Hawaii Warrior Volleyball Awakens with Win vs. Stanford

The Hawaii Warrior volleyball team took it to No. 2 Stanford by sweeping the defending national champs, 25-22, 25-21, 25-17 on Friday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Warriors (1-3, 1-0 MPSF) promptly ended a three-match losing streak in the season-opening tournament and cast off a losing record against the Cardinals dated back to 2008. 

Stanford (3-1, 2-1 MPSF) swept the two-match regular season series last season and eliminated the Warriors from the MPSF Tournament with a three-set sweep in the semifinals.

"Stanford is one of the premiere teams in our conference and the defending national champs," head coach Charlie Wade said. "For our guys to beat them the way we did tonight is quite an accomplishment. I hope we can carry this momentum into Sunday’s match."

Hawai‘i was led by opposite Jonas Umlauft, with 22 kills and a hit percentage of .500. Joshua Walker added eight kills while Steven Hunt finished with six kills.  UH out-hit Stanford, .459 to .200 and out-blocked the Cardinal, 8.5 to 3.0.

The Warriors started strong by gaining a 7-3 lead in set one. Stanford answered to tie it at 14 and stayed close, but Hawaii nailed the final consecutive points to lead 24-22.  Umlauft finished off the set with his eighth kill.

Set two was tied at 17 until Hawaii scored three straight points on Stanford hitting errors. Once UH had expanded the lead to 23-19, another hitting error and an Umlauft kill closed out the set.

The Warriors had set three go their way from start to finish, leading 20-12 at one point en route to a 25-17 finish with a Hunt kill, his sixth.

The teams are scheduled to face off again on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center.