Hawaii got an extended look at its first Big West tournament opponent on Thursday.
The top-ranked Rainbow Warriors earned a bye in the first round as the Big West’s regular-season men’s volleyball champion and the top seed in the tournament, giving them a chance to rest up and scout the first day of matches at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
The UH coaches were on hand to watch fourth-seeded UC San Diego advance with a four-set win over Cal State Northridge in the second match of the opening-round doubleheader to set up a meeting with the Warriors.
UCSD earned the program’s first Big West tournament victory and snapped a five-match losing streak that began after sweeping a series with CSUN on April 2 and 3.
Kyle McCauley put down 18 kills and fired three aces, the last coming on match point, and Ryan Ka finished with 17 kills in the Tritons’ 20-25, 25-23, 25-16, 25-23 win over the fifth-seeded Matadors.
“This showed a lot of maturity by the guys out there tonight,” UCSD coach Kevin Ring said. “It’s just one match tonight for us, but in many ways a real historic victory.”
The Warriors (15-0) and Tritons (4-12) meet in today’s second semifinal scheduled for 7 p.m. Second-seeded UC Santa Barbara, which also had a bye, takes on third-seeded Long Beach State in the 4:30 p.m. opener. The championship match is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, with the Big West’s automatic berth in the NCAA tournament at stake.
The Warriors reached the Big West tournament final in each of the event’s first two years, winning it in 2019 at the Stan Sheriff Center. With last season’s cancellation, UH entered the week as defending champion, and the first step in the title defense comes today in the Warriors’ fifth meeting with UCSD this season.
UH has won 17 straight in the series with UCSD and swept two nonconference matches with the Tritons in La Jolla, Calif., on Feb. 24 and 25. The Tritons managed to take a set in UH’s home opener on March 26, but the Warriors hit .375 in the series to take both matches at SimpliFi Arena.
Asked what the Tritons will need to do to break through against the Warriors, Ring replied, tongue in cheek, “I don’t know. You tell me.”
“They’re good, we know that,” he said. “They’re very strong in service receive. They’re very scrappy, they create a lot of good first-ball contacts. (UH senior) Colton Cowell, I think, is just a really strong passer and it’s tough to crack him from the service line. Obviously Rado (Parapunov) is gonna get a lot of sets and he’s tough to stop even when you’re putting guys on him. But we’re gonna come out and we’re gonna give it our best fight. It’s Team A versus Team B and the team that plays the best that night is going to win. So we have every right to get out there and fight and push for that and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
Cal State Northridge ended its season 2-9 despite middle blocker Daniel Wetter’s 18 kills on 30 attempts for a .567 hitting percentage and 13 kills from Ryan DeWeese.
CSUN hit .412 in the opening set, with DeWeese hammering from the pins and Wetter in the middle. Both sophomores put down six kills in 10 attempts without an error in the set, which the Matadors finished off with a 4-0 run.
The Matadors cooled off to hit .132 in the second set and the Tritons pounced to even the match at a set apiece. UCSD rolled the momentum into the third set, taking command with an 11-2 run that included aces by McCauley and Collin Shannon. Ka and Nick Rigo pushed the ace total to six as the UCSD swelled to 17-7 and the Tritons took a 2-1 lead in the match.
“In the two sets that we lost that were close they really served well and were able to go on big runs and we just weren’t able to stem the tide,” CSUN coach Jeff Campbell said. “I think their serving was a big difference. It caused all kinds of problems for our setting and subsequently our hitting.”
The Tritons opened up an 8-3 lead in the fourth set, but Wetter put down four kills in an 8-2 CSUN surge that pushed the Matadors ahead. UCSD strung together a four-point run to take a 20-18 lead, only to see CSUN answer with a 5-1 run to reclaim the lead at 23-21. After a service error, McCauley went back to serve and the Tritons earned match point when Shannon found the back corner and Shane Benetz tipped his eighth kill over the block. McCauley then ended the night with the Tritons’ ninth ace.
