While having previously said that Hawaii’s presence in the MPSF playoffs feels undeserved (and to be clear, I stand by that comment), it does seem fitting that the season would come full circle like this. These two teams’ conference seasons began against one another, in Provo, in a match I, well, tried to cover. BYU won that match dominantly and I expected no different tonight.
Hawaii had some odd roster concerns entering this match. JP Marks is no longer eligible to play college volleyball. There’s been some credible speculation as to why, and it’s pretty harmless, but as I’ve said before, I don’t deal in scuttlebutt. The facts are that Marks’ Hawaii career is over, with his past accomplishments in no danger of being stricken from the record. Sinisa Zarkovic entered this match hobbled on a bum ankle, reducing his role to serving sub tonight. This gave Hawaii perhaps the strangest starting lineup they’ve put out all season, with Brook Sedore at outside (he started the season there but attained his best successes at opposite — he was moved back to OH for passing rotations) and Taylor Averill at opposite. Averill, who was recruited as a setter and flourished as a middle blocker this season. Talk about a diverse skillset. Jace Olsen and Nick West also started, at their usual positions. Sedore entered the match as the reigning MPSF Player of the Week with a couple of career nights last week against UCSD, notching 31 kills in the 5-set win on night 2. UCSD aren’t exactly UCI, and 31 is obviously less than 35, but the comparisons to Ben Patch‘s amazing night against the Anteaters earlier this season are there to be had.
After the first two rallies of the match, both won by the Cougars, play was briefly stopped while the game ball was reinflated. Three game balls are used on a rotation to keep play moving as swiftly as possible, so play resumed swiftly. Hawaii took an early timeout after five rallies, all going the way of BYU. The run extended to 6-0 before a kill for Sedore finally got them their first sideout. At 7-2, Devin Young came up with a huge stuff block, and then rotated to the service line, coming up with an ace there. Things stabilised a little from there, the two sides playing mostly sideout volleyball. The automatic timeout came after a Johann Timmer service error made it 15-10 BYU.
The string of sideouts continued after the timeout until 18-13. With Steve Rindfleisch in for Ryan Boyce as a blocking sub, “Beef-meat” came up with a set assist to feed Taylor Sander on the left side for the kill, prompting Hawaii’s final timeout. Taylor Averill came up with a nice kill, facial-ing Russ Lavaja, out of the timeout. BYU quickly took control again after that, extending their lead again to six at 22-16. Hawaii cut it closer again, and Zarkovic, noticeably lacking most of his usual swagger, came in as a serving sub a 23-19. BYU easily got the sideout and converted their first set point with a solo block by Josue Rivera against Averill.
Each team had 14 kills in the first set, but hitting errors and blocks told the tale, with Hawaii failing to register even a single block in the set and coming up with some unforced hitting errors as well. Nonetheless, it was quite a turnaround from the 6-0 start that had them hitting many hundreds of points in the red.
Hawaii came up with their first lead of the night, and one of their first points on serve all night, going up 2-1 early on Sedore’s serve. Sander’s first hitting error of the night put them ahead 4-2, and a rare ace from the largely harmless jump-float serve of Davis Holt put the Warriors up three. It was just Holt’s third ace all season. BYU closed back within a point at 6-5, but after a few sideouts Ben Patch’s hitting error put Hawaii back up three at 9-6. My connection then blinked out for a couple minutes, coming back to see Sander’s sinkerball of a service ace fall in front of Harrison Phelps to knot the set at 11’s. 12-11 was one of those fun rallies to watch (but hell to actually play) as both teams were so out-of-system it was just plain goofy. At 13-12, Young went back to serve again and elicited a nice overpass, but it fell right on the campfire, much to the dismay of the home fans (and the men on the court). The automatic timeout came with Hawaii leading 15-13.
Coming back from the timeout, Jace Olsen came up with pocket rockets — that’s two aces — to force BYU’s charged timeout. Just as quickly, BYU came up with two out of that timeout to force Hawaii’s first charged. Hawaii went to Timmer at 18-15, and his serve appeared to disrupt BYU’s offence, but the Cougars came up with the kill anyway. Hawaii extended to a four-point lead at 20-16 after a really weird rally where neither team quite looked like they were executing anything remotely resembling a plan. At 21-17, Sedore kept his serve in bounds for one of the first times all night, and the rally ended with Sander’s hitting error — no touch called. BYU called their final timeout suddenly trailing five at 22-17. BYU called their timeout there, but the first point after the timeout was pretty much a carbon copy. Sedore’s service error at 23-18 sided BYU out, but it was damage done. Hawaii got their first set point at 24-19 and brought in Zarkovic to serve, but his attempt flew well long. No matter, as Olsen’s middle block on 24-20 ended the set to send the teams to the locker room tied at a set apiece.
