In the grand scheme of the men’s college volleyball season, Sunday’s win over Ball State isn’t anything more than a step in the right direction.
For the players who made the program’s first trip to Muncie, Ind., two years ago, it does make for a sweet early-morning flight back home.
Spyros Chakas had 14 kills to lead three Rainbow Warriors in double figures and No. 4 Hawaii earned its first win at Worthen Arena, 25-23, 23-25, 25-21, 25-19 over the Cardinals.
Alaka‘i Todd added 12 kills and Chaz Galloway hit .474 with 10 kills to lead Hawaii (6-1) to a perfect 3-0 road trip with its fifth straight win.
All three matches were a sign of UH getting better early in the season, but Sunday’s win against the 15th-ranked Cardinals (7-5) did carry extra weight for a few of the players. Ball State beat Hawaii in both home matches in 2022 before UH went on to win its second consecutive national championship.
“The number one goal, I’m thinking, of the whole week is to go back there and win,” Chakas said before the team departed for Indiana. “Whether short-handed or not we ended up losing twice and it doesn’t matter, our only goal is to go back up there and win.”
The fourth-ranked Rainbow Warriors followed up two wins at Purdue Fort Wayne with their third victory in four nights.
Hawaii continued to improve its hitting accuracy with only 13 attacking errors in four sets.
Middle Guilherme Voss played a big part in that with nine kills in 10 swings to hit a career-best .900.
Voss has hit .667 or better in four of his seven matches and has 14 kills in 20 swings since he was held to three kills and three errors in Thursday’s win over the Mastadons.
“It’s a priority for us to get him the ball as often as possible. He’s really good,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “We probably could have gotten the ball to him a little bit more but certainly he was effective when we did.”
Hawaii recorded six of its nine aces in the opening set and needed every one. Hawaii failed to convert three set points to allow the Cardinals to rally to 24-23 before Todd ended it with his third kill.
Chakas held off two set points with kills in the second set to get Hawaii within a point before Ball State’s Tinaishe Ndavazocheva’s kill tied the match at one set apiece.
Louis Sakanoko, Kurt Nusterer and Chakas combined on a triple block of Ndavazocheva to end the third set and Todd has two of his aces in the third set to help the Rainbow Warriors close it out.
Ndavazocheva and Braydon Savitski-Lynde tied for a match-high 16 kills and Patrick Rogers added 13 to lead Ball State.
Ndavazocheva, a junior from Zimbabwe, had only played in two matches prior this season.
“I’d like to see us be a little better defensively,” Wade said. “With seeing some guys for the first time and not really aware of what was going on we were able to make some adjustments in game and got better defensively as the game went on.”
Todd led UH with eight digs and was in on three blocks, including one solo stuff. He also had three aces with Keoni Thiim, Tread Rosenthal and Chakas getting two apiece.
Voss had two solo blocks and four block assists.
The team was scheduled to fly out early this morning to return home for an 11-match homestand beginning with Tusculum on Friday.
NO. 4 HAWAII DEF. NO. 15 BALL
STATE 25-23, 23-25, 25-21, 25-19
RAINBOW WARRIORS (6-1)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Galloway 410 1 19 .474 4 2 11.0
Choy 4 0 0 0 .000 3 0 0.0
Chakas 414 5 38 .237 5 4 18.0
Nusterer 4 5 2 13 .231 0 3 6.5
Rosenthal 4 2 0 3 .667 5 1 4.5
Todd 412 5 25 .280 8 2 17.0
Kauling 2 0 0 0 .000 2 0 0.0
Thiim 4 0 0 0 .000 1 0 2.0
Voss 4 9 0 10 .900 0 4 13.0
Sakanoko 4 2 0 4 .500 0 1 2.5
MATCH 4 54 13 112 .366 28 17 74.5
CARDINALS (7-5)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Gray 4 0 0 0 .000 5 0 0.0
Pink 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
Buckholz 4 5 2 9 .333 0 1 5.5
Machado 4 3 0 4 .750 9 4 5.0
Pytiak 4 0 0 0 .000 2 0 0.0
Bartz 1 1 1 3 .000 1 1 2.5
Ndavazocheva 416 9 36 .194 7 2 18.0
Savitski-Lynde416 5 31 .355 5 3 19.5
Rogers 413 2 23 .478 5 4 15.0
Patterson 4 6 2 11 .364 2 9 11.5
MATCH 4 60 21 117 .333 36 24 0.0
Service aces — Hawaii 9 (Todd 3, Chakas
2, Rosenthal 2, Thiim 2). Ball State 4
(Ndavazocheva, Savitski-Lynde, Patterson,
Bartz). Service errors — Hawaii 11
(Chakas 3, Rosenthal 2, Sakanoko 2,
Todd, Galloway, Voss, Nusterer). Ball State
12 (Savitsky-Lynde 3, Ndavazocheva 2,
Patterson 2, Rogers 2, Bartz, Buckholz,
Machado). Assists — Hawaii 51 (Rosenthal 38, Galloway 4, Kauling 4, Chakas 3,
Choy 2). Ball State 58 (Machado 49, Pytlak 3, Ndavazocheva 2, Buckholz 2, Gray
2). Block solos — Hawaii 3 (Voss 2,
Todd). Ball State 1 (Savitski-Lynde). Ball
handling errors — Hawaii none. Ball
State none. Reception errors — Hawaii 4
(Chakas 4). Ball State 9 (Rogers 7, Pytlak
2). T—2:12. A—2,526. Officials— Rod Rodriguez, Kyprian Harasymowycz, Beverly
Rea, Matt Knezevich.
