Dimitrios Mouchlias can add resilience to the attributes he’s displayed in his return to the Hawaii rotation this season.
Coming off a relatively quiet performance in the third-ranked Rainbow Warrior volleyball team’s series opener against Long Island on Tuesday, the sophomore opposite came out firing early in Wednesday’s rematch at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
Mouchlias bounced back from a season-low .077 performance to put away nine kills in 11 attempts and tied his career high with four aces — all coming in a seven-point service run in the first set — to help spark the Warriors’ second straight sweep of the Sharks.
“It was obvious that for me personally I didn’t play good last night, we all knew it,” Mouchlias said. “I was motivated today to play better and it turned out great from the service line. But the important thing was that we won.”
After recovering from a slow start to hit .541 in the final two sets in the series opener, the Warriors picked up where they left off in the rematch in a .538 performance with just four hitting errors in 52 swings on their way to a 25-9, 25-13, 25-17 win before a crowd of 1,800.
“Just being a little bit more engaged from the get go,” UH coach Charlie Wade said a night after UH survived a set point before rallying to take the opening set in Tuesday’s sweep. “We were a little flat last night and certainly a better level of engagement to start the match (on Wednesday).”
Hawaii sophomore Spyros Chakas led the Warriors (9-2) with 10 kills in 17 attempts with no errors. Middle blocker Guilherme Voss was in on six of UH’s 12 blocks and the Warriors — who entered the night third in the nation in blocks per set — won their fifth straight entering Friday’s finale of the three-match series.
Mouchlias was named the Big West Offensive Player of the Week on Monday after hitting .495 with 58 kills over four matches on the road, but struggled on Tuesday with four kills and three errors in 13 attempts. His previous low percentage was a .118 showing in UH’s loss to Ball State on Jan. 29. He came back two nights later to hit .538 with a season-high 21 kills and no errors.
“We’ve seen that a couple times if he has an off night he came back,” Wade said, “and he was a lot better tonight, obviously, attacking and from the service line.”
Mouchlias broke a 4-4 tie in the first set with his second kill of the match then fired three consecutive aces to force a Long Island timeout. After a kill by Filip Humler, Mouchlias added his fourth ace 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 and Jack Walmer capped the run with an ace.
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.
Although Thelle didn’t add to his nation-leading ace total, Wade put more emphasis on the duration of his turns with extended runs leading to 22 attempts.
“We’ve said I think this team has the potential to be really good from the service line because it’s not just one guy,” Wade said. “There’s all kinds of guys up and down the lineup and coming off the bench that have the potential to score for us and still maintain that high level of efficiency we pride ourselves on.”
After threatening the Warriors early in the opener, Long Island, a first-year program, hit negative-.015 on Wednesday with 23 kills and 24 hitting errors. The Sharks had three aces with 10 service errors.
Friday’s finale will also include another reminder of last year’s NCAA title run with the Warriors set to receive their championship rings following the match.
“It’ll be a fun night to take a stroll down memory lane a little bit and relive some of last year,” Wade said.
