Mahalo for supporting Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Enjoy this free story!
Back on its home court for the first time in more than a year, No. 1 Hawaii found itself tested by No. 12 UC San Diego for the first 21⁄2 sets of Friday’s Big West men’s volleyball match in SimpliFi Arena.
But the Rainbow Warriors snuffed any thoughts of an upset by pulling away late in the third set and dominating the Tritons in the fourth in a 25-21, 23-25, 25-21, 25-15 victory in their home opener.
Backed by cardboard cutouts behind the benches in an otherwise empty arena, the 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 surged to a 20-7 lead in the fourth to finish off its third win over UCSD (1-6, 1-2) this season and its 16th straight victory in the series with the Tritons dating back to 2013.
“It’s a little different without all the fans and the energy of the arena,” UH freshman Chaz Galloway said. “Our job is to go out there and play volleyball. Fans or not we have to go out there and execute.”
The Big West series concludes with another 7 p.m. match today at SimpliFi Arena.
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-digits and catching past UH greats Yuval Katz and Sivan Leoni.
Colton Cowell put down 14 kills and Galloway had a career-high 13 kills while hitting .417. Galloway’s previous high was 10 kills in a thrilling five-set win over BYU on March 6, 2020, in UH’s last appearance at home. He also finished with six digs and was in on four blocks.
UH setter Jakob Thelle led the Warriors with 12 digs to go along with 42 assists and middle blocker Guilherme Voss was in on six of UH’s 12.5 blocks to UCSD’s 5.5.
The Warriors had six blocks in the final set, and UH coach Charlie Wade credited the Warriors’ late surge to “some better runs from the service line and the timing on the block.”
“(The Tritons) run it really fast and it just takes a little time to get the timing down,” Wade said. “As the match wore on, we got the timing down better and defended better.”
Kyle McCauley led UCSD with 17 kills in 33 swings and Ryan Ka finished with 10 kills.
The Warriors swept the Tritons in two nonconference matches Feb. 24 and 25 in La Jolla, Calif., and ran their streak of sets won to 10 by ending the first set on Friday with a 4-1 run.
The Warriors had maintained a slim edge for most of the set and opened up a 23-20 lead when Cowell tracked down a Thelle dig in the back left corner and sent a no-look bump set diagonally across the court to a waiting Parapunov, who hammered the kill. UH ended the set three serves later when Thelle and Voss combined on a block of Ka.
But UC San Diego bounced back to hand UH just it’s third set loss of the season. McCauley put down seven kills while hitting .700 in the second set and this time the late run belonged to UCSD. A Hawaii net violation broke a 20-20 tie and McCauley’s kill from the back row gave the Tritons a two-point edge. The last four combined points of the set were scored on service errors.
Middle blocker Max Rosenfeld replaced UH All-American Patrick Gasman in the starting lineup for the third set and combined on a block with Thelle that pushed UH ahead 18-17. Spyros Chakas and Thelle fired aces in a 5-1 run that forced UCSD coach Kevin Ring to take his second timeout of the set. After five sideouts, a Cowell kill out of the back row gave UH set point and Voss ended it with a solo block of Logan Clark in the middle.
Rosenfeld finished with four kills on six attempts and was in on four blocks.
“Max does a nice every day job in practice and we knew we could get kind of an emotional lift from him and he’s a little more steady from the service line,” Wade said. “Certainly San Diego wasn’t ready for him to play and he gave us a lift and contributed and it was good to see.”
Thelle served the first four points of the fourth set, including an ace, and Galloway went on a six-point run as UH broke away to a 16-5 lead and cruised to the win, ending it on a solo block by Voss.
“We just needed to make adjustments,” Galloway said. “We’re used to guys touching super high in the gym and they hit low over the net and we weren’t used to that. So we had to make adjustments of going low and tight instead of going big and trying to get a stuff block and defense was a big part of that.”
72