Hawaii held big statistical advantages in set 2, out-killing BYU 14-10 and dominating them in hitting efficiency, .478 to .160. BYU had 11 scoring errors in the set, 6 hitting and 5 service. Tough to win when you spot your opponents nearly half their necessary points.
BYU ran out to the early lead at 5-2 in the 3rd, extending to 7-3 and Hawaii’s timeout after a Taylor Averill hitting error (that one should really fault to the setter Joby Ramos). On Olsen’s serve, Hawaii came back to 7-5. On that rally, BYU were called for a net violation. Boyce gave the up-referee a bit of a stinkeye and was almost immediately yellow-carded, tying the set. Then the set became streaky, as BYU took three straight to go up 10-7, on Sander’s serve, and then on Nick West’s serve Hawaii came back within a point again. At 11-10, Hawaii’s serve elicited an easy overpass for Holt to gobble up, knotting it at 11’s and BYU’s timeout.
Hawaii went back on top after the timeout with a right-side kill for Sedore, easily finding the seam in the double block. Phil Fuchs subbed in for Rivera at that point, as the Puerto Rican really hadn’t done much of anything in the match to that point. From 12-all, Hawaii came up with three straight, the last two on huge stuff blocks forcing BYU’s final timeout, at 15-12. It did nothing to staunch Sedore’s roll at the service line, as he came up with an ace to put the Warriors up four. On 16-12, a ball off Olsen and out was called no-touch, despite replays pretty clearly showing that Boyce did touch it. The down official called the touch but the up official overruled him, and Averill was not pleased. Given how quickly Boyce got yellow-carded earlier, I’m a little surprised Averill wasn’t assessed one there. The two officials conferenced, but the call was not changed.
And it was as if a switch were flipped. For the first time in about an hour, BYU finally started to look like their offence was executing as it was meant to. They ran off three more to tie the set at 16’s, forcing the last timeout. After the timeout, the run continued with BYU going up a point at 17-16, and from there it was anyone’s set. 19-18 was a crazy rally, with both sides coming up with diving digs to frantically keep balls alive. Olsen’s terminating swing was called out by the flagger, but the up referee overruled him. Replays showed that the up ref got this one right, as the ball was well inside. On Olsen’s serve, one of the better servers of the night, Hawaii went back ahead with Nick West’s middle kill.
The set proceeded nervously, tenuously, evenly. Ties occurred at 19, 20, 21, and 22. At 23-22 Hawaii, Boyce was whistled apparently for reaching over the net into Hawaii’s zone, a fault. Replays showed the ball was quite clearly still on the plane of the net, which would have made Boyce’s attempt on the ball was legal. The officials conferenced again, and the call stood. Steve Vail suggested that the up ref was trying to save face, blowing his whistle at first by thinking Boyce was back-row. But I’ve seen it plenty of times where the call will eventually be “replay the point” and a tacit admission that the official(s) messed up. Don’t know why we didn’t see that here. And to be sure, Hawaii finished off the roll with a Brook Sedore ace to win set 3 25-22, bringing out the boobirds in the Smith Field House.
BYU again took the early advantage in set 4, scoring five of the first seven just as they had in set 3. Olsen came up with a kill on 7-4 to go to the service line. In one of those ‘game of inches’ moments, his serve was just long, providing an incredibly close 2-point swing as BYU didn’t try to play it. The Cougars went up four of the first time at 9-5 and five at 11-6. A Brook Sedore service error put BYU up 6 points at 14-8, and a Devin Young kill off the block and out made it 15-8 at the automatic timeout. Young then rotated back to serve and came up with some nice ones, including an ace, to run BYU out to 17-8, making it pretty clear we were bound for 5 (It’s Hawaii men’s volleyball, of course we were bound for 5). A Taylor Sander serve came up with an overpass that Rivera destroyed, putting BYU up ten at 19-9. The Warriors pretty clearly packed it in for the 5th, and the final was a lopsided 25-12.
