Men's Volleyball takes #4 Hawai'i to four sets in hard-fought loss

SALISBURY, N.C. – The Catawba College men's volleyball team faced its largest opponent to date in the fourth-ranked Hawaiʻi Rainbow Warriors on Saturday, winning the third set of a 3-1 defeat in front of a packed crowd at Goodman Arena.

TEAM STATS

- Catawba (6-8) surpassed the .200 mark for just the second time in a losing effort, batting .204 while Hawaiʻi (12-1) put together an uber-efficient .345 hitting percentage

- The Rainbow Warriors had greater success on service, boasting a 7-2 advantage in aces as well as an .859-.818 edge in efficiency

- The visitors finished ahead of Catawba defensively with an 11.5-7 blocks difference and a 39-33 digs margin

- By pushing the match to a fourth stanza, the Catawba Indians snapped a streak of Hawaiʻi sweeps after the Rainbow Warriors blanked Belmont Abbey and Queens on the previous two days

INDIVIDUAL STATS

- Trevor Phillips ripped 19 kills on a .368 hitting percentage, coming close to a double-double with nine digs in addition to three blocks, two helpers and an ace

- Eli Zdonek tallied nine strikes with seven digs and a block assist while Cam Reeder recorded seven kills, six digs and a pair of stops

- Kristian Smith collected 40 assists and notched a couple of digs, supplying the second of Catawba's two aces

- Luke O'Neill racked up a season-high four blocks including one solo denial, chipping in an assist and a dig

- Max Adkisson logged eight digs from the libero slot and received at a .966 clip

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Set

- Phillips killed the first rally and supplied an ace as Reeder chipped in a strike to key a 4-0 start for the hosts

- Zdonek cut off a quick Rainbow Warrior dash to the lead with a second side-out provoking kill, but Hawaiʻi broke through and added padding in a 6-0 run

- Despite Catawba's attempts to shrink the gap, the visitors had ample responses to keep the margin at 5-6 points

- O'Neill teamed up with Phillips for a block and fired a kill on set point before the Rainbow Warriors nabbed the opener 25-19

Second Set

- Two early kills from Jacob Brown were answered by three Clay Wieter darts, who passed the baton to Kainoa Wade for a pair of strikes as Hawaiʻi gained a 7-5 advantage

- Alex Parks collected back-to-back blocks to kick off a lengthy streak of points for the Rainbow Warriors whose lead jumped to 16-7

- Reeder and Wyatt Eastin interrupted Hawaiʻi late, but the nation's No. 4 team kept pressing on the gas in a 25-11 decision

Third Set

- Set three mirrored the opening stanza with four straight Catawba points – the difference appeared when the blue and white sustained its advantage to 8-3, bolstered by a pair of blocks and a kill from O'Neill

- Phillips landed his fourth kill of the set to boost the lead to 13-7 before a trio of Finn Kearney darts slimmed the edge to four

- Kearney contributed to three points ahead of a Catawba miscue and Kawai Hong's ace that evened the score at 21-all

- Wieter made a set-point block and Wade kept the Rainbow Warriors alive with a kill, but two Hawaiʻi errors allowed the hosts to swipe the frame in 27-25 fashion

Fourth Set

- After trailing 3-2, Wade and Victor Lowe chalked up kills to flip the score to 6-3 and force an early Catawba timeout

- Phillips continued to rattle off strikes, reaching his sixth of the stanza as the Catawba Indians worked to cap the deficit at three

- Kearney, Wieter and Wade fought against the hosts' suppressive blocking corps that featured Eastin twice, giving Hawaiʻi marginal growth on its lead at 19-15

- Wieter and Justin Todd shared a stop to rival an O'Neill solo block as Wade peppered the Catawba Indians with three kills down the stretch, setting up Parks to hammer home the deciding point in a 25-19 set and 3-1 match

UP NEXT

Catawba is set to host North Greenville on Thursday, Feb. 27 at Goodman Arena for a 7 p.m. tilt.