LOS ANGELES >> At this point of the season, there are no secrets. Or so Jakob Thelle would like everyone to think.
The junior All-America setter for Hawaii certainly had North Greenville guessing where his sets were going during the 80 minutes of Tuesday’s NCAA Tournament second-round match at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion.
While the Rainbow Warriors continued to rely heavy on the pins with their Greek pillars of Spyros Chakas and Dimitrios Mouchlias — the two combining for 22 of the team’s 36 kills — Thelle switched things up with combo plays, back-row attacks and middle-blocker slides as Hawaii swept into Thursday’s semifinal via a 25-15, 25-17, 25-16 win over the Crusaders.
Asked about adding more wrinkles to the diversified offense for the Warriors (25-5), Thelle smiled when saying, “We have weapons all over the court. I’m not going to share my secrets.”
There is no secret that the Warriors — and Thelle in particular — were hoping for a rematch with Ball State. It will happen in Thursday’s second semifinal scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
The Cardinals (23-3) surprised then-No. 1 Hawai’i twice in Muncie, Ind., in late January, matches that Thelle and middle Guilherme Voss missed due to COVID-19 protocols and hitter and primary passer Chaz Galloway sat out due to an injury prior to the first match at Worthen Arena.
“I didn’t play in this and I remember looking at it on TV,” Thelle said. “I’ve been looking forward to playing them.”
So is Ball State, the Cardinals part of the announced crowd of 1,814 on Tuesday.
“I think it will be a fun match,” said BSU coach Donan Cruz, a Baldwin High graduate. “Hawaii played well tonight.”
The pro-Hawaii crowd saw Thelle become the program’s single-season aces leader, with his four against NGU giving him 55. He is now one ahead of Mark Presho and Clay Stanley, whose 54 came in the pre-rally-scoring era, and two ahead of Pedro Azenha, his 53 coming during rally scoring.
Thelle had three aces in his first two service turns, giving Hawaii a 16-6 lead in Set 1 and setting the tone. His record-breaker came in Set 3 to tie it at 2-2.
Hawaii finished with five aces, the other coming from Chakas to go along with his team-high 12 kills.
“There’s a reason they’re the best serving team in the country,” said Crusaders coach Fred Battenfield, now officially retired after starting the program eight seasons ago. “Hawaii is a phenomenal team, probably the best team we’ve played in our eight years.
“They are very disciplined. We could never get them off their game, couldn’t find a way to break them. They play at a level we don’t see very often. They are the best serving team in the country and are on a different plane.”
It is said that speed kills, and Hawaii used its quickness to kill NGU’s historic season at 21-6. The Crusaders gave Conference Carolinas its first NCAA Tournament victory in seven appearances when they swept Princeton in Sunday’s opening round.
“We showed we can match up with great teams,” Battenfield said. “We played as good as we could play against a phenomenal team tonight. It was a privilege to play Hawaii.
“We are young. Fifteen of our players are freshmen and sophomores. We could be back in this tournament very easily next year.”
Instead it’s the Warriors who will continue their tournament run and quest to become the fifth consecutive team to win two national championships in a row. The Big West has won the past three banners, and two-time winner Long Beach State (2018-19) will face UCLA in Thursday’s first semifinal (2 p.m.).
The host Bruins turned back MPSF rival Pepperdine 25-23, 22-25, 26-24, 25-19 in Tuesday’s first match.
Mouchlias added 10 kills and middle Cole Hogland hit .750 with six kills on eight errorless swings.
Hawaii out-blocked NGU 10.5-4.5, with Voss in on six. The Warriors hit .429 while holding the Crusaders to a season-low .062.
Opposite Gregory Torres was the only NGU player with more than four kills, finishing with 12. Hawaii’s defense helped hold freshman middle Michael de la Cruz to four kills and a negative .077 hitting percentage; he came into the night hitting a team-high .388.
UCLA 3, Pepperdine 1
Kevin Kobrine put down 16 kills and the Bruins (22-4) eliminated the Waves (19-10) after 2 hours and 5 minutes. Merrick McHenry was in on six of UCLA’s nine blocks.
The Bruins, who live and die by their serves, had three aces to go with 23 service errors.
Pepperdine got 12 kills from UC Irvine transfer Austin Wilmot and 11 from 5-foot-11 graduate student Spencer Wickens, who has split time between hitter and libero during his career.
The swing Set 3 saw 17 ties, the last at 24-all. UCLA ended it with kills from J.R. Norris IV and Sam Burgi, two of the five subs the Bruins used in playing 12.
