Hawaii shuffled its lineup throughout the weekend and still got the same result.
The Rainbow Warriors beat Grand View 25-16, 25-13, 19-25, 25-23 in a nonconference men’s volleyball match Sunday at the Stan Sheriff Center. Even with the personnel changes, fifth-ranked Hawaii (8-2) beat the Vikings (3-2) for the second time in three days. Freshman opposite Rado Parapunov led Hawaii with 11 kills, and sophomore hitters Tui Tuileta and Stijn van Tilburg added 10 each.
“We really didn’t know too much about them, so we just wanted to focus on our side of the net as opposed to what they have to offer on that side of net,” said Tuileta, Hawaii’s starting libero who got the starting nod at outside hitter on Sunday. “It’s finding a rhythm on our side and once we get things settled on our side, and see what’s on the other side of the net, just go on from there.”
John Chamone and Pedro Cardoso led Grand View, the top-ranked team in the NAIA, with 12 kills each and Savili Bartley, a Kamehameha alum, had five blocks. Hendrik Mol had five kills and hit 1.000 for Hawaii while adding four blocks and a career high four aces. A crowd of 1,704 saw Hawaii beat its 19th straight nonconference opponent at home.
“We were able to make some adjustments and anticipate,” said Grand View coach Donan Cruz, a Baldwin graduate. “They moved their lineup around a lot. In the first match, it was really hard to figure out what they’re going to do from game to game. I think just being able to see the same opponent 48 hours later helped us out a lot.”
New faces dotted Hawaii’s starting lineup. Brett Rosenmeier and Tuileta got their first starts of the season at outside hitter. Parapunov started at opposite, Mamane Namahoe got the start at libero and Dalton Solbrig started at middle. Setter Joe Worsley started his second match of the season.
Hawaii hit .765 in Set 1, with just two hitting errors in 17 swings, and was hitting .655 after Set 2 even though it tinkered the lineup. With another lineup in Set 3, Hawaii committed nine hitting errors and hit .088. Felipe Rosa had back-to-back aces during a 6-0 run to put Grand View ahead 16-12.
“We made changes in every set we played,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “Seven sets over the weekend. We had played really efficiently through the first two, made three hitting errors total, and played well on Friday.
“The third set it did get away from us a little bit. We made nine hitting errors in that set. Sometimes you give guys a chance to see what they can do and some guys prove why they’re not starters, but overall it was a pretty good effort.”
Cardoso’s serving helped Grand View trim a 15-7 deficit to 15-13 in Set 4. Hawaii led 21-18 after a kill from Mol. Grand View tied it at 21 on Zakir Pasha’s solo block, and rallied again to tie it at 22 and 23 before van Tilburg buried two kills to finish the match.
“We know we’ve got a lot of depth and you just get to see guys in meaningful situations, give them a chance to contribute,” Wade said. “I thought we had a really good week of practice. You just learn what they’re going to do when the lights come on and when it really counts.”
