Azenha buries Anteaters
Pedro Azenha did what a senior should. He led ... in a big way at critical times.
Hawaii at UC IrvineWhen: Today, 5 p.m. Hawaii timeTV: None Radio: Live, KKEA 1420-AM
|
Coupled with previously undefeated UCLA's loss at BYU last night, the Warriors take the MPSF's only unbeaten record into tonight's rematch with the Anteaters (3-6, 1-3). The contest has been moved to the 800-seat Crawford Court due to a conflict with UCI men's basketball.
Two years ago, Hawaii split its matches at UCI, winning in the larger Bren Center then losing in Crawford.
"It's a cracker box of a gym," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said of Crawford. "And two years ago, our team did not show up that night. That was our defending national championship team and we have a couple of guys still here from that who hopefully will remind the rest of our team that it is a challenging place to play."
The challenge again for the Warriors will be to cut down on service errors. Last night, they had 17, including six in dropping Game 1.
"Serving and passing were the keys and we didn't do as good of a job as we needed to, especially in the beginning," Wilton said. "Fortunately, we played good enough to win. Halfway through the match we kept the tough serves in and they (the Anteaters) hurt themselves with their serving (23 errors)."
Azenha set the tone for Game 3, the critical swing game. He had two aces during a 5-0 serving run that put the Warriors ahead for good at 6-2.
It was again during Azenha's serving rotations that Hawaii pulled away in Game 4. He was on the back line for three points as the Warriors took the lead at 20-16 and, at 26-25, his fifth ace jump-started a 3-0 run that gave the team match point at 29-25.
"Pedro kept us in the match when we were struggling," Wilton said. Having an off-night was junior hitter Jose Delgado, one of the team's primary passers. Newcomer Lauri Hakala replaced Delgado in Game 2 and solidified the passing game while also putting down 10 kills.
The Warriors' middle game remained strong, with junior Maulia La Barre putting down 13 kills and hitting .556. Freshman Kyle Klinger, getting his first career start in place of an injured Dio Dante, had eight kills and hit .500.
Dante strained his back in practice Thursday and was doubtful for tonight's match.
UCI, which started three freshmen and four sophomores, were led by sophomore Jayson Jablonsky's 17 kills. Freshman Jon Steller added 11 and sophomore David Smith 10. Sophomore setter Brian Thornton had four of the team's five aces.
Wilton said the only videotape he had on the Anteaters was when they were "served off the court by UCLA" last week.
"The tape we watched wasn't the team we saw tonight," Wilton said. "We'll make sure we do a good job of watching the video from this game. We'll have better information (for tonight)."
Hawaii def. UC Irvine
23-30, 30-25, 30-25, 30-26
Hawaii Warriors (5-1, 3-0 MPSF) g k e att pct. bs ba d Klinger 4 8 2 12 .500 0 2 0 Delgado 2 1 2 6 -.167 0 0 3 Beckwith 4 0 1 4 -.250 0 3 9 Azenha 4 21 4 35 .486 2 1 6 Bender 4 9 4 26 .192 0 0 3 La Barre 4 13 3 18 .556 1 3 1 Bakala 4 10 5 23 .217 0 1 6 Reft 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Rasay 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 4 62 21 124 .331 3 10 38 Anteaters (3-6, 1-3 MPSF) g k e att pct. bs ba d Steller 4 11 5 33 .182 0 2 3 Thornton 4 1 3 4 -.500 1 0 3 Spittle 4 7 4 17 .176 0 1 6 Jablonsky 4 17 4 30 .433 1 2 7 Smith 4 10 2 21 .381 1 3 1 Harrell 4 7 1 10 .600 0 2 0 Webber 1 4 1 6 .500 0 0 0 Mel 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 13 Rangel 2 2 2 7 .000 0 2 1 Totals 4 59 22 128 .289 3 12 34 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- Hawaii (6): Azenha 5, Klinger. UCI (5): Thornton 4, Jablonsky. Assists -- Hawaii (53): Beckwith 50, Azenha, Bender, Reft. UCI (58): Thornton 56, Spittle, Mel.
T -- 1:50. Officials -- Larry Schwartz, Joe Sloate. A -- 928.
[News] [Business] [Features] [Sports] [Editorial] [Do It Electric!]
[Classified Ads] [Search] [Subscribe] [Info] [Letter to Editor]
[Feedback]
