Aztecs’ Potential Isn’t Enough to Beat Hawaii

Hawaii, the country’s top-ranked volleyball team, swept San Diego State, 15-13, 15-10, 15-9 in the championship of the inaugural Grand Prix tournament in front of 1,097 at Peterson Gym Saturday night.

The Rainbows left their goodwill leis at home for this trip, going 3-0 in Friday’s pool play and coming back from a 10-4 deficit in the first game Saturday to set the tone for the remainder of the match.

“We could never get them in trouble,” San Diego State Coach Jack Henn said. “We made some hitting mistakes and serving errors, and our blocking wasn’t working.”

The 13th-ranked Aztecs (1-1) were still able to prove that, although young, they will be a team to watch this season.

“I never expected to see them (in the finals),” Hawaii Coach Alan Rosehill said. “I think they’ll be tough, especially when they play here. They’ll give some teams some problems.”

The Aztecs, still high from Friday night’s upset of No. 4 UC Santa Barbara, opened the game with a series of short sets, mixing the tempo and catching Hawaii unaware to take leads of 5-1--when the Rainbows called a timeout--8-2 and 10-4.

Then Hawaii began a slow and deliberate comeback. The Rainbows tied the game at 10-all and 13-all, then won when the Aztecs hit a serve and a ball wide and touched the net.

SDSU broke to a 5-3 lead early in the second set, playing Hawaii even and taking a 8-6 lead before calling a timeout.

But the energy the Aztecs had early began to wane, as it did it the first game, and Hawaii again closed, tying the game at 8-all and taking the lead for the rest of the way.

SDSU would infrequently put a point on the board, but the Rainbows took advantage of Aztec errors and ended the game at 15-10.

The Aztecs finished with 12 serving errors to Hawaii’s 6.

“We ended up serving lollipops against a sophisticated team like Hawaii, and you just can’t do that,” Henn said.

In the third game, SDSU was down by as much as 11-4 and came as close as 13-9, but the Rainbows were able to close the game and match out on Aztec errors.

By finishing second here, the Aztecs got some welcome capital--$2,000 in scholarship money--to build on a program that was self-funded from 1984-87.

“Three years ago we had zero dollars,” said sophomore setter Tagore Evans. “Now, with this, we’re really coming around.”

Henn is SDSU’s coach for the first time since 1973, when the Aztecs were the only team in school history to win an NCAA Division I championship.

And he sees a load of potential in his team.

“We were happy with the win over Santa Barbara,” he said, “and this game gives us an indication of where we are.”