Dimitrios Mouchlias rebounded from a rough road trip to help the fourth-ranked Rainbow Warrior volleyball team earn a bounce-back sweep of No. 5 UC Santa Barbara on Friday.
Mouchlias put down 10 kills with no errors in 20 attempts and a crowd of 4,185 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center helped boost the Warriors late in the second and third sets in a 25-16, 25-23, 28-26 win over the Gauchos.
Mouchlias was held to nine total kills on negative-.033 hitting while playing four of the eight sets in last week’s series at Long Beach State as the Warriors faltered late in sets in dropping both matches at the Walter Pyramid.
They opened their final homestand of the regular season by rolling past error-prone UCSB in the first set, then coming up with the pivotal plays in the second and third sets to earn the program’s 11th straight win in the series with the Gauchos.
“We know that we’re all good players, but we have to keep being stable and work on our mental game and be more focused and keep working,” Mouchlias said.
“After the two losses to Long Beach, for me personally, I was more focused. I knew what I had to do and I knew what I didn’t do well at Long Beach.”
UH outside hitter Spyros Chakas led UH with 11 kills and had three of UH’s six aces and the Warriors broke the program’s single-season rally scoring record. They pushed their season total to 178 aces, passing the previous mark of 174 set in 2019, when Jakob Thelle opened the second set with back-to-back aces.
Filip Humler added four kills in seven attempts after entering the match late in the second set in relief of Chaz Galloway. UH middle blocker Guilherme Voss added six kills and was in on four of UH’s six blocks.
The Warriors (19-5, 4-3 Big West) began the day fourth in the conference standings and leapfrogged UC San Diego into third place, a half-game behind UC Santa Barbara (16-7, 5-3).
“This time of year all league wins are important,” UH coach Charlie Wade said. “You only get 10 shots at it and this year we only get four at home. … League wins are hard to come by, so having an opportunity get another one tonight was big.”
The Warriors and Gauchos meet again today in UH’s regular-season home finale. UH’s senior class of middle blockers Max Rosenfeld and Kyler Presho and defensive specialist Avery Enriques will be honored after the match. The Warriors will be back to host the Big West Tournament set for April 21-23 in Manoa.
Mouchlias powered the Warriors early in Friday’s match with five kills in eight swings in the first set. The Warriors were able to sideout at 88% in the set, while the Gauchos committed seven attack errors and five service errors.
“(Mouchlias is) a bright guy and he’s a good player and he knew he didn’t play well last week and he worked hard every day this week and it was good to see him come out here and play well tonight,” Wade said. “He was better defensively at the net, too. He made some really nice touches at the net that don’t really show in the stats. He was better in pretty much every phase of the game.”
UCSB rallied from a 20-15 deficit in the second set to tie it at 23-23 before Humler got a kill off a touch and Cole Hogland’s solo block of Brandon Hicks gave the Warriors the set and a 2-0 lead in the match.
UC Santa Barbara outside hitter Ryan Wilcox, a Punahou graduate, put away a match-high 15 kills, 10 coming in the third set, when the Gauchos rallied from a 19-13 deficit to catch and pass the Warriors.
Wilcox accounted for three straight UCSB kills to give the Gauchos a 23-21 lead. UH answered with a 3-0 run and earned match point on a block by Thelle and Hogland. Wilcox forced deuce at 24-24 with his final kill of the night and the Gauchos held off two more match points before a net violation on the fourth capped the Warriors’ 15th straight home win.
Mouchlias and Wade credited the crowd for helping push the Warriors through the pivotal points late in the match.
“That was the most fun in that building for a couple years now,” Wade said. “I really gotta credit the crowd for giving us a lift there. When it gets electric like that in the building it’s easy to play well.”
