[ WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL ]
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
UH's Arri Jeschke tried to hit past Cal Baptist's Seidu Ajanako and Artur Kusio last night in Game 1. The Warriors lost in five.
NAIA team beats
Warriors in 5No. 1 Cal Baptist gets its 17th
win in a row, as reeling Hawaii
loses its third straight
Another No. 1 opponent. Another loss in five.
Last Saturday, the Hawaii Warriors volleyball team took a 2-0 lead against top-ranked Brigham Young only to lose in five. Last night, the Warriors blew an early lead again against the NAIA's best.
Fifth-ranked Hawaii threw everything it had at California Baptist, but it wasn't enough. The Lancers won their 17th straight, 23-30, 33-31, 30-28, 22-30, 15-10, in front of 2,875 at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Shaun Dyk had 19 kills for Cal Baptist (17-2), which hasn't lost since Jan. 14 at Long Beach State.
Matt Bender tied his career high in kills with 25, but he was blocked on his last attempt, which gave the Lancers match point.
Seidu Ajanako blocked Jose Delgado for the team's 17th block, ending it after nearly 2 1/2 hours. Ajanako and Shamsu Awudu added 15 kills for the Lancers.
"I am so tired of losing," said UH senior setter Kimo Tuyay after the Warriors dropped their third in a row. "We need to find a little more consistency. Our fire is there, we're playing hard. We're just not getting it done. We can't seem to get out of the bad rotation. It's very frustrating."
Hawaii will take another swing at its losing streak and its frustration tonight in the 7 o'clock rematch.
"Any win in a place like this ... these guys haven't even seen a gym with this many people," said Cal Baptist coach Ryan McGuyre. "It's a lifetime opportunity for us. I'm glad to see us play well on the road. To weather through the storm, all the jitters in Game 1. And Game 2 could have gone either way.
"We finally started serving tough and blocking No. 13 (Bender). It was a fun thing to be a part of."
The Warriors led in Game 5 at 7-6, only to have the Lancers grab control on three consecutive points. It was tied at 10-10 and then it was over, with Cal Baptist finishing off on a 5-0 run behind the serving of Awudu.
"I blew it," said Bender. "Kimo is setting me good sets. I've got to be smarter. We were real streaky tonight. Game 1 we're hot, then we go cold, cold and hot again. Game 5 got away from us. They were as good as we had expected."
Ninety minutes after the match began, Hawaii revamped nearly its entire lineup. Trailing at 22-16 in Game 3, the Warriors had all three of the players suspended last week on the court, as well as freshman setter Brian Beckwith, who missed the BYU series with a throat infection.
It almost was enough.
Newly inserted Pedro Azenha scored four of five UH points as the Warriors closed to 24-22. Hawaii tied it at 26-26 when Jose Delgado and Delano Thomas blocked Sergio Rose. But the Lancers scored three unanswered points and, after the Warriors staved off two game points, Dyk's 16th kill gave the visitors a 2-1 lead.
For the eighth time this season, Hawaii found itself playing from behind going into Game 4. The Warriors were 1-6 in this situation, with the last four times ending with a loss in Game 4.
Not this time. Hawaii had nine blocks in Game 4, scoring five of its lasts seven points on stuffs to force Game 5.
The most emotional block came when Dyk bounced his kill attempt off the head of Tuyay. It bounced back over for a point and a 26-20 lead.
Ryan Woodward added a career-high 18 kills for Hawaii and Josh Stanhiser had 10.
The Lancers finished with a 17-15 edge in blocks.
Hawaii hit .480 in winning Game 1 and was helped by seven serving errors by Cal Baptist. The Warriors pulled away in the middle of the game, taking the lead for good at 15-14 when Rose hit wide.
A 3-0 serving run by Bender, interrupted by two timeouts in two minutes by McGuyre, gave Hawaii a 27-20 lead. The Warriors closed it out on a Cal Baptist lift, a kill by Stanhiser and a booming kill on a step-out play by Thomas.
The Warriors appeared headed for a 2-0 lead only to have the Lancers rally late. Hawaii led 22-19, but Cal Baptist tied it on a kill by Awudu and two UH hitting errors.
The Warriors got to game point first at 29-27, but the Lancers held off two UH attacks to tie it at 29-29.
It was tied again at 30 and 31 before a serving error by Woodward gave Cal Baptist its third swing at tying the match. Ajanako put down his ninth kill in the back corner to end it.
Note: In other matches last night, Long Beach State defeated Pacific 3-1; Stanford swept UC San Diego 3-0 and BYU rallied past Lewis 3-1.
California Baptist def. Hawaii
23-30, 33-31, 30-28, 22-30, 15-10Lancers (17-2)
Warriors (13-7)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Johnson 5 2 1 5 .200 0 4 7 Kusio 5 9 4 18 .278 0 8 4 Velasco 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Rose 5 6 5 12 .083 1 7 0 Ajanako 5 15 11 37 .108 1 3 8 Awudu 5 15 5 34 .294 0 2 7 Hagstrom 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 6 Dyk 5 19 7 40 .300 0 6 2 Totals 5 66 33 146 .226 2 30 34
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 Tuyay 5 2 0 2 1.000 1 1 7 Delgado 3 4 8 13 -.308 0 2 6 Jeschke 3 1 2 6 -.167 0 0 0 Beckwith 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Reft 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 12 Azenha 4 3 1 6 .333 0 0 1 Bender 5 25 9 50 .320 0 7 7 Woodward 5 18 4 33 .424 0 5 5 Thomas 5 7 6 21 .048 0 7 1 Rasay 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Stanhiser 5 10 3 14 .500 1 5 3 Totals 5 70 33 145 .255 2 27 42
Aces -- CBU (3): Ajanako 1, Awudu 1, Johnson 1. Hawaii (3): Azenha, Jeschke, Thomas. Assists -- CBU (62): Johnson 51, Ajanako 4, Awudu 3, Dyk 2, Hagstrom 1, Kusio 1. Hawaii (69): Tuyay 58, Beckwith 7, Reft 2, Bender 1, Jeschke 1.
T -- NA. Officials --Dan Hironaka, Ernest Ho. A--2,875.
