MATCH STATS
- #9 Hawai’i def. #11 UC Santa Barbara, 3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 26-24)
- Hawai’i improves to 16-6, 4-3 Big West; UCSB drops to 10-10, 3-4 Big West
- Santa Barbara, California
- Attendance: 500
- Box score
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – For the first time since the 2010 season, #9 Hawai’i won at #11 UCSB with an emphatic straight-set win Friday night (25-16, 25-15, 26-24). It took the Rainbow Warriors under 90 minutes to dispatch the Gauchos by outhitting the hosts, .459-.173. In addition, the win clears up some of the logjam that was second place in the Big West; UH joins UCI in a tie for second, and UCSB is tied with CSUN for fourth in the conference.
UH was led offensively by opposite Rado Parapunov with 11 kills on .474 hitting. He also had 3 blocks, 2 digs and an ace. Dalton Solbrig added 10 kills on an impressive .750 hitting percentage. Setter Joe Worsley distributed 36 assists on the night. Middle blocked Patrick Gasman tied his career-high with 8 blocks. Brett Rosenmeier got in on the efficiency act with 8 kills on 14 errorless swings. He also had a match-high 2 aces. Libero Larry Tuileta finished with a team-high 6 digs.
For UCSB, the offense mainly went through Corey Chavers who finished with a match-high 13 kills on .370 hitting. Setter Randy DeWeese finished with 25 assists, 2 digs, a block and an ace. Roy McFarland dug a match-high 7 balls on the night. Connor Drake blocked a team-high 3 balls.
The two play another match Saturday night. A win by UH would separate them further from the rest of the Big West not named Long Beach State, with whom they have a final weekend series against. UCSB would need a win, some help, and wins in their last two against UC Irvine, whom the Gauchos are currently looking up to in the Big West standings.
PRESS RELEASES
Courtesy of UH Athletics
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The sixth-ranked University of Hawai’i men’s volleyball team won for the first time at UC Santa Barbara since 2010 with a straight-set win over the 11th-ranked Gauchos Friday, in the first of two Big West Conference matches at Rob Gym. Set scores were 25-16, 25-15, 26-24.
The Rainbow Warriors (16-6, 4-3 BWC) needed only 83 minutes to snap a six-match road losing streak to the Gauchos (10-10, 3-4) in Santa Barbara. The teams play again on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. PT (4:00 p.m. HT).
UH recorded 11.5 team blocks, including 5.5 in the first set and hit for a .459 clip. The Warriors were nearly flawless in the first two sets, siding out at 84 percent, despite the Gauchos hitting .381 in Set 2. In comparison, Hawai’i hit .684 in the frame, committing only one errors in 19 attack attempts.
Opposite Rado Parapunov led the way with 11 kills, hitting .474 while middle blocker Dalton Solbrig went for a career-high 10 kills, hitting .750. Middle blocker Patrick Gasman matched his personal best with eight blocks while outside hitter Brett Rosenmeier continued his recent onslaught with eight kills and five blocks. Rosenmeier has not committed a hitting error in his last two matches and 33 combined attempts.
Corey Chavers led the Gauchos with a match-high 13 kills.
An overpass kill by Rosenmeier gave UH a 13-9 lead in Set 1. Moments later, a Gasman-Stijn van Tilburgdouble block put the Warriors up 20-13 and two more blocks propelled the Warriors to set point. Van Tilburg put away his second kill as UH took the early lead in the match.
Early in the second set, consecutive aces by Rosenmeier gave UH a 5-1 lead. The Warriors maintained the advantage and pushed the advantage to seven at 17-10 after a Rosenmeier kill. Hawai’i scored five of the final six points to close out the set.
UCSB scored the first four points of Set 3 before the Warriors inched to within two at 8-6 with three straight points. UH finally caught UCSB and took a 20-19 lead after a kill by Solbrig and solo block by Parapunov that capped a 4-0 run. Van Tilburg finished off the match with an ace on UH’s second match point.
Courtesy of UCSB Athletics
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The eleventh-ranked UC Santa Barbara men’s volleyball team was defeated 3-0 by No. 6 Hawai’i on Friday night at Rob Gym, 25-16, 25-15, 26-24.
With the defeat, UCSB dropped to 10-10 overall on the year with a 3-4 mark in Big West action. Hawai’i, which won its first road match of 2018 in four attempts, improved to 16-6, 4-3. The Rainbow Warriors out-hit UCSB .459 to .173 for the contest, setting a new season-high for an opponents’ hitting percentage this year.
Junior outside hitter Corey Chavers was one of the few Gauchos to have success offensively on Friday, posting a match-high 13 kills with a solid .370 hitting percentage. The rest of UCSB’s lineup combined to hit .063.
UH meanwhile was led by middle blocker Dalton Solbrig‘s 10 kills off 12 swings. His partner in the middle, Patrick Gasman, added five kills on six swings while posting a match-high eight blocks. The Rainbow Warriors had a marked advantage at the net, notching 11.5 blocks as a team compared to UCSB’s five. Four of UH’s five starting hitters finished at .500 hitting or better.
Blocking was the difference in the first set, as Hawai’i picked up 5.5 team blocks in the opener. UH created separation early with a 4-0 featuring back-to-back kills from Gasman to make it 8-5. Later on, Gasman’s third kill of the set made it 19-13 for UH and forced a Gaucho timeout. However, the Rainbow Warriors kept it rolling, closing the set out on a 6-3 run.
Despite UCSB hitting at a solid .381 clip in the middle frame, Hawai’i was even more in sync, hitting .684 including a 5-0-6 line from left-hitting opposite Rado Parapunov, who recorded a team-high 11 kills overall for the night. The Rainbow Warriors opened the frame with a 5-2 run and never looked back, Chavers (4-0-7) and sophomore opposite Spencer Fredrick (3-0-4) both had standout offensive performances for UCSB in the second.
Thanks to a 4-0 run out of the gate behind the serving of sophomore setter Randy DeWeese, UCSB had its best chance to take a game in the third. The Gauchos held close to that early four-point cushion until Hawai’i reeled off four straight points late to take their first lead at 20-19. The two teams would go back and forth, but UCSB last held the lead at 21-20 as UH’s Stijn Van Tilburg was whistled for a back row attack. At 24-24, Van Tilburg knocked down his eighth and final kill of the night to send himself to the service line at match point, where he uncorked a jump serve for a match-ending ace.
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