Dio Dante of Hawaii went for a kill last night against Ball State. He finished with five kills.
Warriors serve up
victory over Ball State
Azenha posts five of UH’s eight
aces in its sweep of the Cardinals
The serve, as Pedro Azenha will tell you, is the most important thing in volleyball.
With a single swing of the arm, it can change momentum. It can disrupt the opponent's serve-receive plan and play all sorts of mind games with a defender.
NEXT UP
|
Such was the case last night for Azenha and No. 3 Hawaii. The Warriors zinged in eight aces, including five by Azenha, to sweep unranked Ball State 30-23, 30-25, 30-22 at the Stan Sheriff Center.
A crowd of 2,586 (3,982 tickets issued) saw Hawaii (12-4) end a two-match skid by topping the Cardinals (10-8) in 91 minutes. The teams meet again in nonconference play at 7 tonight.
Junior hitter Matt Bender led Hawaii with 13 kills. Azenha had 12. Junior hitter Matt Carere, in his first career start, added 11.
Sophomore hitter Nick Meyer had a match-high 15 kills for Ball State, which saw its four-match win streak snapped.
"I thought Pedro did a nice job with his serve in Game 1," Cardinals coach Joel Walton said. "We had a little bit of a fight in us at that time and he kind of took it out of us.
"We can tell our guys that Pedro Azenha hits a really hard jump serve but, until you see it, you don't pick up what it can do on a tape."
Azenha did most of his damage in Game 1 with four aces. Two came in a row as Hawaii scored five unanswered points to take the lead for good at 17-13.
"Volleyball is serve and pass," said Azenha, who now has 30 aces for the year. "We did a better job at it than they did and it makes the game easier.
"Everyone was relaxed tonight. It was good to win again."
For Carere, it was good to be back in the front row. He had been used sparingly in three matches after re-injuring his back during last December's exhibitions with Alberta.
"I was a little bit tentative in the beginning since I haven't played since Alberta," Carere said. "But once I got going, got a few kills and a few passes under my belt, I was back in the flow."
So was Hawaii's offense for the most part. The Warriors didn't have the late slumps that happened against Pepperdine last week.
Last night, they took leads and never let go.
"Because of Pepperdine, we're more focused," Carere said.
"I was pleased with our effort tonight," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "I was concerned with which way we were going to jump after last weekend, after that mental anguish of all that.
"Carere had a nice match. I won't say we're out of the woods just yet. The competition will continue at that spot."
Carere is in a battle for the second left-side hitter position with junior Jose Delgado, sophomore Lauri Hakala and freshman Jake Schkud.
With freshman middle Kyle Klinger resting a sore foot, sophomore Dio Dante was back in the middle. He was in on eight of Hawaii's 12 blocks.
Struggling a bit offensively was junior middle Mauli'a LaBarre, who came into the week ranked 13th nationally in hitting percentage (.447). He had just three kills with three errors to hit .000 last night.
"Mau is slumping a bit," Wilton said. "He's a little under the weather and I'm hoping that's all there is to it."
The problem with the middle attack may be more serious for Ball State. The Cardinals got a combined eight kills from middles Zoran Grabovac and Kalaheo graduate Andrew Braley.
"In previous years, our middles have been our strength," Walton said. "We don't have the connection between Dave (setter Carlson) and Zoran and Braley.
"Hawaii didn't do anything we didn't expect. Our team has struggled offensively all year long and that continued tonight. When you're playing a team of Hawaii's caliber, you'd better be putting some good attacks their way. We didn't do that on a consistent basis."
Hawaii hit .344 as a team to Ball State's .151.
Note: Klinger sat out last night's match as a precautionary measure with continued pain in his left foot. Klinger had a stress fracture in the same foot that kept him sidelined for most of the fall, but X-rays earlier in the week indicated there was no fracture.
Hawaii def. Ball State
30-23, 30-25, 30-22
Cardinals (10-8) g k e att pct. bs ba d Meyer 3 15 8 31 .226 0 2 3 Berg 3 6 5 18 .056 0 2 6 Carlson 3 2 0 3 .667 1 1 0 Rumschik 1 0 1 2 -.500 0 0 1 Braley 3 2 2 8 .000 0 3 1 Grabovac 3 6 3 11 .273 0 2 0 Rivera 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Peckler 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Bushong 1 0 0 0 .000 0 1 0 Castera 3 5 4 13 .077 0 2 2 Totals 3 36 23 86 .151 1 13 23 Warriors (12-4) g k e att pct. bs ba d Carere 3 11 3 21 .381 0 2 5 Beckwith 3 2 0 2 1.000 0 2 3 Azenha 3 12 5 27 .259 0 5 5 Bender 3 13 3 25 .400 0 4 1 La Barre 3 3 3 8 .000 0 3 0 Dante 3 5 1 7 .571 0 8 1 Reft 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 8 Rasay 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 3 46 15 90 .344 0 24 23 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- BSU (2): Carlson, Grabovac. Hawaii (8): Azenha 5, Carere, Beckwith, Rasay. Assists -- BSU (34): Carlson 31, Meyer, Braley, Peckler. Hawaii (44): Beckwith 42, Azenha 2.
T -- 1:31. Officials -- Wayne Lee, Ernie Ho. A -- 2,586.
MPSF standings
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pepperdine 13 1 .929 13 1 UCLA 13 2 .867 18 2 Hawaii 9 3 .750 12 4 UCSB 11 5 .687 11 8 BYU 7 4 .636 12 6 Long Beach State 8 6 .571 12 7 Stanford 7 8 .466 8 10 CS Northridge 7 9 .438 10 10 Pacific 5 9 .367 11 11 UC Irvine 4 11 .267 6 16 USC 1 13 .072 4 17 UC San Diego 0 14 .000 1 17 Tuesday
UCLA def. Penn State, 30-22, 30-27, 30-28
Wednesday
CS Northridge def. UC Santa Barbara, 30-19, 30-25, 30-26
UC San Diego def. Cal Baptist, 30-26, 27-30, 32-30, 25-30, 17-15
Thursday
Pepperdine def. UC Irvine, 30-28, 30-27, 30-25
UCLA def. USC, 29-31, 30-25, 30-28, 30-27
Yesterday
Hawaii def. Ball State, 30-23, 30-25, 30-22
Long Beach State def. UC San Diego, 27-30, 28-30, 30-26, 30-20, 15-9
BYU def. Pacific, 30-25, 30-28, 30-24
CS Northridge def. Quincy, 30-17, 30-27, 30-26
Today
Ball State at Hawaii, 7 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center
BYU at Pacific
UC Irvine at USC
UCLA at Pepperdine
[News] [Business] [Features] [Sports] [Editorial] [Do It Electric!]
[Classified Ads] [Search] [Subscribe] [Info] [Letter to Editor]
[Feedback]
