It was a balmy 78 degrees in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday.
Hawaii was much hotter inside the Levine Center on the Queens campus. The second-ranked Rainbow Warriors (6-0) heated things up from the service line with six aces and hit a blistering .700 in Set 1 en route to a 25-13, 25-17, 25-16 sweep of the host Royals in 75 minutes.
Queens (2-8) had a hard time handling the Warriors’ opposites: reserve freshman Filip Humler, who had a career-high 10 kills and no hitting errors until his 17th and penultimate swing; and junior Rado Parapunov, who had seven kills with no errors in eight attempts playing only in Set 1.
Hawaii, the national leader in hitting percentage (.470), finished at .458. It was the first road match for the Warriors, who have not dropped a set this season.
By the time Hawaii was leading at 15-12 in Set 2, all 12 Warriors on the travel roster had seen the court. Humler, who replaced Parapunov to start Set 2, had only played in three sets coming into Thursday. He made the most of his time, with three aces and four blocks, including the match-ender when he teamed with junior middle Patrick Gasman to stuff Royals sophomore hitter Tristan Santoyo.
“It was good to get everyone in and still be pretty efficient,” UH coach Charlie Wade said in a telephone call. “It’s nice that the guys coming off the bench kept our high standard of play going.
“Tomorrow, we’re going to have to play a little better. St. Francis has been playing well and we want to be ready to play.”
Hawaii faces St. Francis (8-5) today at 2 p.m. The Red Flash are coming off a five-set upset of then-No. 14 Ohio State last Friday in Columbus.
The Warriors conclude the trip with Saturday’s rematch with the Royals (2:30 p.m.). Queens is looking forward to it.
“To get Hawaii here is pretty special,” Royals coach Jeremy Price said in an online postmatch interview. “Consider that 30 months ago our school announced that we were going to have men’s volleyball and now we have No. 2, one of the elite programs of all time, here.
“All 12 of their guys are good and they showed their depth tonight. It would not shock me at all if Hawaii and Long Beach State play in the national championship game.
“Now that we’ve seen them, I hope we play better the second time.”
Hawaii out-blocked Queens 11-6, with junior hitter Colton Cowell in on a career-high five, and won the dig war 28-14. The Warriors didn’t allow an ace.
Sophomore hitter Nic Cavallaro led the Royals with eight kills.
Some 150 were in attendance and “we had some Hawaii fans there,” UH senior hitter Stijn van Tilburg said. “It’s funny how such a small place as Hawaii has such a big following all over the world.
“Flip was amazing tonight. He played really well and you can see he has played a lot of high-level volleyball.”
Humler, from the Czech Republic, helped his national team win the U19 team win the 2017 European Championship.
“I thought for the most part we executed what we wanted to,” said senior setter Joe Worsley, playing most of the first two sets. “We have a lot of high-level players and there wasn’t too much of a change when we brought guys in. It’s the same thing we’ve been doing in practice that past few weeks.”
Van Tilburg likened the Levine Center to RIMAC Arena at UC San Diego with high ceilings and room behind the baseline for Hawaii’s lethal serves. The Warriors teed off all night, with a number of their kills coming on serves overpassed by the Royals.
“We will work on serve-receive and our attack on out-of-system balls,” Price said. “We adjusted to them (after Set 2), but they also made lineup changes.”
Humler had an instant impact, putting down his first attempt for the first point of Set 2. He added three more and an ace, and the Warriors rolled out to a 13-8 lead.
Humler then teamed up on consecutive blocks, first with Cowell, then with sophomore middle Max Rosenfield to expand the margin to 18-13. At 22-17, senior hitter Brett Rosenmeier served it out, with senior middle Dalton Solbrig putting down two kills and the Royals being called for a lift.