Hawaii topples UC San Diego in 4 in a match that gets testy

Winning volleyball doesn’t always have to be pretty.

The fourth-ranked Hawaii men’s volleyball team didn’t play its best this weekend against No. 11 UC San Diego but left SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center unblemished against the Tritons following a 27-25, 25-23, 17-25, 25-18 win on Saturday.

The French connection of Louis Sakanoko and Adrien Roure led the Rainbow Warriors (21-2, 4-0 Big West) with 15 and 14 kills. Freshman opposite Kristian Titriyski, who was benched midway through the second set and for most of the third, re-entered the match and steadied things with two kills in five swings and two blocks, much to the relief of a crowd of 6,359.

“I think we were solid. We definitely could play better,” sophomore setter Tread Rosenthal said. “We did what we needed to do. We got out out of there with two wins.”

Things got testy between the teams and it nearly boiled over in the fourth set on a Sakanoko kill to put UH ahead 14-11.

UCSD setter Bryce Dvorak was upset that Sakanoko may have crossed the line and the two began to yell at each other.

After a UCSD review, Sakanoko and Ofeck Hazan doubled up on a block of Anthony Cherfan to set off the loudest roar of the night from the crowd.

“I gave the setter kind of an assist with certainly getting the crowd back into it,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “He’s always kind of chirpy and I think the crowd started taking exception to it and helped to get our guys back into it. We were a little flat and that kind of got us going.”

Josh Schellinger had 18 kills and Cherfan and Leo Pravednikov added 13 apiece for the Tritons (16-6, 2-2), who had won seven consecutive matches before their trip to Hawaii.

Nearly every point over the last half of the fourth set ended with both teams yelling back and forth at each other.

“I think it’s more impressive from the refs, because they kept a cool head and let it go,” Rosenthal said. “Props to them for just letting us play. At the end of the day we’re all friends. We all know each other from volleyball and are on national teams in the future hopefully.”

Roure saved Hawaii from giving away the first set with consecutive kills after the score was tied at 25-all.

UH committed eight service errors in the opening set, including ones that gave UCSD its 21st, 22nd and 24th points to stay in the match.

Kai Taylor replaced Titriyski, who leads the team with 31 aces, as a serving substitution late in the set, before UH rode the arm of Roure, who had five kills in nine swings, to take a 1-0 lead.

A Sakanoko ace gave Hawaii an 11-5 lead to start the second set, but Hawaii again had too many self-inflicted wounds, with three straight errors prompting Wade to call timeout with his team ahead 11-9.

Both teams struggled from the service line, with a combined nine errors. Hawaii came out of the media timeout leading 15-11 and substituted Kainoa Wade in at opposite for Titriyski, who was hitting negative for the match.

UH went to the middle with Hazan, starting in place of Justin Todd, putting down three kills out of UH’s last eight points to go up 2-0.

With Titriyski remaining on the sideline for the majority of the third set, the Tritons took it to the ‘Bows, earning their first set win of the weekend.

UCSD hit a series-high .379, with Schellinger getting untracked for six kills and Cherfan adding five.

The Tritons led by as many as eight multiple times. UH brought Titriyski back into the game for Wade trailing 22-14 and left him in the rest of the match.

Hawaii hits the road next for matches next weekend at No. 7 Cal State Northridge.