Playing without two of its regular starting pin hitters, the third-ranked Hawaii men’s volleyball team is a victory away from winning at least a share of the Big West regular-season title.
Freshman outside hitter Adrien Roure put down a team-high 16 kills with nine digs and fellow freshman Finn Kearney added 11 kills to lead the Rainbow Warriors over No. 18 UC Santa Barbara 25-22, 19-25, 25-22, 25-20 on Friday night at The Thunderdome in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Middle blocker Kurt Nusterer added nine kills and six blocks and hit .692 for Hawaii (24-4, 7-2 Big West), which played without opposite Kristian Titriyski and outside hitter Louis Sakanoko.
Titriyski missed his third consecutive match with an ankle injury. Sakanoko didn’t make the trip with what a UH official said was a lower leg injury.
“Obviously we gutted out a win, again, with different lineups we haven’t played together much,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “Good to see us get some good enough individual performances to get what really was a team win with lots of guys contributing.”
Despite missing two key weapons, Hawaii kept pace with Long Beach State for first place in the Big West and can earn at least a split of the regular-season championship with a win today at 4 in its regular-season finale against the Gauchos, who fell to 11-15 and 2-7.
UCSB finished with a higher hitting percentage, .267 to .248, and outdug UH 38-35. Both teams had 10 blocks and the Rainbow Warriors doubled up the Gauchos in aces, 8-4.
George Bruening led all players with 19 kills for the UCSB.
Roure was a perfect 6-for-6 hitting in the opening set and Kearney added five kills in eight swings with no errors and three blocks.
A diving dig on set point by Kearney kept the play alive and Roure ended it with a left-handed kill to give the Rainbow Warriors an early lead.
Roure struggled in the second set with five errors and no kills and got no help on any potential block touch calls that the Gauchos took advantage of to tie the match in the second.
“I don’t think either coach won a challenge the entire night,” Wade said. “That second set I could have lost six challenges if they would have let me.”
UH retook the lead after the third set, scoring the final three points after it was tied at 22-all. Setter Tread Rosenthal faked a kill attempt and then found Kearney on the right side for a kill to go up a point. Rosenthal then gave UH set point with a dump kill and ended it with a solo block.
Hawaii fell behind by as many as three points in the fourth set before Kainoa Wade, as a serving sub, went on a six-point run with an ace as UH turned an 11-8 deficit into a 15-11 lead.
Nusterer put down his final kill to get to set point and a UCSB attack error on UH’s fourth match point ended it.
Kainoa Wade started the match at opposite and played the first two sets with three kills and four errors in 15 swings.
Senior Clay Wieter came in at outside and Kearney moved to opposite for the final two sets and Wieter had four kills and three errors on 10 swings with five digs.
“Putting Clay in the formation was just a little better with the receiving piece and that was kind of the idea,” Charlie Wade said. “Kainoa deserves a ton of credit for that service turn in the fourth set.”
The win tied Charlie Wade with Mike Wilton for the most by a UH coach at 316. Hawaii has won 20 consecutive matches against the Gauchos.
