University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team gives coach Charlie Wade 200th win

The odometer hit 200 as the University of Hawaii volleyball team continued to roll, this time ousting UC San Diego in three sets on Thursday night.

The 25-20, 25-19, 25-23 victory at RIMAC Arena in La Jolla, Calif., was the 200th in the career of Charlie Wade, who is in his 12th season as the Rainbow Warriors’ head coach. “It’s kind of like winning 199,” Wade mused. “I just hope it’s not the last.”

Later, Wade spoke of the overall significance of helping restore the Warriors to the volleyball glory of the 1990s through early 2000s.

“For me, that’s the gratifying part for us,” Wade said. “We’ve got the program to the point where we’re competing at the highest level.”

The view might become more elevated for the second-ranked Warriors. No. 1 Brigham Young lost to Grand Canyon.

The Warriors concluded business on this season-opening road trip of four matches in five days. After dropping the opening set to UC Irvine on Sunday night, the Warriors won the next 12 sets, including back-to-back sweeps of feisty UC San Diego. UH, UCI and UCSD are Big West members, although none of the four matches counted toward the league standings.

“You cannot take for granted any set,” Wade said. “They’re always going to be a grind. Life in the Big West. All the teams are good, and you’re going to have to play at a high level to win each and every one.”

The Tritons were without outside hitter Wyatt Harrison, who suffered an injury to his left ankle during pre-match warmups. Ryan Ka, a 6-foot-3 freshman, replaced Harrison in the rotation, smacking a team-high 12 kills. The Tritons held a late lead in the third set, and later forced a 23-all tie.

But the Tritans’ quick attack was not quick enough. UH’s active block, the 1-2 oomph from outside hitter Colton Cowell and opposite Rado Parapunov, and efficient passing ruled out any upset hopes. After only four kills through the first third of the second set, Cowell finished with 13. Parapunov, mixing line and angle shots from several depths, had 11 kills and hit .421.

“I thought we gutted it out,” Wade said. “We had to push a lot of buttons and make some adjustments. But in the critical moments, we played well.”

The Tritons’ usual pattern is to speed-set the middles near the net. But the Warriors’ crisp serves delayed the Tritons’ relay to the middle. Logan Clarke and Shane Benetz were fed only 13 of the Tritons’ 85 sets. The Warriors countered with a block advantage of 11 to four. In the Warriors’ four matches, their middles committed four attack errors in 66 swings.

Two players who were reserves at the beginning of the trip – outside hitter Spyros Chakas and middle Max Rosenfeld — have been impactful as starters. Chakas passed 17 serves without an error; in all, the Warriors were perfect in passing the 50 UCSD serves that were inbounds. Rosenfeld contributed to four of the Warriors’ 11 blocks.

“We’ve practiced for a long time,” Wade said. “We’ve got a good idea how people can contribute. You try to put guys in situations where they’re going to have success. It is gratifying when you put a guy in, and give him an opportunity, and they come in and play well.”