The then-No. 1 Hawaii men’s volleyball team went on the road and lost twice to now-No. 1 Long Beach State last weekend.
At the same time, the Rainbow Warriors showed getting back to the national final might not necessarily be a long shot.
Playing the Beach in its first two matches without senior outside hitter Spyros Chakas, Hawaii lost the first four sets played before winning two of the next three to take Long Beach State to five on Saturday.
Hawaii lost 15-13 in the fifth set and made more than 60 errors on the night, but walked out of the Walter Pyramid, where it has lost 11 matches in a row, full strength or not, believing there is life after Spyros.
“One of the things that we learned is how were we that close making that many errors?” outside hitter Keoni Thiim said. “After that, we’re like, ‘OK, we have the tools to still be the top contender.’ That’s kind of out of our heads now. We’re worried about focusing on what we need to do to be the best we can be.”
Hawaii (17-3, 0-2 Big West) begins its final homestand of the season tonight with the first of back-to-back matches against No. 18 Cal State Northridge.
UH will then play UC Santa Barbara at home next week before closing out the regular season with four matches on the road.
Hawaii will rely on experienced senior Chaz Galloway and Thiim and freshman Louis Sakanoko to fill the void at outside hitter.
All three have played in at least 16 matches this season for the Rainbow Warriors, and all bring a different attribute for Hawaii coach Charlie Wade to think about when deciding on his rotation moving forward.
“We’re going to need all three of them, and when you look at what has happened over the last month before Spyros was out, we weren’t finishing with the same two outside hitters that were starting,” Wade said. “It really has been by committee and we just see from night to night.”
Sakanoko has shown the capability to carry the load offensively with his scoring ability and thunderous swing. Galloway has been his consistent self, ranking third on the team with 2.09 kills.
Thiim leads a potent serving team with 32 aces and 0.48 aces per set while averaging 1.40 kills per set.
“Louis typically has been productive, he’s terminal, he’s scoring a lot, he doesn’t struggle getting on the floor and not scoring a lot,” Wade said. “Chaz is more of your ‘steady Eddie’. He can stay out there because he’s not making errors, and Keoni is kind of a hybrid between the two and his serve is the secret sauce.”
Getting back on the court brought the Rainbow Warriors back to a level of normalcy after Chakas’ injury brought a sour note to UH winning the Outrigger Invitational.
Winning against the Matadors (9-10, 0-2) in front of a packed home arena will make things feel even more like the days of old.
“We have learned a lot and we feel we can still be the best team in the country — that’s a fact,” Sakanoko said.
The last time UH started 0-2 in Big West play, it went on to win the national championship with wins over Long Beach State in the Big West tournament final and the NCAA Championship.
Senior middle Guilherme Voss needs one more block to become the seventh player in school history to reach 400 blocks for his career.
Hawaii has won eight in a row against CSUN dating back to 2015.
Rainbow Warrior Volleyball
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
No. 2 Hawaii (17-3, 0-2 Big West) vs. No. 18 CSUN (9-10, 0-2)
>> Today and tomorrow, 7 p.m.
>> TV: Spectrum Sports
>> Radio: KKEA 1420-AM / 97.5 FM
