Heavy traffic entering the University of Hawaii’s lower campus Saturday night may have delayed fans heading into SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
But the late arrivals still had a lot of volleyball ahead of them, and the largest and loudest crowd of the season helped spur the fourth-ranked University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team to a comeback win over No. 5 UC Santa Barbara.
A season-high crowd of 5,982 watched the Warriors come back from a 2-1 deficit to force a fifth set and UH pulled out a 19-25, 25-20, 24-26, 25-18, 15-10 senior night win over the Gauchos.
UH outside hitter Spyros Chakas put away four of his 17 kills in the fifth set and had a key service run late in the match to help the Warriors (20-5, 5-3 Big West) improve to 16-0 at home and sweep the two-match series with UCSB.
“That was all for them,” Chakas said of the three-member senior class of middle blockers Max Rosenfeld and Kyler Presho and defensive specialist Avery Enriques.
“We wanted to send them off on a good note. We didn’t want to lose in front of this beautiful crowd. It was just amazing to feel the energy from everyone.”
Warriors opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias matched Chakas by putting away his 17th kill on match point and UH won for the 12th straight time in the series with UCSB.
UH’s late surge overcame UC Santa Barbara opposite Haotian Xia’s 21-kill performance on .447 hitting. Punahou graduate Ryan Wlcox added 15 kills for UCSB (17-7, 5-4).
“We had some guys step up and hats off to Santa Barbara, they played really well,” UH coach Charlie Wade said. “Their opposite was literally unstoppable for most of the night and we finally got a bead on him late. We were pushing buttons trying to find the right combination, so nice team win and a pretty significant one, I’d say.”
With the win, the Warriors jumped past UCSB into second place in the conference standings — one game behind Long Beach State — with one weekend left in the regular season. The Warriors close the regular season with a two-match series at UC Irvine on Friday and Saturday before returning to Manoa to host the Big West Tournament set for April 21-23. The top two seeds get first-round byes.
UCSB won last year’s conference tournament in SimpliFi Arena and threatened to break a skid against UH dating back to 2017.
Wilcox led an efficient UCSB attack with six kills in 11 attacks and the Gauchos hit .500 in the opening set with 19 kills on 34 attempts. Leading 17-16, the Gauchos took command with a 5-1 run that included two kills from Dayne Chalmers and an ace from Xia and UH dropped an opening set at home for the first time this season.
In the middle of a another tight set, Filip Humler provided a spark off the bench for a second straight night. He teamed with Mouchlias and Cole Hogland on a triple block that gave UH a 21-19 lead and pushed a tip through the UCSB block to extend the lead to 23-20. Mouchlias capped a 6-1 run with an ace off the tape to tie the match.
UCSB opened up a 21-17 lead in the third set when Xia put away his 17th kill on his 25th attempt of the night. UH caught the Gauchos at 23-23 on setter Jakob Thelle’s fifth kill followed by a UCSB error. A service error gave UCSB set point and Mouchlias extended the set with his eighth kill. Xia scored off the block and teamed with Brandon Hicks on a block of Chakas to give the Gauchos the set and a 2-1 lead in the match.
The Warriors broke a 14-14 tie in the fourth set with a three-point run capped by a Mouchlias ace. UH pulled away with a 4-0 run with Thelle on the service line and went to a fifth set for the third time this season and the first time at home.
“I think it goes both ways,” Rosenfeld said of the atmosphere in the arena. “I think they feed off of our energy on the court, and we feed off of their energy in the stands,”
UCSB took the early advantage in the fifth with Xia’s fifth ace. The teams traded sideouts until UH went on a 6-1 run with Keoni Thiim coming off the bench to serve up his second ace of the night to give UH a 9-6 lead.
Xia’s sixth ace of the night cut UH’s lead to 10-9, but the Warriors responded with a 3-0 run. Guilherme Voss, who finished with 12 kills and four blocks, teamed with Mouchlias on a block of Chalmers to give UH a 13-9 lead and force UCSB’s final timeout. Mouchlias ended a rally with a kill to give UH match point. UCSB survived the first but couldn’t return Mouchlias’ final kill.
Tournament tickets on sale Monday
Ticket packages for the Big West men’s volleyball tournament go on sale on Monday. The tournament is set for April 21-23 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
Tickets will be available online at etickethawaii.com and at the Stan Sheriff Center box office (Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.).
Packages cover all five matches over three sessions. Remaining individual session tickets go on sale on Thursday.
