Tiff’s takeaways for #WarriorBall26 - Week 5
By Tiff Wells
1. Fallen Trees Make Loud Noises…Twice – As the age-old question goes, “if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” After a week off and defrosting from the cold Pennsylvania winter weather, the Rainbow Warriors were back on the road again, this time on The Farm at Stanford. The Bows remembered all too well what happened on night two of the series last year in Honolulu when the Cardinal upset Hawai`i in four sets. There wasn’t a sense of payback or needing to atone for what happened last year, last year was last year. The way UH played in night one this past Friday, it set the tone for this whole series that just wasn’t matched by their opponent. Statement. Efficient. Dominance. Playing with a chip on their shoulder. Sense of Purpose. At one point in the first set on night one, the Bows scored kills on their first seven attempts. Stanford never felt comfortable playing in their own gym. More often than not, Tread Rosenthal was running the Hawai`i offense from 3-to-5 feet off the net, while Stanford saw their two setters play the second ball from 5-to-10 feet off. 77 minutes was all UH needed for the 3-0 victory, moving their win streak to eight. For a fourth time this season, #WarriorBall26 hit over .500 (.515) in a match while the Cardinal hit a season low .145. Unlike last season where the Hawai`i block was frustrated by the Stanford pin hitters and their array of shots off the block, it was UH who left the Cardinal frustrated all night (and all series) long. 24 hours later, rinse and repeat. Another 77-minute 3-0 victory gave Hawai`i their 3rd consecutive series sweep at Stanford since 2020. It’s the sixth straight UH win at Stanford and the Bows have won 14 of the last 15 in the series. It’s also the 22nd straight regular season non-conference road win for UH. Stanford didn’t score 18 or more points in any of the six sets played. A total of 2915 fans came through the doors and saw the trees fall on both nights. Those loud noises you heard as the tree fell each night were the combination of the Hawai`i fan base cheering and the Bows celebrating on the floor.
2. Adversity, Yet Again – Road-trip one began with multiple flight cancellations and landing in Pennsylvania less than 24 hours before their first match. A different locale (Stanford) for this second road-trip and another issue. This time, it was a van getting broken into and multiple items stolen while the team was eating dinner last Wednesday. Conversations with the police were had and reports were filed. Multiple suitcases were found on the side of the road on Thursday after an ID tag led to a player receiving multiple phone calls and texts. While most of the items were still there, still missing were a couple of valuable items and a passport. Hoping for the best, the team put that in the rearview mirror as they handled Stanford on night one. There are good people out there and one of them got in touch with the team on Saturday. Her name is Tangie Lang and she works for Pro Guard Securities in Oakland and found the backpack containing the missing passport of a UH player. If not for getting this back prior to leaving on Sunday, a drive to the Consulate General would have taken place with a UH official and that player. Instead, it was Tread Rosenthal driving UH’s offense over Stanford for a second consecutive night and everyone got to fly home together on Sunday. Mahalo Tangie!
3. All Three Systems Go – Offense, Defense and Special Teams (serve and receive) were all on full display over the weekend in Stanford. Offense - Efficiency was the name of the game offensively as the Rainbow Warriors had single digit hitting errors (7, 8) in both matches. For most of that first match, UH flirted with a season-high hitting percentage. They would “cool off” and hit .515 for the match, the fourth time this season the Bows hit .500 or better. All three pin hitters (Adrien Roure, Louis Sakanoko and Kainoa Wade) hit .294 or better in both matches. More often than not, the Hawai`i hitters were in one-on-one situations, a testament to the set distribution of Trad Rosenthal. Defense – Hawai`i held Stanford to under .170 hitting on both nights (.145, .164), with that .145 being a season-low for the Cardinal. Stanford came in averaging close to nine digs per set and UH’s high-octane offense changed that. Stanford had just 11 digs in night one and 20 in the second (31 in six sets, a little over five per set). The defensive efforts of libero Quintin Greenidge (19 digs; match-high seven in night one, match-high 12 in night two) led to Hawai`i holding the dig advantage on both nights (30-20 night two, 20-11 night one). While UH had just two blocks on night one, a lot of the credit goes to the block touches by the frontline that slowed down Stanford’s offense. UH made the necessary blocking adjustments as they out-blocked Stanford 8.5 to 5 in night two. Special Teams – if you win the serve and pass game, more often than not you’ll win the match. What started out shaky with UH getting aced three times in the first set on night one ended with the Bows giving up a total of two aces over the course of the final five sets of the series. Greenidge, Adrien Roure and Louis Sakanoko settled into the match as the passing pattern steadied out and got better and better as the match and series went on. If all three phases are clicking, Hawai`i will be a very dangerous team moving forward and will be a very tough out in the postseason.
