The Outrigger Volleyball Invitational marked the beginning of the tougher portion of the schedule for the Hawaii men’s volleyball team.
It didn’t make much of a difference on night one as the third-ranked Rainbow Warriors blew No. 14 Lewis out of the building in the first set before finishing off a 25-9, 25-18, 25-21 sweep of the Flyers in front of a SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 3,516.
Delayed a bit by No. 5 UC Irvine’s five-set, come-from-behind victory over No. 1 Grand Canyon in the tournament opener, Hawaii was so eager to get the match going that senior Spyros Chakas nearly ran out of the tunnel early in pregame introductions.
It was for good reason, as Chakas finished with a match-high 15 kills in 19 swings and UH put on a clinic behind the service line, tallying 10 aces and keeping the Flyers out of system for much of the night.
“I’ve been excited. I’ve been waiting for this tournament,” said Chakas, who hit .737 to mark his third match this season hitting .733 or better. “I don’t think that we can ever be satisfied. We are satisfied that we got the win, but there’s still a lot more we can work on.”
Hawaii won in straight sets for the sixth straight match and eighth out of the past nine.
Alaka‘’i Todd ended the match with his eighth kill in 12 swings to hit .583 and middle Guillherme Voss had seven kills in nine swings to hit .556.
UH hit .458 and committed only nine attack errors. Freshman setter Tread Rosenthal had a match-high 28 assists and three aces and Voss, Chakas and Todd added two aces apiece.
“Anytime you go no hitting errors in a set is good, and obviously we were pretty good from the service line too,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “We’re at that time of the year where you could tell all week long it’s been just a little different edge, a little different energy to them at practice. It’s good to see.”
The only real trouble Hawaii faced was in the third set, when Wade was forced to call his first timeout in the match with UH down 9-6.
Four of the Flyers’ points came on errors by UH, and Syver Drolsum put down Lewis’ first ace to prompt Wade to huddle up his players.
Voss earned a loud ovation from the crowd with his backset to Todd for a kill that put Hawaii back in front 13-12.
He followed it up with a solo block and UH never trailed again.
“That was complete …,” Voss said before trying to find the right word to describe his set.
“Fundamentals,” Chakas said.
The Rainbow Warriors were flawless through the first three timeouts taken. Hawaii built a 20-6 lead and the Flyers used their second timeout in the first set.
At that point, UH hadn’t committed an error, put down nine kills in 13 swings and had six aces.
Hawaii gave the Flyers two points on service errors but closed it out on Todd’s third kill against a triple block.
Hawaii hit .765 in the first set, with 13 kills in 17 swings. Chakas and Voss both were a perfect 4-for-4 in attacks and Kurt Nusterer put down his only kill attempt, making the two middles 5-for-5 with Rosenthal finishing with 13 assists.
“Got the middle going and the connection was good and obviously we put a ton of service pressure on them,” Wade said. “That’s always fun when you get rolling like that.”
Hawaii sided out at 100% in the match until Voss was solo blocked in the second set to cut UH’s lead to 13-9.
Max Roquet put down back-to-back kills out of the media timeout to pull the Flyers to 15-13 before Hawaii put the set away with a 5-0 run.
A Chakas kill allowed Hawaii to bring in Keoni Thiim to serve for Chaz Galloway, and Hawaii scored the next four points, with Thiim putting down his 25th ace of the season.
Setter Kevin Kauling, who transferred to Hawaii from Lewis in the offseason. entered the game with UH ahead 20-14 in the second set.
Kauling assisted on two kills and the Flyers’ ninth service error without a kill set up set point that the Flyers misplayed, crediting Voss with an ace and Hawaii with a 2-0 lead.
UH now owns the longest winning streak in the country after the Lopes’ loss to the Anteaters. Hawaii will play Grand Canyon tonight at 7.
No. 5 UC Irvine 3, No. 1 Grand Canyon 2
Anteaters junior outside hitter Hilir Henno hit .406 with a match-high 29 kills to lead UC Irvine to a 25-21, 19-25, 24-26, 29-27, 15-6 win over the previously undefeated Lopes.
Former Hawaii setter/libero Brett Sheward had 58 assists and 10 digs for UC Irvine (13-4).
Jackson Hickman hit .605 with 23 kills, 15 digs and three block assists to lead Grand Canyon (15-1), which had lost only four sets all season entering the Outrigger tournament.
NO. 3 HAWAII DEF.
NO. 14 LEWIS 25-9, 25-18, 25-21
FLYERS (10-9)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Roquet 3 9 3 21 .286 2 1 10.5
Drolsum 3 4 3 14 .071 2 0 5.0
Baggs 3 4 1 6 .500 0 2 6.0
Haber 2 3 2 7 .143 1 0 3.0
Davis 3 2 0 2 1.000 0 0 2.0
Prayer 3 2 2 6 .000 1 1 2.5
Morgan 3 1 0 1 1.000 2 2 2.0
Benka 2 1 1 3 .000 0 1 1.5
Wymoczyl 2 0 1 3 -.333 0 0 0.0
Paula 3 0 0 0 .000 2 0 0.0
Sandvig 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
Collins 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
MATCH 3 26 13 63 .206 10 7 32.5
RAINBOW WARRIORS (15-1)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Chakas 315 1 19 .737 2 2 18.0
Todd 3 8 1 12 .583 5 1 10.5
Voss 3 7 2 9 .556 2 1 10.5
Galloway 3 3 1 11 .182 2 1 3.5
Nusterer 3 2 1 3 .333 1 3 3.5
Rosenthal 3 1 0 2 .500 3 1 5.5
Choy 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
Kauling 2 0 0 0 .000 1 0 0.0
Thiim 3 0 2 2-1.000 3 0 1.0
Sakanoko 1 0 1 1-1.000 0 0 0.0
MATCH 3 36 9 59 .458 19 9 52.5
Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors;
att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d:
digs; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills
plus blocks plus aces).
Service aces — Lewis 1 (Drolsum). Hawaii
10 (Rosenthal 3, Chakas 2, Todd 2, Voss
2, Thiim). Service errors — Lewis 16
(Baggs 3, Davis 3, Drolsum 3, Prayer 2,
Benka, Haber, Morgan, Roquet, Wymoczyl). Hawaii 11 (Rosenthal 4, Chakas
2, Nusterer 2, Galloway, Sakanoko, Thiim).
Assists — Lewis 24 (Morgan 22, Paula,
Roquet). Hawaii 32 (Rosenthal 28, Kauling
2, Choy, Thiim). Block solos — Lewis 2
(Baggs, Roquet). Hawaii 2 (Rosenthal,
Voss). Ball handling errors — Lewis
none. Hawaii none. Reception errors —
Lewis 10 (Roquet 4, Paula 3, Drolsum,
Haber, Wymoczyl). Hawaii 1 (Galloway). A
— 4,908. Officials — Wayne Lee, Mark Nakashima, Kevin Chun, Randy Rubonal.
