Pedro Azenha of Hawaii put down a kill last night against Ball State. Azenha finished the night with 14 kills.
Hawaii sends
Ball State packing
Junior Jose Delgado helps
the Warriors put down the
pesky Cardinals in four
There are nights when a team can get what it wants as well as what it needs.
Last night was one of those nights for the No. 3 Hawaii volleyball team.
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Delgado had 10 kills with just one error to complement the 14 kills by Pedro Azenha and 12 from Matt Bender as Hawaii topped Ball State 23-30, 30-27, 30-21, 30-25.
A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 2,801 (4,366 tickets issued) saw the Warriors improve to 13-4 overall, while the Cardinals fell to 10-9 after 2 hours and 9 minutes.
Nick Meyer led Ball State with 15 kills and Evan Berg added 14.
In the tight Game 4, Delgado's tip shot for his last kill put Hawaii ahead for good at 26-25. The Warriors closed out the match with a 4-0 run behind the serving of Mauli'a LaBarre.
"We needed to pass a little bit better at the end," said BSU senior middle Andrew Braley, a Kalaheo product who had six kills and six block assists. "Think we let their serves get into our heads a little bit. Just a couple plays down the stretch didn't go our way.
"Because of our semi-poor performance last night, maybe (Hawaii) relaxed a little coming into tonight. We had nothing to lose, wanted to come out and show we were better than a 'not ranked' team. But it was great. I got to come home for three straight years."
The Cardinals would have traded being late for their red-eye flight if they could have forced it to five. The Warriors didn't give them the chance ... and Delgado made the most of his chance at trying to get back in the starting lineup.
"I had a job to do when I was called in," said Delgado, who came in midway through Game 2. "I have been waiting for the chance and I was ready."
The one outside position has been the bane of Hawaii's offense and the spot will still be up for grabs as the Warriors prepare for next week's matches at Brigham Young.
"Jose did a nice job tonight and, in probability, that's going to be a two- or three-headed position for us," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "But that's OK. We were good when we had to be."
Game 1's lineup experiment -- with Matt Carere and Jake Schkud starting as outside hitters -- fizzled. Zoran Grabovac served for six straight points as the Cardinals took the lead for good at 11-6.
Ball State used another serving run by Berg to take its largest lead at 25-14. Hawaii began to gather some momentum after Bender replaced Schkud, and the Warriors got two blocks to close to 28-21.
Hawaii held off two game points, pulling to 29-23 but couldn't hold off a third. Still, the lift from the late rally carried over to Game 2 and the Warriors got an added boost from Delgado, who replaced Carere midway through the game.
Hawaii didn't take control until scoring three straight points for a 24-21 lead. The Cardinals could get no closer than two the rest of the way.
The Warriors dominated in Game 3, with five blocks and a balanced attack. The Cardinals trailed by as many as 11 and ended up hitting negative .097.
Hawaii outblocked Ball State, 16.5-12. Setter Brian Beckwith was in on seven blocks, including three solo, with LaBarre in on seven and Dio Dante six.
Note: In upsets last night, Pacific surprised BYU in four a night after being swept by the Cougars, and USC swept UC Irvine. The other league match had Pepperdine outlasting UCLA in five. The Bruins have the tiebreaker over the Waves, having swept Pepperdine earlier in the year for the Waves' only loss.
MPSF standings
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pepperdine 14 1 .933 14 1 UCLA 13 3 .813 18 3 Hawaii 9 3 .750 13 4 UCSB 11 5 .687 11 8 BYU 7 5 .583 12 6 Long Beach State 8 6 .571 12 7 Stanford 7 7 .500 8 9 CS Northridge 7 9 .438 10 10 Pacific 6 9 .400 12 11 UC Irvine 4 12 .250 6 17 USC 2 13 .133 5 17 UC San Diego 0 14 .000 1 17 Yesterday
Hawaii def. Ball State, 23-30, 30-27, 30-21, 30-25
Pacific def. BYU, 17-30, 30-24, 30-26, 30-25
USC def. UC Irvine, 30-23, 30-27, 39-37
Pepperdine def. UCLA, 28-30, 36-34, 30-26, 24-30, 15-13
Hawaii def. Ball State
23-30, 30-27, 30-21, 30-25
Cardinals (10-9) g k e att pct. bs ba d Meyer 4 15 12 42 .071 0 2 5 Berg 4 14 5 32 .281 0 3 7 Carlson 4 8 1 10 .700 0 5 4 Castera 3 5 9 17 -.235 0 1 4 Braley 4 6 2 15 .267 0 6 1 Grabovac 4 8 3 17 .294 0 5 4 Rivera 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Durbin 2 3 4 11 -.091 0 2 1 Rumschik 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Peckler 4 0 1 1 -1.000 0 0 14 Totals 4 59 37 145 .152 0 24 41 Warriors (13-4) g k e att pct. bs ba d Carere 2 2 4 11 -.182 0 1 1 Beckwith 4 0 2 2 -1.000 3 4 5 Azenha 4 14 10 40 .100 0 4 10 Schkud 1 1 2 7 -.143 0 0 0 La Barre 4 8 1 13 .538 0 7 1 Dante 4 4 1 12 .250 0 6 0 Delgado 3 10 1 17 .529 0 1' 5 Reft 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Bender 4 12 3 27 .333 0 4 6 Rasay 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Totals 4 51 24 129 .209 3 27 39 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- BSU (1): Grabovac. Hawaii (2): Azenha, La Barre. Assists -- BSU (55): Carlson 47, Peckler 5. Berg 3. Hawaii (49): Beckwith 46, Azenha, Delgado, Reft.
T -- 2:09. Officials -- Dickson Chun, Dan Hironaka. A -- 2,801.
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