[ WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL ]
Tuyay sets mark
as UH beats WavesHawaii gets a long-awaited victory
at Pepperdine and draws UCLA in
the MPSF tournament
MALIBU, Calif. » It was, as sets go, routine. Simple, actually.
High and outside, just like Delano Thomas likes it.
With the assist to Thomas giving Hawaii a 26-22 lead in Game 2, senior setter Kimo Tuyay became the Warriors' all-time leader. Tuyay finished with 38 for the night and the No. 6 Warriors finished off No. 4 Pepperdine 30-27, 30-27, 30-26 in 88 minutes.
It was the first win in Firestone Fieldhouse for Hawaii since 1989, and the first one in nine matches under Mike Wilton. More importantly, it gives the Warriors a lift heading into next week's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament.
Hawaii concluded the regular season at 17-11 overall, 13-9 in the MPSF. The Warriors are the sixth seed and will be at No. 3 UCLA next Saturday for a first-round match.
As the fourth seed, the Waves (18-8, 14-8) will host Cal State Northridge, and second-seeded Long Beach State will host UC Santa Barbara. Top-seeded BYU will face either UC Irvine or Stanford. That berth will be decided tonight.
Should UCI defeat Northridge, the Anteaters will go to Provo. A loss by Irvine and win by Stanford over Pacific gives the Cardinal the eighth seed.
"I will cherish this win," said Tuyay, who passed Curt Vaughan on the career assist list. "This is my last match in Firestone and my first win.
"I think tonight we adjusted well on the block and we played hard tonight. We had nothing to lose. When we won Game 1 it was, 'Hey, let's keep having fun.' "
In a reversal of Thursday's match, Hawaii finished with the edge in blocks. The Warriors outblocked the Waves 14-8.5 last night, led by Mauli'a LaBarre's three solo and four block assists.
On Thursday, Pepperdine had a 21-5 advantage.
"This was one of the best matches we've had over here," said Pedro Azenha, who had just six kills but was in on six of Hawaii's 14 blocks. "It is good to win for the first time here.
"(Thursday), they made adjustments to our game and we didn't make adjustments to theirs. Tonight, we did really good adjustments and the serving made the block easy."
Hawaii also blasted nine aces with just eight errors. Thomas had three aces to go along with his team-high 14 kills.
Warrior coach Mike Wilton was pleased with the turnaround from Thursday. In the 3-1 loss, Hawaii had four aces and 21 errors.
"We did serve better tonight," Wilton said. "We just had some real good resolve. The guys came out in Game 3 with no letdown at all."
The Game 3 folding act had haunted Hawaii in the past four weeks. The Warriors led 2-0 against Brigham Young, Long Beach State and UC Irvine only to lose in five.
There was a hint of that in Game 3 with Hawaii cruising by as many as eight (27-19). Pepperdine went on a 7-1 run to pull to 28-26, and "of course it came into our heads," Azenha said. "Not again. But I knew we'd get over it if we would just play good."
Azenha's final kill set gave Hawaii match point. It was over moments later when Kamehameha Schools graduate James Ka hit long.
It was only the fifth time the Warriors had won in Firestone in 21 matches against the Waves. It was also Pepperdine's third home loss this season in 12 matches, and only the second time the Waves had been swept.
"I think we passed better (Thursday) so we were in system better," said Pepperdine setter John Mayer. "Hawaii also made adjustments. They figured out some of the things we were going to do.
"It hurt that we lost John Parfitt early. It hurt our offense. But Hawaii played well. It was disappointing at the end (of Game 3). We made a comeback but it was a little too late."
Parfitt, a 6-foot-7 freshman middle blocker, went down with an injured right ankle on the seventh serve of the night as UH took a 4-3 lead. His replacement, 6-8 freshman Tom Hulse, had three kills on five attempts.
"I don't think losing Parfitt was the difference," said Pepperdine coach Marv Dunphy. "Hawaii played well and they blocked well. They're a good team.
"Tuyay set a real nice offense and they got us."
Tuyay now has 4,570 assists. Vaughan (1994-97) is No. 2 at 4,557.
"It's pretty cool," Tuyay said of the record. "And now we head to Pauley. I like playing there and the last time we played there, we got a win."
The Warriors have defeated the Bruins three of the last four matches in Pauley Pavilion.
Hawaii returned home today and holds its year-end banquet tomorrow. The Warriors return to California on Thursday.
Thomas led the Warriors with 14 kills, while Josh Stanhiser had 11 kills and was in on five blocks. Sean Rooney had a match-high 15 kills to lead the Waves. Winters had 12 kills but 11 errors, and Ka added a career-high 12 kills.
Hawaii def. Pepperdine
30-27, 30-27, 30-26Warriors (17-11, 13-9 mpsf)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Tuyay 3 0 1 3 -.333 0 1 5 Muise 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Delgado 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Reft 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 5 Azenha 3 6 3 17 .176 2 4 5 Bender 3 9 8 26 .038 0 2 8 LaBarre 3 7 3 11 .364 3 4 2 Thomas 3 14 3 28 .393 0 1 4 Stanhiser 3 11 3 19 .421 1 4 0 Totals 3 47 21 104 .250 6 16 30 WAVES (18-8, 14-8 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Hein 3 2 0 8 .250 0 2 0 Gledhill 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Winters 3 12 11 34 .029 0 1 3 Ka 3 12 2 19 .526 0 1 4 Sutherland 3 0 1 1 -1.000 0 0 5 Mayer 3 2 1 5 .200 0 1 7 Rooney 3 15 3 30 .400 1 3 5 Hulse 3 3 0 5 .600 2 2 3 Parfitt 1 1 0 1 1.000 0 1 0 Totals 3 47 18 103 .282 3 11 28 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- Hawaii (9): Thomas 3, Azenha 2, Bender 2, LaBarre, Stanhiser. PU (2): Winters 2. Assists -- Hawaii (42): Tuyay 38, Reft 2, Bender, LaBarre. PU (44): Mayer 39, Winters 2, Ka 2, Rooney.
T -- 1:28. Officials -- Marvin Hall, Ken Taylor. A -- 1,036.
MPSF standings
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L xy-BYU 19 2 .905 23 4 x-Long Beach State 17 4 .810 24 5 x-UCLA 16 5 .762 22 4 x-Pepperdine 14 8 .636 18 8 x-CSU Northridge 13 8 .619 19 8 x-Hawaii 13 9 .591 17 10 x-UC Santa Barbara 9 12 .428 14 14 UC Irvine 7 14 .333 14 17 Stanford 6 15 .288 9 17 Pacific 5 16 .288 9 17 USC 4 17 .190 6 22 UC San Diego 4 17 .190 8 20
x-clinched MPSF Tournament berth
y-clinched MPSF regular-season titleLast night's results
Hawaii 3, Pepperdine 0
Tonight's matches
CSU Northridge at UC Irvine
Pacific at Stanford
USC at BYU
UC San Diego at Long Beach State
End regular season