Hawaii holds off USC before record crowd to reach Final Four
· Yahoo Sports
After 37 ties over the final two sets, a simple Southern California touch of the net on Hawaii’s seventh match point meant the Rainbow Warriors are fighting on.
No. 2 seed Hawaii closed out the Trojans 25-22, 24-26, 25-23, 32-30 in the first NCAA Tournament regional it has ever hosted and played in on Saturday to advance to its seventh NCAA Final Four in the past nine seasons.
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A season-high, sold-out Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 9,943 broke the NCAA Tournament record for the largest single-match attendance.
The thunderous roars never stopped from player introductions until USC (20-8) was called for a net violation to bring a stunning end to a match that lasted two hours, 40 minutes despite not going to a fifth set.
“All four sets were close obviously, and it’s two closely matched teams and both teams thought they have a chance to win a national championship this year and we’re fortunate enough to advance,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “These guys have played a lot of high-level volleyball. There’s nothing out there that we haven’t seen before.”
Hawaii sophomore opposite Kristian Titriyski put down a match-high 19 kills and Adrien Roure added 13 kills, six digs and a career-high seven aces.
Louis Sakanoko added 12 kills, five blocks and four digs as all three UH pin hitters had their moments, which the ’Bows (28-5) needed.
Hawaii took a 2-1 lead in the third set when Tread Rosenthal served a ball out of a USC timeout and a Trojans player’s return hit the scoreboard on the second touch. The set was tied 19 times before Hawaii scored the final two points to earned a much-needed set win after USC won the second.
“Tread had an uncharacteristically poor night serving and a lot of times that’s why we start him serving to get the most opportunities,” Wade said. “He’s got the clutch gene and when the game is on the line, he is going to give you a good effort.”
Rosenthal finished with a match-high 56 assists, six digs, three blocks and three kills.
Roure gave UH a 20-13 cushion in the fourth set with four of his seven aces to put UH on the verge of a win.
The Trojans rallied to score 12 of the next 17 points and set the stage for a deuce set that just seemed to keep on going.
“We’ve been saying that since the beginning of the year that when that last ball drops, we won’t have no regrets,” said USC senior outside hitter Dillon Klein, who overcame a slow start to finish with a team-high 16 kills. “I just credit that fourth set, the end of it, to our mentality (we’ve had) all year.”
All four sets were decided by three points or fewer and two went to deuce.
USC hit .294 with 51 total kills but was helped out by 27 UH service errors.
Hawaii hit .328 with 61 total kills. Both teams had 9.5 blocks, but UH doubled up the Trojans in aces, 9-4, with Roure leading the way.
“Everyone gave their all. There wasn’t one play that wasn’t full effort on both sides,” USC coach Jeff Nygaard said. “In our own gym, we’ll see we’ve got to be prepared for 23, 24, 25, 26, but that extends to 32-30. Every point matters. Every touch matters. That’s how we approach the game.”
Klein had back-to-back kills after UH’s first match point at 24-23 to give USC set point.
Roure, who hit .458 with two errors in 24 swings, got one back for UH and then Rosenthal curled a serve in the back corner for his only ace.
Hawaii committed three more serving errors on set point, including one that left Wade spinning around grabbing his head in frustration.
Klein gave USC its final point with a kill before USC served out. He was then called for the net violation to end it.
“The fans really brought so much energy for us, so even if USC got a good couple of runs, there are so many people watching you and it gives you a boost in energy and you cannot not give energy for one point,” Roure said. “I think we kind of had the same issue against Long Beach (in the Big West tournament final), so I think we were kind of scared this was going to happen again, but I’m really happy we stayed together and managed to win.”
Justin Todd, who was injured in last week’s Big West tournament semifinal win over UC San Diego and missed the final, returned to the starting lineup and had six kills and three blocks.
Fellow middle blocker Trevell Jordan had eight kills on 12 swings with four blocks to give UH some needed offense in the middle.
Titriyski, who missed last season’s NCAA Tournament with an injury, got off to a hot start with six kills in the first set and was in on three blocks.
“I hadn’t played in one yet, so I’m really happy to play in this and win a game and now we’re going to play a semifinal with Long Beach,” Titriyski said. “It’s a different feeling, especially when you start the tournament at home with a full gym and everyone supporting you and you can’t even hear our own thoughts. I’m pretty thankful for that.”
All three Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams remaining in the NCAA Tournament lost on Saturday. The Final Four at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles will consist of and UC Irvine meeting Ball State on Saturday.
The final will take place two days later.