The “Viking Chant” never felt so good. The cheer that gained international fame when Iceland upset England in Euro Cup soccer made its way to the Stan Sheriff Center last fall during the Hawaii women’s volleyball matches.
Led by the Rainbow Warriors in the stands, it added to the traditional standing ovation on aloha ball.
But Saturday night, the Warriors were the ones celebrating with the big, sweeping overhead hand clapping after turning back a huge challenge from No. 15 Ball State to win the 23rd Outrigger Resorts Volleyball Invitational.
Led by tournament Most Outstanding Player Stijn van Tilburg, No. 7 Hawaii remained undefeated with a 22-25, 25-17, 25-23, 25-21 victory over the Cardinals. Van Tilburg put down 18 kills and added a crucial ace late in Set 4 as the Warriors won consecutive tournament championships for just the second time in the history of the event.
It also was the first time that a player repeated as MOP, something that van Tilburg said he didn’t deserve.
“It was a great team effort,” the sophomore opposite said. “I didn’t play that well, made some unforced errors. The personal awards don’t mean that much, but it was awesome to get the win. It was huge.
“And the (Viking) cheer was awesome. We started it during the women’s season and it was awesome to have it tonight for us. I got goosebumps.”
So did most of the crowd of 2,343 who witnessed Hawaii go to its youth and depth, particularly freshman hitter Austin Matautia, who finished with a career-high 13 kills in joining van Tilburg on the all-tournament team. Also coming up big for the Warriors were freshman middle Patrick Gasman, another all-tourney selection, who added a career-high 11 kills, and sophomore hitter Brett Rosenmeier, coming in for a struggling senior hitter Kupono Fey after Set 1.
“Rosenmeier came in and passed really well, helped steady us out,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “It’s not depth unless you use it.
“And Austin … could have easily been the MVP tonight, he’s going to have a great career for us.
“What I really liked was after it was over, Stijn leaned in and said, ‘Coach, I didn’t deserve this.’ He’s such a team player. He recognized he played good, not great.”
But Hawaii played great when it counted for much of the 2 hours and 21 minutes. It was rewarding, Matautia said, to beat a team from the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, considering that several of the other Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams did not … most notably No. 2 UCLA, which fell at No. 1 Ohio State on Saturday.
“It was really big for us,” Matautia said. “I wasn’t expecting this (award). I’m just happy that we won.”
Also named to the all-tournament team were Warriors senior setter Jennings Franciskovic, Ball State’s Matt Szews and Nick Lavanchy; and Princeton’s Parker Dixon.
Szews put down 13 kills to lead the Cardinals (2-1).
Dixon had 12 kills in Saturday’s first match as the Tigers (1-2) earned third place with a 25-20, 25-15, 26-24 sweep of Erskine (0-3).
The Cardinals had 10 service errors in helping give the Warriors an 18-16 lead. Three straight kills by van Tilburg extended it to 22-20, but Hawaii’s fifth service error gave Ball State the serve back; the Cardinals kept it, using three blocks and a kill by Brendan Surane to close it out and hand the Warriors their first set loss of the year.
Hawaii rebounded, taking control at 14-8 in Set 2 behind the 5-0 serving run by Hendrik Mol that was capped by van Tilburg and Gasman stuffing Mitch Weiler. Ball State answered, closing to 19-15 but never got closer. A solo one-handed block by Franciskovic on Anthony Lebryk helped push Hawaii to the set win, evening the match.
Set 3 was a battle with seven ties, the last at 22. Matautia took over from there with three kills giving the Warriors the critical set.
Hawaii jumped out to leads of 6-1, 12-8 and 15-12 in Set 4, only to have Ball State tie it at 16. After a timeout, van Tilburg put down a kill and added an ace to gain separation. The Dutch national then teamed with Gasman to block Surane to start the Viking Chant at 24-20. One play later, Gasman connected to finish it off.
Hawaii outdug Ball State 62-36, with sophomore libero Mamane Namahoe finishing with 14. Namahoe replaced sophomore Larry Tuileta, who missed the match to attend his sister’s wedding.
Hawaii next hosts future MPSF member Grand Canyon in 7 p.m. matches Wednesday and Friday.
Princeton 3, Erskine 0
Dixon put down 12 kills and Junior Oboh added 11 without an error to lead the Tigers (1-2) over the Flying Fleet (0-3). Isaac Lanier had nine kills for Erskine, which lost setter Andres Talavera to injury early in Set 1.
