Thirteen days off was no problem for the No. 3-ranked Hawaii men’s volleyball team.
Senior Alaka’i Todd put down a match-high 15 kills in 21 swings and the Rainbow Warriors doubled up Missouri S&T in each of the first two sets before closing out a 25-12, 25-12, 25-20 victory on Thursday night.
A SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 3,418 watched the Rainbow Warriors (11-1) win their 10th straight match and 61st in a row at home against an unranked opponent.
Keoni Thiim chipped in nine kills, including a thunderous smash to end the match, and Chaz Galloway added seven kills in 10 swings in the first two sets.
Other than Spyros Chakas, who has not played in all three matches this month against unranked opponents, Hawaii coach Charlie Wade rode his starting lineup the first two sets before going to the bench in the third.
“We had a week off and we wanted to get them some run in the game,” Wade said. “Wanted to get them to log some time on the court and it was pretty clean.”
Freshman setter Tread Rosenthal had a match-high 19 assists and was in on four blocks before giving way to graduate senior Kevin Kauling to start the third set.
Hawaii went to its bench to start the third set with freshmen Louis Sakanoko and Alex Parks in the game.
The Miners led as late as 18-17 before Hawaii rallied with eight of the final 10 points.
“No discredit to them, I think it was just our side. We kind of just came into that last set with a little bit of nerves and (figuring) out the different flow of the guys on the court,” Todd said. “Those guys hadn’t played together for a while, so once we figured out the back half of the set, kind of a smooth road.”
Hawaii outblocked the Miners 10-2, with nine coming in the first two sets. UH was flirting with one of its best hitting percentages in program history after two sets, hitting .676.
UH had only three hitting errors before committing six in the final set.
“One of the things we really talk about so much is the level of engagement and at the end of the day, against a team like that, and no discredit to them, what they are doing on their side of the net isn’t as important as what we’re doing on our side of the set,” middle Kurt Nusterer said. “Eleven (total) errors in the first two sets and making that many errors in the third, when you’re making that many errors any team can get you.”
Despite the layoff and playing without Chakas, who was the AVCA National Player of the Week following the Stanford matches, Hawaii was in postseason form from the start.
UH put down its first seven kill attempts to race out to a 9-3 lead, and Todd, Galloway and Thiim combined for 10 kills in 13 swings in the opening set.
The last of Rosenthal’s four blocks — and Hawaii’s six — was a triple block to set up set point.
The Miners, who had more errors than kills in the first set, committed their fourth service error without an ace to end the first set.
It was more of the same in the second set as Rosenthal served during a 5-0 scoring run to start. Hawaii built the lead to as many as 13 and again doubled up on the Miners with Missouri S&T hitting out on set point.
“Pretty clean, and that’s ultimately the test is how productive and how efficient you are,” Wade said. “Pretty clean in the two sets for sure.”
The third set went much different, with the Miners taking a 13-12 lead off a Hawaii net violation.
UH had four attack errors less than halfway through the third set after making only three in the first two sets combined.
The Miners took their final lead at 18-17 on Hawaii’s fifth hitting error in the set. Todd answered with an easy kill going up against no block and Sakanoko blasted his first ace off a Miners player to put UH in front for good.
Aaron Sallade had six kills to lead the Division II Miners (8-7), who hit .053 for the match.
The two teams will play again tonight at 7.
NO. 3 HAWAII DEF. MISSOURI S&T
25-12, 25-12, 25-20
MINERS (8-7)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Sallade 3 6 8 21 -.095 1 1 7.5
Johnwick 3 5 0 9 .556 0 0 6.0
Rohlwing 3 5 1 9 .444 0 1 5.5
Meyer 3 4 5 17 -.059 4 0 4.0
Duett 3 3 4 17 -.059 4 0 3.0
Edmonds 3 1 2 3 -.333 0 0 1.0
Byas 3 0 0 0 .000 1 0 0.0
Giezycki 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
Orr 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
Small 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
Chmielwsk. 3 0 0 0 .000 3 0 0.0
Match 3 24 20 76 .053 13 2 27.0
rainbow warriors (11-1)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Todd 3 15 1 21 .667 3 2 17.0
Thiim 3 9 2 13 .538 3 2 12.0
Galloway 2 7 1 10 .600 2 2 8.0
Voss 2 3 0 3 1.000 0 2 4.0
Nusterer 3 2 0 4 .500 2 4 6.0
Rosenthal 2 2 1 3 .333 2 4 4.0
Sakanoko 1 2 4 9 -.222 3 0 3.0
Choy 3 0 0 0 .000 5 0 0.0
Taylor 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
Kauling 2 0 0 0 .000 3 0 0.0
Parks 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
Match 3 40 9 63 .492 23 16 54.0
Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces).
Service aces — Missouri S&T 1 (Johnwick). Hawaii 4 (Nusterer, Sakanoko, Thiim, Todd). Service errors — Missouri S&T 11 (Rohlwing 3, Duett 2, Meyer 2, Sallade 2, Edmonds, Giezycki). Hawaii 9 (Thiim 3, Rosenthal 2, Todd 2, Kauling, Taylor). Assists — Missouri S&T 22 (Edmonds 21, Meyer). Hawaii 35 (Rosenthal 19, Kauling 9, Choy 4, Thiim 2, Nusterer). Block solos — Missouri S&T 1 (Sallade). Hawaii 2 (Nusterer, Thiim). Ball handling errors —
Missouri S&T none. Hawaii none. Reception errors — Missouri S&T 4 (Meyer 3, Duett). Hawaii 1 (Team). A — 4,922. Officials — Mark Nakashima, Dickson Chun, Kerwin Stenstrom, Kevin Chun
