No. 1 Hawaii volleyball team closes out No. 7 Loyola Chicago in 4 sets

After being extended to a fourth set, No. 1 Hawaii made quick work of Loyola Chicago to close out a series sweep on Friday.

Coming off a sweep of the seventh-ranked Ramblers in Wednesday’s season opener and cruising through the first two sets of the rematch, the Rainbow Warriors dropped their first set of the season, then found another gear to finish off a 25-19, 25-16, 18-25, 25-14 win to close the Outrigger Challenge at Simplifi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

After hitting .250 in the third set, the Warriors bolted out to a 15-5 lead in the fourth on their way to fending off the Ramblers before a crowd of 2,131.

“That third set Loyola played well. Like I said, they didn’t come out here for a vacation,” UH coach Charlie Wade said. “They’ve got a really good team and they came out to win and we took our foot off the gas a little bit and they went on a little run and we couldn’t get it back under control.

“It was about the level of engagement, guys being fully into it and really proud of the guys for stepping up and really taking on that challenge and starting the fourth set really strong.”

UH outside hitter Chaz Galloway led the the Warriors with 12 kills and opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias put away a career-high 11 kills while contributing six digs and four blocks to the UH defense.

Mouchlias spent last season in Greece to rehab from an injury while UH went on its national title run. He contributed one of UH’s three aces in the surge to open the fourth set on Friday.

“We just had to calm down and play our game and enjoy it,” Mouchlias said of the Warriors’ mindset in the closing set.

Wade also praised Mouchlias’ performance from the service line after he struggled in that area in his first match since the 2020 season.

“I was most happy with him from the service line,” Wade said. “He did not serve well on (Wednesday) … (On Friday) he had 16 service attempts without an error and with an ace and bringing it. He was absolutely cracking it.”

UH altered the starting lineup after Wednesday’s opener, with Stanford transfer Kyler Presho starting at middle blocker and Filip Humler at an outside hitter spot.

Humler finished with six kills and five digs and sophomore Spyros Chakas, who started Wednesday’s match, joined the lineup to start the fourth. Chakas helped spark the Warriors with three kills in four swings, an ace and a solo block in the final set.

“It’s not like (Humler) was playing bad, but guys don’t like sitting on the bench watching,” Wade said. “Really proud of Spyros for handling that like a man and coming out there and really giving us a lift in the fourth set.”

The Warriors were able to sideout at 85% (17-for-20) in the first set, with the aid of six Loyola service errors.

UH setter Jakob Thelle opened the second set with a seven-point service run highlighted by back-to-back aces and a triple block of Mouchlias, Guilherme Voss and Galloway.

The Warriors’ floor defense also proved to be a key, with 11 digs in the set, including a dig-kill for Mouchlias when he saved a shot from Cole Schlothauer and the Ramblers couldn’t bring it back over, giving UH a 15-6 lead. UH went on to close out the set when Voss hammered an overpass of a Thelle serve.

The Warriors didn’t trail in the first two sets and fell behind for the first time early in the third when Colton Brooks posted a solo block on Galloway. The Ramblers opened up a four-point lead and the Warriors closed to 15-14 on Mouchlias’ 10th kill.

Loyola answered with a 4-0 run, including an ace by Brooks, and traded sideouts and closed out the set with a kill in the middle by Andrew Lyons.

The Ramblers scored the first point of the fourth set, but a Thelle-to-Voss kill triggered a 7-1 UH run to give UH control and the duo connected again on match point to close out the night. Voss finished with nine kills in 13 attempts without an error.

Parker Van Buren led Loyola Chicago with 14 kills amd Brooks added 11.

“I thought we passed and served the ball well on night one, I don’t think we did that as well on night 2, but our net play was better,” Loyola coach Mark Hulse said. “So if we could have put those two together maybe we win more sets.

“Some positives takeaways. Obviously a really, really good team in Hawaii. Hopefully more people give them more credit. Those guys that maybe haven’t played the last couple years for them can really play at a high level.”

The Warriors close their season-opening homestand with a two-match series with first-year program Edward Waters starting Jan. 14.