The Rainbow Warriors will take on the Cal Baptist Lancers in the last night of the conference season. This is the last game to be played in the Stan Sheriff Center for the season. For those heading down to the game, don't forget to wear white as it is a whiteout game. The three seniors
Sinisa "Siki" Zarkovic (Belgrade, Serbia),
Kolby Kanatake (Honolulu, HI), and
Brandon Hiehle (Redondo Beach, CA) will be honored following the end of tonights match.
Last nights game against Cal Baptist looked to be a sweep as Hawaii was up 2-0 and had a few match points on the Lancers in set three but the Warriors couldn't finish early. Cal Baptist fought off those match points and stole the third set and controlled the fourth. It was toe-to-toe in the fifth set but a big serving run towards the end by Kupono Fey helped Hawaii clinch the match.
What's At Stake: Going into tonights match, Hawaii has already clinched the seventh seed of the MPSF Tournament while Cal Baptist is fighting for their lives. Depending on how other MPSF matches go on tonight, Cal Baptist could possibly be playing their last game of the season in Hawaii. In order for them to earn the eight spot in the tournament, the Lancers will need to defeat Hawaii and have UC Irvine lose to Long Beach State.
But for Hawaii, a few hours before the game will determine where they will head for the quarterfinals of the tournament. They will head to Provo, Utah to face BYU if the Cougars defeat USC tonight which is most likely. In case that doe not happen, Stanford will have to win at UC Santa Barbara along with BYU losing which will mean that Stanford holds the tie breaker over BYU making them the regular season conference champions and the first seed.
Seniors:
Brandon Hiehle is an outside hitter who transferred to Hawaii in 2015 after two seasons at El Camino College where he was named all-conference and one of the top players in the league. Since his arrival he has played in seven matches prior to tonight. In 2015 he came in as a serving sub in three matches. This season he has came off the bench to take off a set against then ranked No. 1 Long Beach State to pick up six kills. He also had a four kill game at UC Santa Barbara.
Siki Zarkovic was an unknown coming to Hawaii as fans aren't able to see how foreign recruits are until they arrive on campus. But he was an immediate impact as he started all four seasons and picked honors like 2013 MPSF All-Freshman team, 2013 All-MPSF Honorable Mention, 2015 All-MPSF Second Team, and 2015 AVCA Honorable Mention All-American. Going into tonight he has 1,285 kills which keeps him at eighth in career kills at UH. His career high in kills was fittingly last night against Cal Baptist with 29 on senior weekend which is a conference high.
Kolby Kanatake came from Moanalua HS as a recruited walk-on and evolved into one of the top liberos in the nation. He started the first match of the 2013 season but then played sparingly that year but started all matches he was not injured for the remainder of his career. His outstanding digging and passing earned him 2015 All-MPSF Second Team, 2015 AVCA Honorable Mention All-American, and a Volleyball Magazine 2015 Third Team member. The 770 digs he has picked up keeps him at third in the UH record books along with him being sixth in digs per set. Last season he had a career high 21 digs which earned him MPSF / Molten Player of the Week which made him the first UH libero to pick up that award. He will now pursue his coaching career where he will be an assistant at the University of California-Berkley.
Coverage:
Television: OC Sports
Live Stream: None
Live Stats: Hawaii Athletics
Radio: ESPN 1420 (called by Tiff Wells and Jeff Hall)
