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Chaz Galloway’s team-high 12th kill capped Hawaii’s most efficient hitting performance of the season and the second-ranked Rainbow Warriors swept Cal State Northridge in today’s series opener at Premier America Credit Union Arena in Northridge, Calif.
Galloway posted his third consecutive match with double-digit kills and setter Jakob Thelle had 31 assists for an attack that hit a season-best .478 in the 25-22, 25-14, 25-18 win. Outside hitter Spyros Chakas finished with nine kills and opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias had seven of his eight kills in the second set, when the Warriors hit .609 with just one error in 23 attacks.
Middle blocker Guilherme Voss was in on five of UH’s 10 blocks, including a solo stuff.
Thelle contributed two kills and had one of UH’s five aces, raising his career total to 115 to pass Rado Parapunov for fourth on UH’s career list.
The Warriors (19-2, 2-1 Big West) and Matadors (12-8, 1-2) meet again on Saturday to close the series.
Kyle Hobus led CSUN with 12 kills and Griffin Walters added 10 for the Matadors, who hit .222 for the match after a hot start.
UH and CSUN traded sideouts for much of a first set that was tied 16 times, the last at 20-20. A CSUN net violation on Galloway’s swing gave the Warriors the lead, UH middle blocker Cole Hogland hammered an overpass off a Mouchlias serve, and Galloway scored again off the CSUN block to give UH a 23-20 lead. CSUN closed to within a point before a service error gave UH set point and Chakas put down an overpass of Galloway’s serve to end the set.
Mouchlias and Galloway combined for 12 of UH’s 15 kills in the second set, which included a delay when UH detected the volleyballs in use were underinflated. The Warriors put down four blocks in the third set and closed out the sweep with Galloway’s final kill.
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