Hawaii men’s volleyball team beats Cal State Northridge in 4

Hawaii outside hitter Spyros Chakas put away a career-high 24 kills to lead the Rainbow Warrior volleyball team to a four-set victory over Cal State Northridge tonight at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

Chakas posted the highest kill total for a UH player this season while hitting .488 and No. 4 Hawaii held off the Matadors 25-20, 25-20, 23-25, 25-19 before a crowd of 3,516.

UH outside hitter Chaz Galloway added 11 kills and seven digs and middle blocker Guilherme Voss finished with nine kills and four blocks.

CSUN served up 10 aces, the most surrendered by Hawaii this season, with five coming in the third set when the Matadors ended a streak of 17 consecutive sets lost. CSUN outside hitter Kyle Hobus led the Matadors with 15 kills in 25 attempts and middle blocker Daniel Wetter added 11 kills.

The Warriors (17-3, 2-1 Big West) and Matadors (5-9, 0-3) meet again on Saturday.

>> PHOTOS: Hawaii vs. CSUN

CSUN edged out to a 16-15 lead in the first set before Chakas powered a 7-2 UH surge to give the Warriors command. After Voss posted UH’s first block of the night, Chakas accounted for the next five Warrior points with four kills and a solo block. His kill out of the back row gave UH a 23-18 lead and the Warriors went on to close out the set on back-to-back CSUN errors.

The Matadors jumped out to a 12-7 lead in the second set on consecutive aces from Hobus. CSUN maintained an 18-15 edge when UH went on a three-point run and tied it when Thelle fed Voss for a kill in the middle a point after the duo combined on a block of Griffin Walters.

After a service error gave CSUN the lead back, a Chakas kill led into a five-point service run by Thelle and a Voss block gave the Warriors set point. Chakas then closed the set with his 11th kill of the match.

UH took a 13-6 lead in the third set before CSUN fired four aces in a 9-1 run to take a 15-14 lead into the media timeout. ‘Eleu Choy entered the match at libero in the Farrington graduate’s second appearance of the season in an effort to steady the Warriors’ serve reception.

The teams traded points in a series of seven ties before Wetter put away a kill in the middle then blocked Galloway to end a rally to give the Matadors a 23-21 lead and force a UH timeout. CSUN closed out the set to win its first set since a four-set win over Stanford on Feb. 26.

Chakas’ 20th kill of the match gave the Warriors a 15-11 lead at the fourth set media timeout and his 21st forced a CSUN timeout at 17-11. Chakas ended the night with his final kill coming off an overpass of a serve by Dimitrios Mouchlias.