4. Stay Hot Kid – Most teams just don’t have the ability to plug in and play their backup opposite when their number one option is out and expect the same results, let alone numbers that are even better. But then again, Hawai`i isn’t like most teams and their depth has been on display this last month. With Kristian Titriyski continuing to nurse those lingering back issues, Kainoa Wade has continued to carry the load for UH. 12 kills on 17 swings to hit a career best .588 on night one, the opposite was even more efficient in night two, establishing a new career-high hit percentage of .737. 15 kills on 19 swings, Wade was playing possum with the Stanford blocking scheme and the backrow as well. Just three hitting errors in 36 total swings, the sophomore hit .667 in this Stanford series. Two aces, three digs and two blocks, Wade’s all-around performance was just one of many for this UH group over the weekend on The Farm. One of the best players (if not the best player) inside Maples Pavilion this past weekend just might receive another accolade from the Big West this Monday and possibly another national honor on Tuesday.
5. Milestone For The Duke – One of the top recruits in his class and opting to then reclassify and begin his collegiate career a year early, Tread Rosenthal had the accolades to be one of UH’s highest rated recruits in recent history. Late in Saturday’s first set at Stanford, the junior setter got himself into the UH history books. His 12th assist of the match gave him 2,620 for his career and into 10th place all-time in Hawai`i Men’s Volleyball history, passing Mason Kuo (’95-’99). Needing less than 100 to pass Joe Worsley (’16-’19) for 9th, there’s a strong possibly you’ll see this happen at home before the 30th Outrigger Invitational begins. Sitting at 95 career service aces, Rosenthal is not only five shy of 100, but also of tying Yuval Katz and Sivan Leoni for 10th place all-time. The all-time record of 122 set by Jakob Thelle is also on the horizon for the captain. Not bad for a young man that developed his spin serve as a collegiate freshman.
6. Almost 40 Days & Nights – No, Noah’s Ark isn’t getting built and certainly no 40 days and nights of rain will take place (knock on wood, hoping that doesn’t happen). But a Cougar was on that ark and they did enter two-by-two. On January 27th, tournament organizers and USA Volleyball cancelled the NIL Tournament that was set for February 19-20 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. With UCLA acting fast to fill their new gap and scheduling Long Beach State in the process, the Bows looked at their next two open weeks in need of matches. Moving fast and looking at what non-conference teams also had open dates that matched alongside with UH’s, it was announced on February 6th that the Rainbow Warriors would add two extra home matches, while also welcoming in a top-10 team that UH fans love to hate. Making their first trip to Honolulu since the Covid shortened 2020 season, BYU will play at Hawai`i on February 25th and 27th. Despite UH not playing UCLA a second time this regular season, nor the possibility of seeing USC on the schedule, these BYU matches will certainly still help UH’s RPI and overall resume. Wednesday, February 25th will mark BYU’s first match in Honolulu since the epic three-hour plus five set victory for UH on March 6th, 2020 that ended with a Pat Gasman walk-off ace. A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales (which are on-going) will help support the men’s volleyball program and their NIL efforts. As part of this scheduling agreement, Hawai`i will make a return trip to Provo in 2028. The original schedule had UH not playing at home in the entire month of February and what was 44 days between home matches is now just 39. See you on the island come February 25th.