FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Mauli'a La Barre, 16, and Matt Bender celebrated a point during last night's victory over Southern California.

Warriors freeze out USC

UH’s Lauri Hakala of Finland
overwhelms the Trojans

On Thursday, there was fire from Brazil via Pedro Azenha.

Last night, there was ice from Finland via Lauri Hakala.

Or, as Hakala likes to say, "Voima."

"It means 'power,' " said Hakala, the first-year outside hitter for the Hawaii volleyball team. "It's power in that you hit hard, but it's also a mental power. It's hitting hard and hitting smart."

Hakala did both last night. In his first collegiate start, he had 10 kills with just two errors and was in on five of his team's 14 blocks as the No. 3 Warriors swept Southern California 30-22, 30-26, 30-26 in 96 minutes.

A Stan Sheriff Center turnstile crowd of 3,110 (4,332 tickets) saw Hawaii improve to 10-1 overall, 8-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Trojans slid to 3-12 and 1-8.

Junior hitter Matt Bender led Hawaii with 15 kills, seven coming in Game 3, and junior middle Mauli'a LaBarre added 10 kills with just one error. LaBarre was also in on eight blocks.

USC, falling to UH for the 10th consecutive time, only had freshman middle Andrew Vernon with double-figure kills. The 6-foot-8 Vernon put down 11 kills with no errors in 18 swings, hitting .611.

On Thursday, the Trojans had a combined 40 kills from Juan Figueroa (22) and Joao Grangeiro (18) in a five-game loss. Last night, the two had a combined 11, with Grangeiro -- No. 2 in kills for USC -- hitting negative .083 and playing sparingly.

"Grangeiro got blocked a few times early and didn't pass well in the beginning," said USC coach Turhan Douglas, who subbed out the Brazilian for Fernando Barron. "The thing was, Hawaii played big tonight and we didn't. They flat-out played better than we did and, if you don't come out to play, you're going to lose.

"Our game plan was to have less hitting errors and less serving errors (than Thursday) and I'm not sure if we accomplished that. The difference was Hawaii came out and served real tough. We couldn't handle it at the beginning and they had the momentum the entire match."

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's Matt Bender blocked a shot against Southern California during last night's match at the Stan Sheriff Center. Bender finished the match with 15 kills and seven digs as the Warriors swept the Trojans.

The Warriors had very few Attention Deficit Disorder moments last night. The few times USC made a run, Hawaii had an answer.

It came in the form of a spread-out offense, a balanced attack that kept the Trojan blockers guessing. Hawaii again dominated at the net with a 14-2 edge in blocks.

"What we talked about after the game (Thursday) was to not let them get on rolls of points," Hakala said. "They had some yesterday, but we didn't let them have them tonight.

"They played pretty much the same game (as Thursday) but we played better. We passed well, we served better, and we didn't have as many individual errors."

The Trojans threatened toward the ends of Game 2 -- closing to 27-25 -- and Game 3 -- pulling to within 26-25. Both times the Warriors focused and closed it out.

Hawaii served aggressively, finishing with six aces to USC's two.

"We served better and our passing improved from the first night," UH setter Brian Beckwith said. "It was a good game for us to get back into our offensive and defensive rhythm, get the rust off after having last week off.

"SC was doing a good job at read-blocking and it made my job tougher. Lauri brings a lot of intensity and, every now and then, we need a spark plug like that."

Hawaii wants to use the outing as a springboard for next week's road trip. The Warriors take on top-ranked UCLA on Friday and Saturday. The Bruins share second place in the MPSF with Pepperdine at 9-1.

"This was good for us to get these two matches in and get back into playing mode," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "I liked our balance tonight. And Lauri gave us another presence at left-front attack.

"We came to play tonight. It was a little sticky at some points, but we had the wherewithal to withstand the little storms."

USC's read-blocking allowed the Trojans to slow down Azenha, who was held to eight kills and hit .153. But the senior helped out with two aces and was in on five blocks.

Douglas said he wanted to go to his middles more. Besides Vernon, the only other Trojan with much success was junior middle Danny Newman, who had six kills in eight attempts with no errors in playing half the match.

Hawaii def. USC

30-22, 30-26, 30-26

Trojans (3-12, 1-8 MPSF)
	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Gilmour	3	2	2	6	.000	0	2	4
Tippett	3	7	4	18	.167	0	0	6
Vernon	3	11	0	18	.611	0	1	3
Figueroa	3	9	4	19	.263	0	0	7
Grangeiro	3	2	3	12	-.083	0	0	4
McKniff	2	1	2	3	-.333	0	1	0
Barron	2	0	2	3	-.667	0	0	0
Burden	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	2
Mosko	1	4	2	9	.222	0	0	0
Newman	2	6	0	8	.750	0	0	2
Totals	3	42	19	96	.240	0	4	28
Warriors (10-1, 8-0 MPSF)
	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Hakala	3	10	2	19	.421	1	4	3
Beckwith	3	2	0	2	1.000	1	2	6
Azenha	3	8	5	21	.143	1	4	5
Bender	3	15	6	31	.290	1	1	7
La Barre	3	10	1	15	.600	0	8	0
Dante	3	4	0	12	.333	0	1	0
Reft	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	5
Rasay	2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	2
Totals	3	49	14	100	.350	4	20	28

Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- USC (2): Vernon, Figueroa. Hawaii (6): Beckwith 2, Dante 2, Azenha, Bender. Assists -- USC (40): Gilmour 38, Burden, Newman. Hawaii (45): Beckwith 44, Azenha.
T -- 1:36. Officials -- Dickson Chun, Dan Hironaka. A -- 3,110.

MPSF standings

	Conference			Overall
	W	L	Pct.	W	L
Hawaii	8	0	1.000	10	1
UCLA	9	1	.900	13	1
Pepperdine	9	1	.900	9	1
Long Beach State	7	4	.636	9	5
UCSB	7	4	.636	7	7
UC Irvine	4	6	.400	6	9
Pacific	3	5	.375	9	7
CS Northridge	4	7	.364	7	8
BYU	2	4	.333	7	6
Stanford	3	7	.300	4	9
USC	1	8	.111	3	12
UC San Diego	0	10	.000	0	11

Thursday
Hawaii def. USC 28-30, 31-29, 30-19, 32-34, 15-11
UCLA def. Stanford 30-21, 30-20, 31-33, 30-26
Yesterday
Hawaii def. USC 30-22, 30-26, 30-26
CSU Northridge def. UC San Diego 30-21,30-26, 30-20
UC Irvine def. Pacific 30-26, 30-22, 28-30, 30-19
UC Santa Barbara def. Long Beach State 22-30, 30-22, 34-32, 30-20
Today
Pacific at UCLA
Stanford at UC Irvine
UC Santa Barbara at UC San Diego