HAWAII 3, CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE 0

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Mauli'a La Barre and Matt Bender of Hawaii went up to block a Cal State Northridge shot last night.

Warriors bully
Matadors

Cal State Northridge forgets
to pack its serve on road trip

Ole!

Embarrassed by losing twice last season at the Matadome, the Hawaii men's volleyball team vowed there would be no repeat this year when Cal State Northridge came to Honolulu. Thanks to 13 kills each from Matt Bender and Pedro Azenha, the Warriors made good on the promise to themselves.

Last night, No. 4 Hawaii opened Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play with a 30-23, 31-29, 30-19 win over No. 6 Northridge in 96 minutes. A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 2,251 (3,721 tickets) saw the Warriors improve to 3-1 overall; the Matadors fell to 3-3, 1-2 in the MPSF.

"A lot of it is confidence," said Bender, who was in on three of the team's 10.5 blocks. "We've got some big guns out there. And we were firing on all cylinders.

"Northridge is an extremely good jump-serving team and they had trouble (serving) tonight. Not sure what that was about, but we were playing well."

Coming into the match, Hawaii had been concerned about Northridge's tough jump serves. Serving was a problem last night ... for the Matadors, who committed 21 service errors, including eight in Game 1.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Dio Dante of Hawaii hit a ball over Cal State Northridge's Matt Bellante last night in the Warriors' straight-game win.

"It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out what we gave away," Matador coach Jeff Campbell said. "Not to take anything away from Hawaii. They served well and we didn't. I'd like us to affect them (tomorrow) with our serves like they affected us tonight."

"We need to do what we do in practice," added Isaac Kneubuhl, a freshman outside hitter out of Kamehameha who had eight kills for Northridge. "We can't make excuses. The fact is we didn't do what we do in practice. That's what we talked about in the locker room."

As so often happens, the match hinged on Game 2. It was tied 27 times, with neither team taking more than a two-point lead, and that cushion didn't happen until a Bender kill put the Warriors up 19-17.

The Matadors had the first shot at winning the game at 29-28 only to see their 16th service error tie it at 29-29. Dio Dante and Bender teamed to block Dan Rhodes for match point and Nils Nielsen hit long to give Hawaii a 2-0 lead and the momentum.

"If we win that one, then it's a new game," Campbell said. "It changes everything, especially the momentum."

Instead, the Matadors came out flat, falling behind by as many as 12 (21-9 and 22-10). Northridge got no closer than 25-17 and never got out of negative hitting percentage, hitting negative-143 for Game 3.

Rhodes and Brian Waite led the Matadors with 10 kills each. Waite, the team's leader in aces, had eight errors in 10 attempts.

Northridge's best offensive weapon, Cary Hanson (elbow strain), played sparingly in Game 3 but only had one kill in five swings with two errors. Campbell said Hanson won't play when the teams meet again tomorrow night at 7.

"The difference between tonight and last year is we're having more fun on the court," said Azenha, who had two of UH's three aces. "We're more experienced and we're more used to playing together.

"We need to kept it up, continue to be aggressive on the serve. It is the most important skill in volleyball."

He will get no argument from the Matadors.

Hawaii def. CS Northridge

CSUN (3-3, 1-2 MPSF)

	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Kneubuhl	3	8	4	23	.174	0	2	6
Nielsen	3	3	3	15	.000	0	3	3
Waite	3	10	5	21	.238	0	6	2
Conover	3	0	0	1	.000	0	1	4
Rhodes	3	10	6	21	.190	0	2	3
Bellante	3	7	0	11	.636	0	1	0
Lischer	1	1	0	3	.333	0	1	1
Hanson	1	1	2	5	-.200	1	0	0
Pedraza	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	4
Bluemling	1	0	0	0	.000	0	1	1
Lovoe	2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Totals	3	40	20	100	.200	1	17	24

HAWAII (3-1, 1-0 MPSF)

	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Delgado	3	9	7	23	.087	0	1	7
Beckwith	3	1	1	2	.000	0	3	6
Azenha	3	13	7	28	.214	0	3	4
Bender	3	13	4	23	.391	1	2	3
La Barre	3	6	1	9	.556	1	4	0
Dante	3	3	0	5	.600	0	4	1
Klinger	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Reft	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	11
Rasay	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Totals	3	45	20	90	.278	2	17	32

Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.

Aces -- Cal State Northridge (3): Lischer, Nielsen, Rhodes. Hawaii (3): Azenha 2, Bender. Assists -- Cal State Northridge (39): Conover 33, Bluemling 5, Pedraza. Hawaii (41): Beckwith 39, Delgado, Reft.

T -- 1:36. Officials -- Wayne Lee, Dickson Chun. A -- 2,251.

MPSF standings

Yesterday
Hawaii def. CS Northridge 30-23, 31-29, 30-19
Long Beach State def. Stanford, 30-27, 30-23, 34-32
UCLA def. Pepperdine, 30-18, 30-21, 30-27
UC Irvine def. USC, 30-27, 27-30, 30-25, 30-24