soler 5 20 5 39 .385 0 1 5 Stuntz 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 14 Barreto 5 19 8 45 .244 0 2 7 Sisk 5 5 2 9 .333 0 1 3 Bergmann 5 13 5 24 .333 0 1 8 Pochopien 5 6 1 14 .357 1 4 1 Totals 5 70 24 146 .315 2 10 40
Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
g k e att pct. bs ba d Delgado 2 1 0 6 .167 0 0 2 Jeschke 5 8 4 18 .222 0 1 5 Beckwith 5 3 0 6 .500 1 1 7 Reft 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 7 Azenha 5 33 10 54 .426 0 4 8 LaBarre 5 7 3 12 .333 0 4 3 Thomas 5 17 12 47 .106 1 2 9 Rasay 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Stanhiser 5 15 2 18 .722 0 4 3 Totals 5 84 31 161 .329 2 16 44
Aces -- Lewis (3): Escalante 2, Soler. Hawaii (7): Azenha 5, Beckwith, LaBarre. Assists -- Lewis (64): Sisk 52, Stuntz 5, Soler 4, Bergmann 2, Pochopien. Hawaii (76): Beckwith 71, Jeschke 2, Reft 2, LaBarre.
T -- 2:42. Officials -- Ernest Ho, Dan Hironaka. A--5,503.
