Although Chaz Galloway continues to work on regaining the spring in his legs, he showed ample elevation in a career-best performance on Saturday.
The Hawaii outside hitter posted 16 kills and 10 digs, both new career highs, to help lift the fourth-ranked Rainbow Warriors to a four-set win over No. 12 Lewis on Saturday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
Galloway’s production on the pins and from the back row and middle blocker Guilherme Voss’ career night at the net highlighted the Warriors’ 25-18, 27-29, 25-19, 26-24 win before a lively crowd of 3,549.
“It’s nice getting back to that big-event environment and it certainly helped,” UH coach Charlie Wade said. “The crowd definitely helped us push through in that fourth set. It was a lot of fun.”
Voss, the nation’s leading blocker, put up 12 of UH’s 16 blocks, including four solo, to pass his previous best of eight.
UH outside hitter Spyros Chakas recovered from a slow start to finish with 10 kills and had nine digs.
Cole Hogland returned from injury to put down UH’s final block on match point and the Warriors (16-3) completed a sweep of the two-match nonconference series.
Galloway missed eight matches this season with an ankle injury and was subbed out early in both of UH’s matches at UC San Diego on March 2 and 4.
He provided consistency in an often ragged overall attacking performance for the Warriors on Saturday in hitting .452 with two errors on 31 attacks. Although he said he’s still not 100%, his improved lift was particularly evident on his attacks out of the back row.
“I’m getting better every week,” Galloway said. “I’m doing a lot of therapy, so definitely tonight I felt like I was getting up there sort of like I used to. I was able to get on the bic (back-row attack) and that’s what I was struggling with before. So it was nice to be back on the bic and get up there.”
After an efficient hitting performance in Thursday’s series opening sweep, the Warriors hit .231 with 17 attack errors and 18 service errors. But they managed to fend off Lewis and John Davis’ match-high 23-kill performance. The Flyers hit .149 and had 21 service errors.
“We weren’t as efficient as we typically are either attacking or serving, but that’s what good teams will do. The games are closer and the points are tighter,” UH coach Charlie Wade said.
“Certainly tonight was not our best night, but for us the takeaway is we don’t have to be perfect to win against a really good team. … It was a pretty gutty performance and the crowd was a big part of it.”
UH setter Jakob Thelle opened the match with a five-point service run and Dimitrios Mouchlias had two aces in another 5-0 surge to close the first set. Mouchlias mixed speeds on his serves on back-to-back aces and pounded a kill through the Lewis block on set point.
Lewis closed out a duel in the second set that included 15 ties when Tyler Mitchem blocked Voss on the Flyers’ fourth set point.
Voss got payback in the third set with five blocks, three coming in a 7-2 surge that gave UH a 12-8 lead. The Warriors protected the lead the rest of the way, with Voss adding two solo blocks and Galloway ending the set with his first and UH’s 11th block of the night.
“I see it every day in practice. G is pretty insane,” Galloway said of Voss. “It’s good to see him doing well because he works so hard and he is one of the best blockers in the country — and I stand by that.”
Lewis’ Michael Sack served two aces in a 6-0 Flyers run early in the fourth set. UH erased a five-point deficit to catch the Flyers at 12-12.
Lewis took a 21-19 lead and Voss put away a kill in the middle and was in on two more blocks to give UH the lead. Chakas gave UH two match points at 24-22 with a kill out of the back row.
Lewis survived both to force deuce. Chakas then scored out of the back row and Hogland’s lone block of the night ended the match.