Spyros Chakas lined up the first swing of the season and hammered a ball off the chest of a Loyola Chicago player and into the stands of SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
Tone set for the No. 3-ranked Hawaii men’s volleyball team.
Chakas finished with a match-high 16 kills and Hawaii swept No. 10 Loyola Chicago 25-23, 25-19, 25-20 on Wednesday to win its 11th consecutive season opener. UH has appeared in the last three national championship matches, winning them in 2021 and 2022.
Senior Alaka’i Todd added seven kills and junior ‘Eleu Choy sparked the Rainbow Warriors with 11 of his 15 digs in the opening set, drawing multiple loud ovations from a crowd of 4,440.
UH dominated at the service line with five service errors and six aces with freshman Tread Rosenthal and Todd recording two apiece. Loyola Chicago had four aces and 14 service errors.
“We served well. What I’ve said is when we serve inbounds 90 percent or higher as a team we win 100 percent of the time,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “There’s never been a match that we’ve served like this and not won.”
Rosenthal, stepping in at setter as a 17-year-old, played the entire match and dished out 32 assists.
Graduate transfer Kevin Kauling, who also is competing for playing time at setter, went down to the floor at the end of warmups just before the start of the game and hobbled off the court.
“It’s an ankle injury. X-rays (today) and take a look at it and see the severity of it,” Wade said. “That was the other part with Tread. Austin (Buchanan) has been great but Kevin has been taking the bulk of the B-side reps so there wasn’t really a safety net there for him. (Rosenthal) was going to stay out there so it was nice to see him settle down.”
Hawaii won the first set after 13 ties and trailed 15-7 in the third set when senior Keoni Thiim sparked a Rainbow Warrior rally with three kills, an ace and a block assist.
Chakas added six kills in the final set as UH rallied from a 17-11 deficit with an 8-0 run with Rosenthal at the service line.
Hawaii scored 14 of the final 17 points of the the match.
“When I saw him come in, another local guy on the team, I just know how much hard work (Thiim) and everyone else on the team has put in,” Todd said. “It’s nice to see other guys get opportunities to showcase what they can do.”
The Rainbow Warriors, one of three Big West teams in the top four in the first AVCA/NVA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Poll behind defending national champion UCLA at No. 1, got off to a slow start.
Hawaii had more hitting errors than kills at the first media timeout as it trailed 15-13 against the Ramblers, who were without returning setter Dan Mangun, a first-team All-MIVA selection from last season.
Chaz Galloway, who had two errors in four swings with no kills, came out of the timeout with his first kill of the season and Choy sparked the Hawaii rally with 11 digs, matching his career high in a single set.
Loyola Chicago took its last lead at 21-20 when Todd hammered his second kill for the 13th tie in Set 1.
Todd served the next two points to put Hawaii ahead by two. Nicodemus Meyer saved one set point for Loyola Chicago but the Ramblers’ sixth service error handed Hawaii the opening set.
“We’re just going to have to be a little patient with the offense,” Wade said. “The location early on (of sets) was poor but (Rosenthal) is listening and he’s trying and he got better as it went on with location to the pins. He’s going to be very good. He does a lot of good stuff out there.”
Hawaii never trailed in the second set after giving up the first point. Todd pushed his sixth kill off the double block for set point and UH closed it out after a net violation was overturned in its favor.
Todd’s ace set up match point in the third set and Rosenthal and Kurt Nursterer combined on one of 7.5 blocks for the Rainbow Warriors.
Parker Van Buren had nine kills and Daniel Fabikovic added eight, but both players finished the match hitting .094. The Ramblers hit .213 as a team.
The teams meet again Friday night.
NO. 3 HAWAII DEF. NO. 10 LOYOLA
CHICAGO 25-23, 25-19, 25-20
RAMBLERS (0-1)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Van Buren 3 9 6 32 .094 4 4 12.0
Fabikovic 3 8 5 32 .094 8 1 8.5
Meyer 3 6 0 11 .545 1 3 8.5
Schobel 2 5 1 6 .667 3 2 7.0
Meinhart 3 5 0 10 .500 0 4 7.0
Read 2 3 1 9 .222 0 2 5.0
Yentz 2 1 1 5 .000 1 2 2.0
McElligott 2 1 1 3 .000 3 0 1.0
Trubey 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
Evans 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1.0
Oakley 3 0 0 0 .000 10 0 0.0
Brooks 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
Anderson 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
MATCH 3 38 15 108 .213 30 18 52.0
RAINBOW WARRIORS (1-0)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Chakas 3 16 7 32 .281 4 1 18.5
Todd 3 7 4 23 .130 8 1 9.5
Galloway 3 5 3 15 .133 8 1 6.5
Thiim 3 3 0 4 .750 2 1 4.5
Voss 3 3 1 7 .286 1 2 4.0
Nusterer 3 2 0 5 .400 0 3 3.5
Rosenthal 3 2 0 4 .500 5 2 5.0
Choy 3 0 0 0 .000 15 0 0.0
Buchanan 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
Taylor 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
MATCH 3 38 15 90 .256 43 11 51.5
Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors;
att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d:
digs; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills
plus blocks plus aces).
Service aces — Loyola Chicago 4 (Evans,
Meyer, Read, Schobel). Hawaii 6 (Rosenthal
2, Todd 2, Galloway, Thiim). Service
errors — Loyola Chicago 14 (McElligott 3,
Van Buren 3, Fabikovic 2, Yentz 2, Brooks,
Meinhart, Meyer, Schobel). Hawaii 5
(Chakas 2, Buchanan, Taylor, Voss). Assists
— Loyola Chicago 34 (McElligott 18,
Schobel 9, Fabikovic 2, Meinhart 2, Oakley
2, Van Buren). Hawaii 38 (Rosenthal 32,
Choy 5, Voss). Block solos — Loyola Chicago
1 (Van Buren). Hawaii 2 (Chakas 2).
Ball handling errors — Loyola Chicago
none. Hawaii none. Reception errors —
Loyola Chicago 6 (Read 2, Van Buren 2,
Meyer, Oakley). Hawaii 4 (Galloway 3,
Choy). T—1:55. A—4,440. Officials—Dickson
Chun, Wayne Lee, Randy Rubonal,
Kerwin Stenstrom.
