For the first time this season, the fourth-ranked Hawaii men’s volleyball team showed it can dominate a match from the service line.
Freshman Kristian Titriyski had five of the Rainbow Warriors’ season-high 16 aces and Hawaii remained undefeated with a 25-20, 25-18, 20-25, 25-17 victory over No. 19 Princeton on Wednesday night at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
A midweek crowd of 3,561 watched UH (5-0) completely turn around its serving numbers from the first four matches of the season, when it recorded more than twice as many errors as aces from behind the service line every time.
UH served in at an 83% clip and was even in aces and service errors. The numbers skewed a little less impressive at the end of the fourth set with three of Princeton’s final four points coming on UH serving errors with Hawaii well ahead.
“The overall efficiency number was better than what it showed at the end,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “Overall a step forward for us because we were both efficient and productive, which is always a good thing.”
Hawaii was on its way to a third sweep when the Tigers scored 12 of the final 16 points to take the third set. Princeton hit .867 in the third set with 13 kills and no errors.
Titriyski had six of his match-high 15 kills in the fourth set but finished with eight of Hawaii’s 16 hitting errors.
“I think the whole team served really good today, which made the difference,” Titriyski said.
Adrien Roure added three of his 12 kills and two of his three aces in the fourth set and hit .412 for the match.
Hawaii played without middle Ofeck Hazan, who remains out with an injury to his finger.
Setter Tread Rosenthal had 28 assists and two blocks
Nyherowo Omene had 14 kills and Mason Rice added 12 kills for the Tigers (0-2), who hit .358 for the match.
Hawaii fell behind 7-3 in the first set when Rosenthal put a scare into the home crowd by colliding with Clay Wieter on a diving dig attempt of a tip shot by Princeton’s Mason Rice.
Rosenthal stayed on the court as blood started to pour out of his nose. After a moment, he managed to get up and get it plugged before coming back out without missing a point.
“I could see he was bleeding but I couldn’t quite tell where,” Wade said. “It was his nose, which is a lot better than his eyeball, or his skull. There seemed to be a lot of bleeding tonight.”
The Rainbow Warriors immediately went on a 7-1 run with Wieter serving five consecutive points to prompt the Tigers to call their first timeout.
The match was stopped again temporarily with the score tied 13-13 when Princeton floor captain Henry Wedbush was bleeding from a knee, forcing another quick cleaning of the Taraflex surface.
UH led 18-17 when Finn Kearney entered the match for the first time and promptly served four straight UH points with back-to-back aces, giving Hawaii separation at 22-17. Roure ended the set with UH’s third ace.
“We have to try to keep that going for the whole season,” Roure said.
The second set featured long scoring runs from both teams. Wedbush had two aces during a seven-point scoring streak for the Tigers that turned a 15-9 deficit into a 16-15 lead.
Hawaii took control of the set with a five-point run in which Titriyski served back-to-back aces to put the Rainbow Warriors ahead 22-17.
Wieter ended the set with an ace that was originally ruled out before being overturned on a challenge. The next serve was a no-doubter, giving UH 10 aces and a 2-0 lead in the match.
Hawaii was closing in on its third sweep of the season when the Tigers scored 12 of the final 16 points in the third set to extend the match.
Princeton’s 13 kills came in 15 swings.
“That was impressive,” Wade said. “Sure we made some errors and I think Tread probably wants a few of those sets back, but we were rolling along and hats off to them. They hit almost .900 in one set.”
The teams meet again Friday at 7 p.m.
NO. 4 HAWAII DEF. NO. 19 PRINCETON 25-20, 25-18, 20-25, 25-17
TIGERS (0-2)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Omene 414 5 28 .321 3 3 18.5
Rice 412 1 19 .579 4 1 12.5
Vena 4 5 1 10 .400 1 2 7.0
Mellon 2 4 1 7 .429 1 0 4.0
Wedbush 4 2 0 4 .500 2 1 4.5
Whitfield 2 2 1 3 .333 1 0 2.0
Wells 3 1 0 1 1.000 0 2 2.0
Vaccaro 2 1 1 5 .000 1 0 2.0
Werner 1 1 3 4 -.500 0 1 1.5
Alvia 4 0 0 0 .000 2 0 0.0
MATCH 4 42 13 81 .358 15 10 54.0
RAINBOW WARRIORS (5-0)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Titriyski 415 8 28 .250 2 0 20.0
Roure 412 3 21 .429 4 0 15.0
Todd 4 7 1 9 .667 0 1 9.5
Nusterer 4 5 1 8 .500 1 0 5.0
Wieter 4 5 2 13 .231 1 0 8.0
Rosenthal 4 4 1 5 .600 5 1 6.5
Wade 4 0 0 0 .000 1 0 0.0
Choy 4 0 0 0 .000 4 0 0.0
Kearney 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2.0
MATCH 4 48 16 84 .381 18 2 66.0
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 — Princeton 6 (Omene 3,
Wedbush 2, Vena). Hawaii 16 (Titriyski 5,
Roure 3, Wieter 3, Kearney 2, Todd 2,
Rosenthal). Service errors — Princeton
17 (Omene 5, Wedbush 4, Rice 3, Mellon,
Vena, Wells, Werner, Whitfield). Hawaii 16
(Roure 3, Titriyski 3, Rosenthal 3, Kearney
2, Wieter 2, Todd 2, Nusterer). Assists —
Princeton 40 (Wedbush 36, Rice 2,
Omene, Vena). Hawaii 44 (Rosenthal 38,
Choy 2, Roure 2, Wieter 2). Block solos
— Princeton 1 (Vaccaro). Hawaii 1 (Rosenthal). Ball handling errors — Princeton
none. Hawaii none. Reception errors —
Princeton 16 (Alviar 7, Vaccaro 3, Mellon 2,
Omene 2, Rice , Werner). Hawaii 6 (Wieter
3, Choy, Roure, Team). T — 2:27. A —
3,561. Officials — Randy Rubonal, Dickson Chun, Hunter Haliniak, Kerwin Stenstrom
