LOS ANGELES >> It was a boom with a broom, a sweep on a neutral court where Hawaii neutralized top-seeded Long Beach State en route to becoming the fifth consecutive program to win back-to-back NCAA men’s volleyball titles.
Tournament Most Outstanding Player Spyros Chakas had 14 kills, an ace and three blocks as the Warriors knocked off their Big West rivals 25-22, 25-21, 25-20, Saturday evening at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion.
Hawaii (27-5) joins UC Irvine, Loyola of Chicago, Ohio State and Long Beach State in the history book. The Warriors also are just the second to do so while winning both championship matches in straight sets, as Ohio State did in 2016-17. (Hawaii swept BYU last year in Columbus, Ohio).
But perhaps more impressive than getting it done in 110 minutes or even finishing with an 8-1 edge in blocks against a team ranked third nationally (2.60 per set) was doing it after losing four All-American honorees from the 2021 campaign.
The Warriors did return starters Jakob Thelle, a junior setter; sophomore middle Guilherme Voss and sophomore hitter Chaz Galloway. But gone from the lineup were opposite Rado Parapunov, the national Player of the Year; libero Gage Worsley; middle Patrick Gasman and hitter Colton Cowell, as well as reserve setter Jackson Van Eekeren.
“With all respect to Rado, Gage, Patrick, Jackson and Colton, this one feels better,” Thelle, the Big West Player of the Year who was named a first-team All-American earlier in the week. “Just having a whole new team and the work that everyone put in, seeing how hard everyone worked in the practice gym … this one is sweeter.
“With all due respect, I love all my guys.”
“For me it’s definitely different,” said Chakas, joined on the all-tournament team by Thelle and sophomore opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias. “Last year I had different role on the team, more of a serving sub.
“The feeling is still amazing, but when you know you contribute more and you achieve it with the whole group again, it’s just amazing.”
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Mouchlias had a very different role last year. He watched the championship match from his native Greece after double ankle surgery. On Saturday, he matched his kill total to his uniform number — 11 — with no hitting errors on 22 swings.
The Beach’s Alex Nikolov, the first to be named both National Newcomer and Player of the Year, finished with a match-high 20 kills. He had just one ace out of Long Beach State’s five and “that was key keeping him off the service line,” Warriors coach Charlie Wade said. ‘He’s a great player and we knew he’d get kills.”
But Nikolov didn’t get much help outside of junior hitter Spencer Olivier’s 11 kills and 10 digs.
As an increasingly pro-Hawaii crowd of 5,784 watched, the Warriors hung tough when needed and hung tougher when it was extremely critical. The Beach (22-5) were up 9-4 early in Set 2 when Thelle’s second ace of the night and 61st of the season highlighted a 6-1 run that tied it at 10.
It was tied five more times through 15 until Thelle put down a kill and Voss hammered back a service overpass to put the Warriors up for good at 17-15.
Unlike last month, when Hawaii was unable to hold leads while losing twice at The Pyramid at Long Beach State, the Warriors “didn’t flinch,” UH assistant coach Josh Walker said.
Each time the Beach closed to within a point Hawaii had an answer. At 21-20, it was Chakas with his 10th kill and then Thelle and middle Cole Hogland teaming to stuff Olivier. At 23-21, Hawaii closed it out on a hitting error by Godbold and the sixth kill by Mouchlias.
Set 3 saw 10 ties, two lead changes and three replay challenges. Hawaii won two, reversing the scores, with the Warriors up 12-11 instead of being down 12-11, and then Hawaii up 18-16 instead of it being tied at 17.
The Beach were chasing after that. Hawaii continued to pull away after 18-17, two kills by Mouchlias giving the Warriors match point at 24-20 and a net violation on Beach setter Aidan Knipe on Chakas’ attack sending the Warriors and thousands of fans into celebration mode.
“The words just cannot describe the way that I feel now,” Thelle said. “I’m just super proud of all the guys. It’s a team sport, and today’s a team win for all of us.
It’s not just a win for ourselves, but a win for Hawaii, and that’s what means everything to us, that we just come out there and have fun and enjoy the game. I couldn’t be more proud.
“(Down 10-5) You’ve just got to stay true to your scouting report and stay true to yourself. For me just going in there, I just always enjoy those moments when you’re down, and I just embraced that at that moment. You always want to be the one to make good plays, and you want to make the serves. I just love being in those uncomfortable situations and just kind of … push that agenda. Today was the opportunity for me to kind of show that and, I mean, I just love those moments.”
One difference between the two teams was that most of the Warriors had the 2021 NCAA Tournament experience. There were few players remaining from the Beach’s 2019 title team.
“Hawaii played great,” LBSU coach Alan Knipe said. “A lot of close stats in a lot of lines except for blocking, which is something that has been a big deal for us all season long.
We had a tough time scoring real points. That’s a credit to them. They played well in all facets of the game. I thought we did a lot of really, really good things tonight, but we just struggled to get some real points and I thought that was the difference, especially early on.
“I’m really happy for the conference to have both of us battling for the title out of the Big West. These two programs have been doing some really big things and I think there will be a lot of big matches to come.”
Since splitting from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in 2017, the Big West has won all four NCAA championships.
Numerous former Hawaii players in several sports were in the arena Saturday, including Gasman, Joe Worsley and Tayler Averill from men’s volleyball, John Gabriel from men’s basketball and Kristal Attwood from Wahine volleyball.
“I am absolutely stoked for them,” said Gasman, who finished his pro season in Brazil and will play in France next year. “When I saw them get their first block (putting UH up 7-6 after blocking Nikolov) I knew it was going to be a good night.
Notes
Also on the all-tournament team were Nikolov and Olivier from Long Beach State, UCLA’s Ethan Champlin and Ball State’s Quinn Isaacson. … Chakas is the fourth MOP from Hawai’i in four NCAA finals. He joins Yuval Katz (1996, runner-up finish), Costas Theocharidis (2002, title later vacated) and Rado Parapunov (2021 title).
