After being stunned in the second set and struggling early in the third, Hawaii’s firepower from the service line and at the net sent the third-ranked Rainbow Warriors to a 25-18, 22-25, 25-15, 25-9 win over Long Island on Friday.
Before receiving their 2021 national championship rings in a post-match ceremony, the Warriors were pushed to a fourth set by a first-year program before putting an emphatic cap to a match highlighted by a program-record 20 service aces and season-high 18.5 blocks before a crowd of 1,972 at at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
Filip Humler fired four of his seven aces in a seven-point run that gave UH control of the third set and Kana’i Akana added three in a 12-point service turn early in the fourth set. His final two aces tied and broke the previous UH record of 17 first set in 1995 and matched last week in a sweep of Queens in Texas.
“We took our foot off the gas a little bit and there were a couple funky plays, but we should have been better,” UH coach Charlie Wade said of dropping the second set. “We let some strange stuff go on and I think we weren’t completely dialed in.”
Given the Warriors’ recent schedule, “We really haven’t strung together a couple days of practice for quite a while now and that’s what it looked like.”
UH played without middle blocker Guilherme Voss and Cole Hogland finished with a career-high 10 blocks. Humler led the Warriors with 10 kills on 18 swings to help UH (10-2) overcome a sluggish start against the Sharks (3-10).
“We keep trying to rotate those middle through there and every time (Hogland) goes in there he impacts the game in a pretty significant way,” Wade said. “The kid can flat out get up and get over the net and block.”
After having to rally to win the first set of the series opener 26-24 on Tuesday, Hawaii had won the next five sets by an average of 12 points. After a day off, Long Island battled back to split the first two sets in the finale of the three-match series.
“To have this opportunity to play in the beautiful Stan Sheriff Center and play in front of this great crowd, it’s a great experience for them and kind of gives them an idea of what it’s like to play D-I volleyball,” LIU coach Shawn Patchell said. “We don’t have much experience. It’s coming along nicely; we got better this week, and that was the goal.
“It was nice to have the guys finally finish a set. … We believe in them, but it’s good when they can do it themselves.”
After UH closed out the first set on an ace by Dimitrios Mouchlias, the Warriors appeared to be rolling along when Kyler Presho served up his first two aces of the season to give UH a 6-2 lead in the second set.
But Long Island answered with a 9-1 surge that included three aces. The Sharks were able to protect the lead and stunned the Warriors with their fourth block of the set to tie the match at a set apiece.
“It was really a game of our energy,” Humler said. “The first set our energy was high, the second set that energy went down and that affected our performance.”
Wade shook up the lineup for the third set, taking out Mouchlias and Spyros Chakas and inserting Akana and Alaka’i Todd.
Long Island again threatened and closed to 10-9 on an ace by Jordan Cooper. Humler got the serve back for UH with his eighth kill of the match then went back to the service line and fired four consecutive aces in a seven-point run that put UH back in control.
“He blew that set open,” Wade said. “He ended up with 21 point in four sets and he’s a guy we absolutely need in the mix. When his serve is going like that he’s going impact the game. He’s a really good blocker and he’s a good out of system attacker.”
Akana’s extended service run in the fourth set included three aces and five blocks and gave UH a 14-1 lead as the Warriors closed out the series sweep.
“I was getting cold, not gonna lie,” Humler said of Akana’s 12-point turn. “Kanai’s a great server, a great player and he really stepped up and he took over. I was just getting a little cold there in the front row.”
Once the win was secure, the Warriors could enjoy another commemoration of last year’s title run with the presentation of the championship rings. Parents and relatives of some of last year’s seniors — including Gage Worsley, Patrick Gasman, Colton Cowell and Rado Parapunov — made the trip to accept their rings.
“When we get to take the stroll down memory lane, I make sure to take the time and appreciate it, just knowing how elusive winning is,” Wade said. “A lot of hard work went into putting us in that position.”
