ESPN Honolulu Rainbow Wahine play-by-play voice Tiff Wells with his six biggest takeaways from the previous week for the Bows
1 – Mānoa Magic Strikes Again. Two separate times in Friday’s match Hawai`i led Harvard by a set. Both times the unranked (but receiving votes in the preseason AVCA Coaches Poll) Crimson came back to the tie the match as UH couldn’t sustain late leads (Set 2, led 21-18; Set 4, led 19-17). To a fifth set they went where UH briefly took leads of 3-2 and 7-6. Harvard led 8-7 at the turn and then had three, three-point leads (11-8, 12-9 and 14-11). Coming into the match UH was 17-0 against EIVA league members not named Penn State. Could Harvard pull off the massive road upset? Sometimes, the hardest point in set is the last one, even in a set to 15. A kill from Justin Todd kept UH alive at 14-12. With Kristian Titriyski struggling from the service line (6 errors in 19 total serves), Head Coach Charlie Wade made a crucial substitution as he brought in freshman Finn Kearney to serve. Kearney had played earlier in the match so he wasn’t completely cold coming in off the bench. Kept his first serve in play that resulted in a free ball opportunity for UH to convert for a kill. At 14-13, Harvard called for time to try and ice Kearney. It didn’t work as another tough serve resulted in a Todd/Tread Rosenthal block to send the set into extra time. A Crimson hitting error gave UH match point at 15-14. Yet another tough serve from the lefty forced an attack from Harvard’s setter on the second contact and waiting on the other side was redshirt freshman Justin Todd for the solo block. A 5-0 scoring run to close the match kept UH unbeaten…somehow, at 4-0. A season-high crowd of 4,876 experienced all sorts of emotions and stayed in house throughout the entire three-hour, eight-minute match. While it’s only January, that type of come-from-behind match can instill confidence in a young group.
2 – Second Night Titriyski…Again. Freshman opposite Kristian Titriyski wasn’t feeling 100% in the season opener against No. 20 McKendree last week Friday. Six hitting errors on 20 swings in two sets led him to watching from the sidelines in the third set. Two nights later, he bounced back for a match-high 17 kills. Different opponent in week two, same set of circumstances. The first match struggles continued as a first set line of 2-2-7 led to him to him spectating for the rest of the night. With a day in between matches, the Sofia, Bulgaria native made the necessary adjustments. Another match where he was the match leader in kills, UH needed all 18 of them to survive Harvard in that five-set marathon. While he was in on six blocks, none was bigger than the solo stuff he had to get UH to within one point at 12-11 as it also got the crowd involved. While he did have six of UH’s 22 service errors, he also added four more aces to his ledger. After being subbed out at 12-14 in the fifth and as UH made and completed the comeback, the biggest cheerleader of them all was…Titriyski. Entering week three against Princeton, perhaps this is the series where the Bulgarian can string together two solid and efficient matches…