An understudy for two seasons, Austin Buchanan found himself centerstage for the top-ranked University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team on Wednesday.

With All-America setter Jakob Thelle back on Oahu, Buchanan made his first collegiate start and the Rainbow Warriors opened a three-match road trip with a sweep of Queens University in Charlotte, N.C.

UH outside hitter Spyros Chakas put away a match-high 16 kills and posted 10 digs and opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias added seven kills on .385 hitting and served up two of UH’s seven aces in the 25-20, 25-21, 25-17 victory at Curry Arena.

Buchanan distributed 25 assists and the Warriors hit .351 over two sets before junior Brett Sheward moved from libero to setter to start the third.

“Super excited, this is something I’ve been working towards for a while,” Buchanan said of the starting assignment. “So just trying to stay calm, stay focused during warmups, not get too into my nerves and just focus on doing what I could do and staying confident out there.

“After the first few points the nerves went away and I just got to play and have fun.”

UH coach Charlie Wade said Thelle, who had offseason knee surgery, did not make the cross-country trip “out of an abundance of caution.” Thelle had started all 14 sets in UH’s four-match season-opening homestand.

“It’s a long season and we want to make sure he’s good going forward and I think it was the right thing to do,” Wade said.

UH (5-0) extended its winning streak to 14, dating back to last season, and has won 12 consecutive sets going into today’s 2 p.m. match against Belmont Abbey (1-5) at the Wheeler Center in Belmont, N.C.

Buchanan redshirted in 2021 and posted three assists in six appearances playing behind Thelle and Jack Walmer last season. Walmer transferred to UC Santa Barbara in the offseason and Buchanan made his first appearance of the season in the third set of last Friday’s sweep of Saint Francis.

Buchanan typically runs the second unit in practice and spent Tuesday’s practice honing his connections with the starting hitters.

“For my role as an outside hitter … it does not matter who’s setting, I gotta do my job and finish the balls,” Chakas said. “So I think Austin did a great job stepping up in place of Jakob, I’m proud of him for sure. Although we haven’t gotten many reps together, he did a great job and was able to connect with all of us.”

Sheward, a setter earlier in his UH career before making the full-time transition to libero last season, switched from the white jersey to black to start the third set and finished with 12 assists and seven digs.

UH held Queens to 29 total points in a quick sweep last season at the First Point Collegiate Challenge in Austin, Texas. The fifth all-time meeting between the programs was far tighter with opposite Daniel Leitao leading Queens with 14 kills on 33 attacks and the Royals (1-4) posted six of their nine blocks in the second set.

“(Leitao) literally was unstoppable for the first couple sets,” Wade said. “But that’s what you gotta expect. They’ve got a lot of veteran guys, playing at home, and we had our hands full from the beginning.”

UH led throughout the opening set, but Queens closed to 19-17 before Chakas scored from the right side and followed with an ace. Mouchlias’ second ace gave UH set point at 24-19 and Chaz Galloway ended the set with a kill down the line.

Queens opened up a 12-8 cushion in the second set to force a UH timeout. The Warriors caught the Royals at 17-17 and trailed 20-19 when Chakas put down a kill. Chakas twice forced a Queens overpass to start a four-point service turn. Mouchlias hammered two kills and teamed with Guilherme Voss on a block that gave UH set point. Mouchlias then ended the set with his seventh kill to cap a 6-1 run.

Wade went to the bench to start the third set with Sheward moving to setter and ‘Eleu Choy replacing him at libero. Keoni Thiim also entered at outside hitter and Alaka’i Todd took over at opposite.

With UH up 14-13, Todd served up two aces in a 7-0 run that included two kills from Thiim and a block by Sheward and Cole Hogland. Sheward connected with Voss in the middle to end the match. Thiim finished with five kills in seven swings without an error.

Five UH players recorded at least one ace in the match while Queens had one ace and 16 service errors.

“Our serving again really was the difference in the match,” Wade said. “I don’t think they were quite ready for the pace we were putting on it and we were pretty good from the service line.”

Tracking the Warriors

UH’s matches with Belmont Abbey today and Barton on Saturday will be streamed online on the Conference Carolinas Digital Network (conferencecarolinasdn.com) along with radio coverage on 1420-AM and 92.7-FM.