UC San Diego had posted just four wins over Hawaii in the first 64 men’s volleyball meetings between the schools.
Suddenly, the Tritons have won two in a row in the series with the Rainbow Warriors after pulling out a second straight five-set win over No. 3 UH on Wednesday in La Jolla, Calif.
UCSD outside hitters Ryan Ka and Kyle McCauley put away 19 kills each and the 10th-ranked Tritons held
off UH’s comeback bid in a 25-22, 25-23, 25-27, 18-25, 15-9 win at RIMAC Arena.
The teams conclude their Big West series with
a rematch on Friday.
In the previous meeting, UC San Diego stunned host UH in five sets in the semifinals of last year’s Big West tournament at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
The Tritons (8-6, 1-1 Big West) pushed past the Warriors (13-3, 0-1) late in the first two sets in Wednesday’s match before UH survived in extra points in the third and extended the match again with a commanding win in the fourth set.
UH took a 6-4 lead in the fifth, but UCSD took the lead on a UH service error, an attack error and a block and later closed the match with a 6-1 run to end the Warriors’ nine-match winning streak and their run of 11 straight regular-season Big West wins.
“I though we served pretty good early, but they were just in system a lot and their setter (Blake Crisp) does a nice job,” UH coach Charlie Wade said on a Zoom call with media. “Their last match they had four starters out and they had them back and it obviously made a big difference for them.”
Crisp, Ka and middle blocker Shane Benetz were among the Tritons who sat out UCSD’s four-set loss to UC Santa Barbara a week ago today.
In his return to the lineup, Crisp distributed 63 assists ran an attack that posted 20 kills on .424 hitting in the first set. After an error-prone fourth set, the Tritons put away nine kills in 10 attempts with no errors to pull away in the fifth.
Ka had 11 digs to post a double-double as did McCauley, who had 12 digs. Benetz had 14 kills in the middle and combined with Logan Clark (eight kills) to hit .613 between them.
UH opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias led the Warriors with 13 kills in 36 attempts and had 10 digs in his second double-double of the season. Middle blocker Guilherme Voss had nine kills on .438 hitting and was in on eight blocks, including three solo. Outside hitter Spyros Chakas finished with nine kills with two aces.
But the Tritons’ popped up 56 digs to UH’s 37 and held the Warriors to a .192 attack percentage. UH entered the conference opener first in the Big West and second nationally at .362.
“Their defense was really good early,” Wade said. “They outdug us by a big number and that first set they had 20 kills and we have seven. We struggled to put a ball down and once we got it going I thought we were playing well enough to win the match by the time the fifth set started.”
After UH dropped the first two sets, Wade inserted Kana’i Akana, Filip Humler and Max Rosenfeld into the lineup in place of Chakas, Chaz Galloway and Kyler Presho. Chakas returned as a serving substitute midway through the third set and delivered an ace that gave UH a 15-14 lead.
A block by Mouchlias and Rosenfeld gave UH a 21-19 cushion, but there would be five ties late in the set and UCSD fought off two set points before Voss kept the Warriors alive with a solo block of Benetz.
UCSD committed 12 of its 30 attack errors in the fourth set, five coming on UH blocks, and UH setter Jakob Thelle’s ace sent the Warriors to a fifth set for the second time this season.
But as in their loss at Ball State on Jan. 31, the Warriors couldn’t keep pace late in the decisive set and lost in La Jolla for the first time since 2011.
“We’ve talked about it and just the level of engagement has got to be better,” Wade said. “We weren’t that into it to start. Just defensively, they were groveling and working harder than we do and that’s a problem. And if you’re going to let a team at home play harder than you, you’re probably going to lose, especially in our league.”
