STANFORD, Calif. – The top-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team kept its perfect season in tact with a 25-15, 25-18, 25-22 victory over No. 11 Stanford Friday in a non-conference match-up at Maples Pavilion.
The Rainbow Warriors (13-0) were dominant from start to finish, hitting .458 for the match. Opposite
Rado Parapunov tallied a match-high 15 kills while outside hitter
Filip Humler posted a career-high 13 kills, hitting .632 with only one error in 19 attack attempts.
UH extended its regular season non-conference road win streak to 13 and won for the fifth consecutive time over its former conference rival. The Warriors had 20 more kills than the Cardinal (5-6) and limited them to a .179 clip. The nation's leader in blocking also out-blocked Stanford, 8.5 to 5.
Jaylen Jasper, the son of former UH football player Ivin Jasper, led the Cardinal with 10 kills.
UH outside hitter
Colton Cowell came up one kill shy of his first double-double of the season, finishing with nine kills and a career-high 13 digs. Middle blockers
Patrick Gasman and
Guilherme Voss each had four blocks.
In Set, 1, the Warriors scored three straight for a 6-3 advantage and that was all the cushion they would need. Humler (5) and Parapunov (4) combined for nine of the team's 15 kills in the set as UH hit .407 in the frame.
The Cardinal kept it closer in Set 2. UH took its first lead with Gasman at the service line, scoring four unanswered. The lead was 19-15 after another four-point burst capped by back-to-back kills by Humler. Parapunov tallied consecutive kills giving UH set point and Humler pounded his 11
th kill to end it.
Stanford gave UH all they could handle in Set. 3. Hawai'i maintained the lead until the Cardinal tied it at 16. Moments later, Cowell's serving ignited a 5-0 run as the Warriors led 23-18. However, Stanford rallied back to within one, scoring four straight with two huge blocks. On the ensuing point, the Cardinal served in the net and a big UH triple block stuffed Eric Beatty on match point.
The teams play again on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. PT at Burnham Pavilion.
#HawaiiMVB