BYU won the coin toss, putting Olsen on the service line to start the 5th. An awkward point got BYU the first sideout of the set, and it proceeded sideout after sideout for a while. At 3-all, it was Sedore on the service line, and he came up with a picture-perfect ace landing untouched in the back-left corner of BYU’s court. After a slow start at the service line, it wound up a really nice night for the Albertan, and BYU coach Chris McGown immediately called time as his team fell down 4-3.
Sander came up with a kill from the pipe to tie the set again at 4’s, sending Patch back to serve. BYU came up with a block on the 4-all rally that appeared to terminate the set, but Hawaii kept the ball alive. BYU still got the point when Hawaii’s block attempt later in the rally landed out. At 5-all, Hawaii brought Timmer in to serve, and his rough night at the service line continued as his lone attempt flew very long. At 6-5 BYU, Hawaii looked like they were going to come up with a block on a Ben Patch roll shot, but they were called for a net violation, giving BYU the first 2-point lead. 7-5 was a very exciting rally, with Boyce coming up with an unlikely pancake save on a ball that just about hit the ceiling. The point went to UH, and so did the next on a Taylor Sander net fault, knotting the set at 7. Patch beat the solo block on the next rally to put BYU up 8-7 at the side change.
Hawaii got the sideout after the timeout to tie it at 8, and Patch kept up the pressure on the next ball, for his 23rd kill of the night, making it 9-8 BYU. The Sand-man put BYU up two again at 10-8 after a long rally. Surprisingly, Hawaii did not call timeout there. An awkward rally where Hawaii scored despite overpassing on serve-receive brought it to 10-9 BYU. Zarkovic came in as the serving sub again at 10-9, but it was Ben Patch again with the kill, putting BYU back up two at 11-9. Sander’s second service error of the set made it 11-10, and while going back to Patch seemed a good idea with how hot his hand was, Hawaii came up with the block to tie it at 11. This prompted BYU’s last timeout of the set.
BYU scored the first point after the timeout with a double hit called on Ramos’ set. A Ben Patch service error made it 12-all, but Brook Sedore gave it right back to make it 13-12 BYU. Olsen made it through the BYU block to make it 13-all again. 13-all was a ridiculously long rally, to decide who would get the first match point. It eventually ended with, what else, Ben Patch’s kill. Hawaii finally burned their first timeout.
It looked like Hawaii had knotted the set at 14 with an incredible dig from Matthew Cheape against BYU’s primetime playing middle Russ Lavaja, leading to a kill for Taylor Averill. But after another officials’ conference, the point (and match) was awarded to BYU.
#1 BYU d. #8 Hawaii (25-19, 20-25, 22-25, 25-12, 15-13)
It was at first not entirely clear what exactly the final call was. The broadcast cut away quickly after the match ended. They initially stated it was a foot-under-the-net call (otherwise known as illegal net penetration….and I have a dirty mind) against Nick West, but others said that it was a back-row hit called against Ramos, as he was back-row but played the ball over the plane of the net.
Commentator Jarom Jordan, who gets a little bit of flack sometimes but I obviously trust being that he was right there, clarified on twitter about 15 minutes after the match ended that it was indeed the back-row call and not the under that ended the match.
Still seems a disappointing ending to such a hard-fought and spirited match. And a bitter pill for Hawaii to swallow as their season ends. Sedore ended the match with 18 kills on .286 hitting, with 4 service aces. That’s just fine. Averill continued to make his case as one of the most underrated players in the nation, coming up with 16 kills on .393 hitting despite playing as out-of-position as you could possibly imagine. Olsen’s 9 kills and 3 service aces made this probably the best match of his season, while Holt and West combined for 13 kills up the middle.
For BYU, Patch led all scorers with 25 kills on .465 hitting, another terrific performance for the freshman. It was a ‘just-okay’ night at the office for MPSF Player of the Year Taylor Sander, finishing with 13 kills (not such a great total for 5 sets) on .226 hitting. It remains somewhat remarkable how few swings BYU’s middles take. The Cougars’ passing wasn’t that bad (it wasn’t great or anything, but it was fine), yet Lavaja and Young combined for just 17 swings in five sets, 13 of them by Lavaja.
BYU advance to face UCLA next Thursday. The semis and finals of the MPSF tournament will indeed be in Provo. Hawaii now look ahead to 2014, and it will be very interesting to see what they look like next season.
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