The lessons have endured.
Twice last season, Hawaii repeatedly saw tight sets tip across the net in losses to Long Beach State in a key Big West men’s volleyball road trip.
Since that weekend in Southern California, the Rainbow Warriors have won 18 consecutive matches in a streak fueled in part by a knack for performing in the pivotal moments. Along the way, the Warriors collected last year’s Big West and national championships and have rolled to a 9-0 start to this season.
After an extended, and productive, gap between home matches, No. 1 UH returns to SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center for tonight’s series opener with Concordia University Irvine (4-5) having won 24 consecutive sets and aiming to maintain the nation’s longest winning streak.
The set streak was tested twice last week at Stanford, but the Warriors managed to fend off or rally past the Cardinal to close out a sweep in the series opener last Friday then set up another in the rematch.
Upon the team’s return, UH coach Charlie Wade spoke of the Warriors’ penchant for playing well late in sets in contrast to last year’s series at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach.
In the opener, each set was tied at 21-21 before the Beach managed to pull out a 22-25, 25-23, 26-24, 27-25 win. In the rematch, Beach closed the first two sets with 4-0 and 4-1 runs on its way to a 25-23, 25-20, 21-25, 25-19 victory.
The Warriors responded by winning their final nine matches of 2022, flipping the late-set narrative on multiple occasions.
“We had leads, we were right there and we couldn’t close them out (in the regular season),” Wade recalled. “Then you fast forward to the Big West tournament and it’s the same situation and we were able to close them out. Again in the NCAA tournament, similar kind of thing where were able to finish.
“And that’s been a characteristic of this team so far this year. That there is this level of comfort, there is this level of confidence at the end where we can just keep performing at a really high level.”
Last week, UH traded points with Stanford deep into a third set that went to deuce before a Guilherme Voss kill and Jakob Thelle’s ace ended the match. In the first set last Saturday, the Warriors squandered two set points then survived a Cardinal serve for the set before ending it with a block followed by a kill off an overpass of Dimitrios Mouchlias’ serve.
“We are old enough to have experienced losing a set when you’re up four or five points,” Mouchlias said. “So we don’t give any second chances.”
Mouchlias and Wade credited “mini-games” the Warriors play in practice starting at 18-18.
“You don’t have much time for error,” Wade said. “You have to perform really well and it certainly helped us be able focus and compete in the moment.”
The Warriors will look to extend their streaks in their series with Concordia today and Friday.
The Golden Eagles of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation were swept in two losses to Big West member UC Irvine then knocked off then-No. 12 Loyola Chicago on Feb. 2. They’ve since dropped matches to Benedictine Mesa and The Master’s before making the trip to Hawaii.
“There’s some mixed results,” Wade said. “They’ve proven they have the talent to beat anybody.”
Concordia opposite Uriel Batista, a 6-foot-4 senior from Panama, ranks fifth in the nation with 4.35 kills per set and second with 10.46 attempts per set. Batista has 113 total kills with outside hitter Johnny Anselmo, who began his collegiate career as a libero at Cal State Northridge, is next with 68.
Middle blocker Gil Herold, a 6-6 senior, ranks ninth in the nation with a .450 hitting percentage with 58 kills and nine errors in 109 attempts.
CUI has three Hawaii high school graduates on the roster: sophomore libero Cruse Ae’a (Kamehameha), freshman setter Keegan Au Yuen (Punahou) and freshman middle blocker Dylan Friedl (Kamehameha).
Big West tourney tickets on sale
All-session ticket packages for the Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship are now available for purchase. The tournament will be held April 20-22 at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center.
Tickets are available at ucirvinetickets.evenue.net. Single-session tickets will go on sale in April.
Rainbow Warriors volleyball
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
Concordia Irvine (4-5) vs. No. 1 Hawaii (9-0)
>> When: Today and Friday, 7 p.m.
>> TV: Spectrum Sports (Today only)
>> Radio: 1420-AM/92.7-FM (Today), 1500-AM (Friday)
