Warriors hitting on all cylinders

Hawaii is suddenly on a hot streak after beating the Flyers

It was very methodical, very workmanlike.

Last night, the 12th-ranked Hawaii volleyball team took care of business in a very efficient 100 minutes.

Hawaii    Lewis 3 0 Next Up at UC San Diego on Thursday

It wasn't spectacular, but the Warriors didn't need it to be. They left the Stan Sheriff Center with a 30-26, 30-22, 30-28 nonconference victory over Lewis.

Tuesday, they'll take their four-match winning streak to the mainland, looking to move up into playoff-berth contention when taking on last place UC San Diego on Thursday and Friday.

Hawaii (7-13) also hopes to take along the resilience and steady-when-needed play of the past two weeks. Last night in front of 1,798 (3,213 tickets), it was an overall team effort (season-high .370 hitting percentage), led by freshman Matt Vanzant's match-high 14 kills.

"No, there wasn't a lot of emotion out there," Warrior senior setter Brian Beckwith said. "It was tough to get up for this nonleague match. Our focus now is to keep on winning and try to make the playoffs.

"We need to go on the road with this confidence, with a little swagger, and act like winners instead of trying to be ones."

Except for needing four swings at ending the match, Hawaii was very good at keeping Lewis from going on scoring runs. The Flyers (14-9) also played better than they had in getting served off the court Friday, finishing with 37 digs -- 17 in Game 3 when facing a young Hawaii lineup that had three freshmen and two sophomores.

"We dug a ton of balls, and we usually don't dig that well," Lewis coach Dan Friend said. "I thought we played better tonight, did some nice things in transition.

"Hawaii is playing well and Beckwith is doing a good job at leading them. We're just trying to get better and they're on an upswing. We caught them on a hot streak."

The hottest Warrior was sophomore Jim Clar, who replaced senior Lauri Hakala at opposite in Game 3. Clar put down nine kills with no errors in 13 swings (.692). Hakala had eight kills and two aces in two games.

The Warriors again put up a big block, finishing with 9.5. Senior middle Dio Dante was in on six to go along with six kills, hitting .750.

Leading the Flyers was sophomore Drew Pickering (10 kills). Sophomore libero Nick Perakes had 12 digs.

"We were very business-like tonight," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "I liked how we played hard despite a fairly easy win last night.

"Now, it's back to conference play and we need to win a bunch of matches."

After the UCSD matches, Hawaii will come home for a few days before heading back on the road to Long Beach State for April 6-7 matches. The Warriors close the regular season at home with Stanford on April 13-14.