Surrounded by an array of terminating talent, Hawaii setter Jakob Thelle added himself to the attack on Saturday.
Along with directing an efficient offense, Thelle finished off seven points himself in the top-ranked Rainbow Warriors’ sweep in Saturday’s Big West men’s volleyball rematch with No. 12 UC San Diego at SimpliFi Arena.
After finishing Friday’s home opener with a dominant fourth set, the Rainbow Warriors took control early in all three sets in the rematch and hit a collective .448 while improving to 9-0 overall and 4-0 in Big West play with a 25-15, 25-19,
25-21 victory.
“That third set (on Friday) was critical, we really established our volleyball,” UH senior Colton Cowell of UH’s surge to take control in the series opener. “Typically this season, I don’t think we’ve been a strong starting team, and we just made it a very big focal point this evening to start strong and not take our foot off the gas.”
After improving to 4-0 against UCSD (1-7, 1-3 Big West) this season and extending their winning streak in the series with the Tritons to 17, the Warriors continue their homestand with matches against No. 7 Long Beach State next Friday and Saturday at SimpliFi Arena.
Thelle had his pick of weapons on Saturday and Rado Parapunov led the Warriors with 12 kills while hitting .526 with Cowell finishing with 11 kills in 23 attempts. Chaz Galloway added nine kills and middle blocker Patrick Gasman put down seven kills and served up UH’s lone ace after sitting out the final two sets on Friday.
Thelle set career highs with seven kills on nine attempts, most coming on swings on the second touch, without a hitting error.
“It’s great. It’s just something more the other team has to focus on in their scouting report,” Cowell said. “When he jumps and he gets two guys up with him, he relieves one of the blockers for our team to attack. Just that extra pressure, we’re a hard team to defend when we dig the ball up to the net for him and he’s capable of putting it away.”
Thelle, a 6-foot-6 sophomore from Norway, distributed 38 assists, popped up five digs and was in on two of UH’s seven blocks.
“Jake’s just such a nice athlete and he really impacts the game in so many ways,” UH coach Charlie Wade said. “He serves inbounds at over 90%, he did again tonight. … He was in on two blocks tonight, played great defense. He’s impacting the game in a lot of different ways. It’s nice to have that level of athlete on the floor in what is the most dynamic and athletic position.”
Kyle McCauley led UCSD with 11 kills in 34 swings and the Tritons hit .212 as a team after hitting .170 on Friday.
UH took control early in the first set when Galloway went back for a six-point run at the service line. Thelle ended a rally by hammering a kill on a second touch and put up a solo block on McCauley to give UH a 10-4 lead.
Cowell put down the first kill of the match and Thelle continued to feed the senior early on for six kills in nine attempts. UH collectively hit .481 with just one attack error in the opening set while UCSD hit .133.
“We kind of got a bead on them last night on the offense so I thought we did a pretty good job. We were efficient in the first set and defended well,” Wade said.
UH again moved ahead with Galloway on the service line in the second set. Galloway’s four-point run included two kills by Thelle, one on an overpass and another on a full swing off a dig by Gage Worsley, who led the Warriors with 13, to push UH ahead 10-6. The Warriors’ lead never dipped below three the rest of the set, which ended on Gasman’s ace.
Hawaii put together another early surge in the third set, with Cowell on the service line for a five-point run that gave UH a 7-2 lead. After a kill by a soaring Galloway pushed the lead to 24-18, the Tritons held off three match points before the night ended with their 10th service error.
