Box Score
HONOLULU - No. 9 Penn State got 22 kills from Alex Gutor and another 18 from Matt Anderson as the Nittany Lions upended No. 3 Hawai`i 30-27, 30-24, 32-30 to close out the final night of the 13th Outrigger Hotels Invitational.
A crowd of 3,612 witnessed Penn State defeat UH for the first time in 13 tries in the tournament.
The Warriors jumped out to leads of 7-3 and 10-5 before PSU rallied to take their first lead, 15-14. UH built some momentum taking five of the next six points and go up 19-16. But the Lions rallied againand took a 23-22 advantage that they never relinquished winning 30-27.
The Lions never trailed in game two. An Alex Gutor kill made it 2-1 and PSU built as much as a seven point lead at 24-17 before closing out the set, 30-24.
Game three was the tightest of the night. PSU held the lead throughout and served for the match at 29-27. But UH stavved off two match points as Kyle Klinger slamed down a kill to pull UH to within one at 29-28, then back-to-back attack errors by PSU's Matt Anderson gave UH its first and only set point of the night. But it was short lived as Anderson pounded down a kill to tie it at 30 and two UH attack errors gave PSU the victory, 32-30.
Penn State outhit (.348 to .263), outblocked (7.5 to 4.5) and outdug (43 to 29) the Warriors.
The Lions were led by Gutor's 22 kills and Anderson's 18. Setter Luke Murray posted 50 assists while Ryan Walthall had a match-high 10 digs.
Hawai`i was led by Lauri Hakala and Jim Clar who recorded 13 and 12 kills, respectively. Setter Brian Beckwith issued out 40 assists, while libero Eric Kalima led with nine digs.
Clar was the only UH player to be named to the all-tournament team. The rest of the seven-member team consisted of James Grunst (Loyola-Chicago), Max Holt (Penn State), Robby Stowell (BYU), Yosleyder Cala (BYU), Yamil Perez (BYU) and the tourney's Most Outstanding Player was BYU's Russell Holmes.
The Warriors head to the road next week for Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play against UCLA Jan. 31 and Feb. 2.
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