No. 1 University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team tested in 4-set home win over No. 12 UC San Diego
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hawaii opposite Rado Parapunov rose for a kill as UC San Diego outside hitter Ryan Ka (9) went to block during the first set of Friday’s match at the SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
Tested through 2 1/2 sets, top-ranked Hawaii surged away from No. 12 UC San Diego in a four-set victory tonight at SimpliFi Arena.
The Rainbow Warriors and Tritons split the first two sets and UCSD led 17-16 in the third. But UH (8-0, 3-0 Big West) reclaimed control with a 5-1 run on its way to taking the set and dominated the Tritons (1-6, 1-2) in the fourth set to close out a 25-21, 23-25, 25-21, 25-15 win in the Warriors’ home opener.
UH senior Rado Parapunov led the Warriors with 17 kills and reached a milestone with his 100th career ace, becoming the eighth UH player to reach triple-digit and catching past UH greats Yuval Katz and Sivan Leoni.
Senior Colton Cowell put down 14 kills and freshman Chaz Galloway had a career-high 13 kills while hitting .417 and had six digs and was in on four blocks.
UH setter Jakob Thelle led the Warriors with 12 digs to go along with 42 assists in UH’s third win over UCSD this season. Guilherme Voss was in on six of UH’s 12.5 blocks to UCSD’s 5.5.
Kyle McCauley led UCSD with 17 kills in 33 swings and Ryan Ka finished with 10 kills.
The series concludes with another 7 p.m. match on Saturday at SimpliFi Arena.
