No. 3 Hawaii sweeps away Long Island in men’s volleyball

Hawaii picked up where it left off on Tuesday and swept Long Island for a second straight match tonight at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

After recovering from a slow start to hit .541 in the final two sets in the series opener, the third-ranked Rainbow Warriors were efficient to open the rematch and turned in a .538 performance in a 25-9, 25-13, 25-17 win.

Hawaii sophomore Spyros Chakas led the Rainbow Warriors (9-2) with 10 kills in 17 attempts with no errors. Fellow sophomore Dimitrios Mouchlias put away nine kills in 11 attempts in two sets and fired four aces in a seven-point service run in the opening set.

Middle blocker Guilherme Voss was in on six of UH’s 12 blocks and the Warriors won their fifth straight entering Friday’s finale of the three-match series.

Mouchlias had a relatively quiet two sets in Tuesday’s series opener with four kills and three errors in 13 attempts. He matched his kill total in his first five swings and tied a career high with four aces in his lone service turn of the opening set.

Mouchlias broke a 4-4 tie with his second kills of the match then fired three consecutive aces to force a Long Island timeout. After a kill by Filip Humler, Mouchlias added his fourth of the run to match his previous best set against Queens in his freshman year in 2020.

The Warriors opened the second set with a 7-0 run with Jakob Thelle on the service line. Mouchlias ended his night with three kills in a five-point run to close the second set.

The third set was the closest of the night and UH opened up a 15-11 lead on a Kana’i Akana’s ace, UH’s eighth of the night.