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Contributions from far and near helped power fourth-ranked Hawaii past Cal State Northridge in its Big West home opener.
UH outside hitter Spyros Chakas, who celebrated Greek Independence Day on Friday, put away a career-high 24 kills to lead the Rainbow Warriors’ attack in a 25-20, 25-20, 23-25, 25-19 win before a crowd of 3,516 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
The Warriors also got a boost in the back row from Farrington graduate ’Eleu Choy, who helped steady the UH reception in the midst of CSUN’s barrage from the service line that helped the Matadors extend the match to a fourth set.
Choy entered the match in the libero spot in the third set in just his second appearance of the season. He handled 12 receptions with one error, came up with four digs and had two assists in his seventh match of his career.
“I was definitely nervous,” Choy said of the moment UH coach Charlie Wade summoned him from the bench. “But one thing I kept telling myself was, ‘My team has my back, the whole state of Hawaii has my back.’”
The Warriors (17-3, 2-1 Big West) and Matadors (5-9, 0-3) meet again today in the series finale at 7 p.m.
After CSUN fired five aces in rallying from a 13-6 deficit to win the third set — ending a streak of 17 consecutive sets lost — the Warriors answered with three aces of their own in the fourth set and Chakas accounted for UH’s final three kills of the night to post the Warriors’ highest total this season.
The sophomore from Nea Smyrni, Greece, amassed his kill total on 41 attempts with four errors for a .488 hitting percentage.
“Honestly, it might sound weird, but I don’t really care for that. I want my team to win,” Chakas said of his stat line. “I know that I gotta do my job and sometimes that might be more heavy lifting. I want to do that, I like to do that, I used to do that when I was younger, too. So I like the role that I have this year and I’ll do everything I can to help my team win.”
UH outside hitter Chaz Galloway added 11 kills and seven digs and middle blocker Guilherme Voss posted nine kills and four blocks. Setter Jakob Thelle finished with 49 assists and three kills for a UH attack that hit .421 to CSUN’s .279.
Choy had seen time with the Warriors’ starting group in practice this week and stepped in for Brett Sheward in the third set to contribute to a big night for his family. His sister, former Rainbow Wahine setter Bailey Choy, won the serving contest in the intermission between the second and third sets.
“He is a remarkable young man,” Wade said of Choy, a third-year freshman. “One of the nicest, most humble, hard-working kids I’ve ever been around. I’m impressed with him and have been for a long time. I’m a big ’Eleu Choy fan.”
CSUN served up 10 aces, the most surrendered by Hawaii this season, with five coming in the third set. CSUN outside hitter Kyle Hobus led the Matadors with 15 kills in 25 attempts and had three aces. Middle blocker Daniel Wetter added 11 kills and two aces as CSUN lost its sixth straight match.
“Credit to Northridge,” Wade said. “They’re traditionally one of the most aggressive serving teams, and when you get them down 2-0 like that they really just start bombing and they had a couple of guys go on nice service runs.”
After the Matadors extended the match by winning a set for the first time since their four-set victory over Stanford on Feb. 26, UH took command with a 6-1 run midway through the fourth. Chakas was in on three kills and a block, with the Warriors also scoring on aces by Kana’i Akana and Dimitrios Mouchlias as UH took a 17-11 lead.
Wade then looked to solidify the back row by pairing Choy and defensive specialist Avery Enriques, who handled three receptions. Chakas ended the night by hammering an overpass of Mouchlias’ serve on match point.
“We just have to be ready to compete the entire time knowing they’re going to put a ton of service pressure on you,” Wade said of today’s rematch. “I thought we were just OK serving and we just gotta be a little better not giving up straight aces.”
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