Hawai'i clinches first-round host berth

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

For his "Senior Night" party, University of Hawai'i outside hitter Pedro Azenha brought a serving of awesome.

"What can you say about Pedro except, 'Unstoppable,' " UH outside hitter Matt Bender said of Azenha's performance in a 30-20, 30-23, 30-25 victory over Pacific before 3,588 in the Stan Sheriff Center.

In finishing the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation's regular season with a 15-7 record, the Warriors secured the No. 4 seed and the right to host Long Beach State in Saturday's opening round of the conference playoffs.

"We needed to win this one," UH middle blocker Dionisio Dante said. "That's why I'm glad we have Pedro on our side."

Azenha slammed a match-high 19 kills (against four errors) and hit .455. He also set the tone with his powerful serves.

Azenha blasted four aces, all in Game 1, to tie the school's career record of 121 under rally-scoring rules. Costas Theo-charidis had set the record in 399 games over four seasons; Azenha tied it in the 232nd game of his three-year career.

In this two-match series, Azenha had 10 aces.

"He's a tough server," said Mike Gawlik, who served as a trampoline to one of Azenha's aces. "He makes passing difficult. He can slow your offense down."

Azenha said: "That's how I play. That's my thing. I hit the ball hard."

UH coach Mike Wilton estimated Azenha's serves travel at about 65 mph. "That's pretty fast, considering the size of the ball," Wilton said.

Bender, who is in the front row when Azenha serves, said "the ball moves so fast you don't hear it. It's like one second you hear the contact and then the play is over because the ball is 40 feet out of bounds after shanking off somebody."

UH opposite hitter Matt Carere said when Azenha "gets on a run like that, Alfee (Reft, the libero) and I look at each other and say, 'Man, we're glad he's not on the other side.' We're the passers on the team, and to face a guy like him is not fun. He hits with such bass, you don't have time to react. We face him in practice, and we always come away with red and maybe bloody forearms."

The Warriors scored eight points on the 17 plays initiated by Azenha's serves.

With the Tigers retreating to the end line, sometimes with four passers, to receive Azenha's serves, the Warriors were able to set up their block. After a while, Dante noted, "We started to feed off of Pedro's energy."

UH scored nine points on Bender's serves; seven each when Dante and Carere were behind the service line. With Pacific playing deep against jump servers, the Warriors tried to mix in short serves. When the Tigers moved up against the jump floaters, the Warriors aimed deep or to the court's shoulders.

"Serving and passing are the essence of the game," Pacific coach Joe Wortmann said. "They were both nights, especially with Pedro."

The Tigers were playing out what had become a difficult season. Despite a lineup of six seniors, they were eliminated from playoff consideration last week.

Wortmann said the seniors "were injured and out at some point. Not once in our entire season did we have our entire team at practice."

In a fitting conclusion, UH's other senior — Daniel Rasay, the backup setter — put away aloha ball with a no-look dump shot.

"I thought I'd reward myself for five years," Rasay said.

After the match, Rasay and Azenha were honored.

"It was great," Azenha said. "It was a really fun night."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8051.