Hawaii’s run of good fortune in staying healthy finally ran out.

The Rainbow Warriors’ 15-match road winning streak — and perhaps their stay atop the national men’s volleyball polls — also came to an end after No. 15 Ball State swept a depleted UH lineup 25-20, 25-18, 25-19 on Saturday in Muncie, Ind.

The Warriors (4-1) entered the match at Worthen Arena without three starters in setter Jakob Thelle, middle blocker Guilherme Voss and outside hitter Chaz Galloway and a key reserve in outside hitter Filip Humler.

Thelle and Voss did not make the trip due to health and safety protocols and Galloway had his left foot in a protective boot on the bench. Humler was on the sideline but also not available due to health protocols.

UH coach Charlie Wade is hopeful Galloway and Humler will be available for Monday’s rematch with the Cardinals (4-0). Thelle and Voss could rejoin the team later this week for the First Point Collegiate Challenge in Austin, Texas.

The Warriors had largely been able to avoid health issues during last year’s run to the national championship and in the early portion of this season. Now they’re dealing with obstacles that affected various programs at UH and throughout the country.

“Our guys are pretty responsible and pretty vigilant, and it doesn’t seem to escape anyone at this point,” Wade said in a post-match Zoom session with media. “It’s stuff that’s out of our control and we stay focused on who is available and try to do the best we can.

“We played a really good team tonight on the road with a lot of veteran guys and we have to play better to win.”

Ball State has yet to drop a set this season and entered the series leading the nation with a .461 hitting percentage, followed by Hawaii at .459.

The Cardinals put away their first nine attempts on Saturday and went on to hit .410 to UH’s .159 in their first win over a top-ranked team since 1995.

Ball State outside hitter Kaleb Jenness led the way with 19 kills in 30 attempts (.467). Opposite Angelos Mandilaris added 14 kills in 26 swings.

“I’m happy for the guys, they deserve it,” first-year Ball State coach Donan Cruz said on the ESPN+ broadcast. “Hawaii did their best, they’re out some guys, but we’re just proud we were able to execute the things we wanted to do.

“That’s a defending national champion, they know what they’re doing and we stayed the course and so that was great for us.”

UH was missing the national leaders in aces (Thelle, 18) and hitting percentage (Voss, .710) and the Warriors’ kills leader (Galloway, 3.11 per set).

In their place, freshman Jack Walmer made his first career start at setter and outside hitter Kana’i Akana and middle blocker Kyler Presho also made their first starts.

“Certainly (Walmer) doesn’t have the reps with (the starting) group that Jake does, but he’s in practice every day and I thought he did a nice job,” Wade said. “He’s a good player that can play at a high level and it’s kind of a tough situation for him, but I’m sure he embraced the opportunity and overall our team has to play better to win that match.”

Akana, Spyros Chakas and Dimitrios Mouchlias led the Warriors with six kills each. Outside hitter Keoni Thiim started the third set and had UH’s lone ace.

“We get a ton of reps with everyone in practice, we’re all really confident with each other,” Akana said. “I don’t think we executed to the best we could have, but if we played our game I think we would have done really well.”