[ WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL ]
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
UH's Joshua Stanhiser and Ball State's Keith Schunzel fought at the net during last night's game at the Stan Sheriff Center.
UH beats Ball State
in 4
As Game 3 goes, so goes the Hawaii Warriors volleyball team this season.
When dropping what is considered the pivotal game of a match -- after splitting the first two games -- the Warriors are 0-2, with both losses coming in five.
When winning that pivotal game, Hawaii was 2-0 before last night, winning one in five, the other in four.
The trend continues.
Sparked by a 4-0 serving run from sophomore Mauli'a LaBarre midway through Game 3, the Warriors again won the swing game after intermission. And again No. 3 Hawaii defeated No. 10 Ball State.
The Warriors used 24 kills from sophomore Pedro Azenha and 10 blocks by senior Josh Stanhiser to wear down the Cardinals 27-30, 30-24, 30-24, 30-17 at the Stan Sheriff Center. A turnstile crowd of 2,801 saw Hawaii (6-2) win its fourth in a row in handing Ball State (6-2) its second straight loss after 2 hours and 2 minutes.
"The first six matches, we played some OK teams," said Cardinals senior setter Keith Schunzel. "We expected to come in here and play a really good team, a team that has a chance to be in the final four. I'm not sure if we're game-tested yet, but we made some strides.
"Game 4 the wheels kind of came off. They started serving the heck out of it. And with (LaBarre), he says everyone is used to fastball, fastball, fastball and then he throws something different. It moves a lot and it's a hard ball to pass."
LaBarre calls it his "Tim Wakefield knuckleball." The deceptive jump-float serve bothered Ball State all night, but never more so than toward the middle of Game 3.
Down 21-19, Azenha began the rally with a kill. LaBarre served for the next four points, with Delano Thomas getting two of his 19 kills on consecutive service overpasses.
It was 24-21 and it was basically over with Hawaii finishing it off via a 6-3 run. Azenha put down two of his kills and then had a solo block of Evan Berg to end it.
The Cardinals never got back in it. By the time Coach Joel Walton called his first timeout, the Warriors had put down eight kills with no errors in 10 swings en route to a 12-7 lead. It only got worse with Hawaii jumping ahead by as many as 13 (27-14) thanks to very strong blocking.
Hawaii finished with 17 blocks to Ball State's six. The Warriors outblocked the Cardinals in Game 4 7.5-0.
Hawaii also finished with a 4-1 edge in serves. Although LaBarre was credited with just one ace, his serve was very effective.
"It's not a hard serve where you get an ace all the time but it does disrupt things," said LaBarre.
The Cardinals were again led by freshman Nick Meyer (16 kills) and Jary Delgado (10).
"I think we learned what it is to play in a tough environment," said Schunzel. "It's a great environment. It's our first road trip of the year and I think we learned where we have to be to play with a good team, what level we have to play consistently."
Game 1 wasn't pretty on either side and it got particularly ugly for the Warriors at the end. Hawaii rallied to take a 26-25 lead only to have it evaporate as Ball State scored three straight points on a Meyer kill and two UH hitting errors.
Azenha kept his team alive with his seventh kill to close to 28-27 but the Cardinals closed it out a dump by setter Keith Schunzel and a block of Jose Delgado by Jary Delgado.
"We really struggled tonight," said Hawaii coach Mike Wilton. "We did not start to block really until Game 4.
"I feel pretty good about tonight. That team was pretty much in charge of the match early and we figured out a way to claw back into it. And then we got our game going."
Hawaii def. Ball State
27-30, 30-24, 30-24, 30-17
CARDINALS (6-2, 0-0 MIVA)
WARRIORS (6-2, 3-1 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Meyer 4 16 17 39 -.026 0 0 3 Sasson 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 7 Delgado 4 10 7 24 .125 1 0 5 Schunzel 4 7 2 9 .556 1 2 5 Berg 4 6 4 14 .143 0 1 4 Rumschik 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Braley 4 8 2 17 .353 1 1 1 Grabovac 4 6 4 11 .182 0 2 3 Totals 4 53 36 114 .149 3 6 28
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 4 6 6 14 .000 0 3 5 Jeschke 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Beckwith 4 1 0 4 .250 1 6 4 Reft 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 6 Azenha 4 24 4 35 .571 2 1 1 LaBarre 4 7 4 13 .231 0 3 1 Thomas 4 19 1 34 .529 0 4 3 Dante 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Stanhiser 4 5 2 9 .333 1 9 1 Totals 4 62 17 109 .413 4 26 21
Aces -- BSU (1): Meyer. Hawaii (4): Azenha 2, Delgado, LaBarre. Assists -- BSU (50): Schunzel 39, Sasson 4, Delgado 3, Berg 2, Meyer 2. Hawaii (58): Beckwith 50, Reft 5, LaBarre, Thomas, Delgado
T -- 2:02. Officials -- Ernest Ho, Dickson Chun. A -- 2,801.
