Friday’s Hawaii men’s volleyball match was about much more than just the start of Big West Conference play.
It was also a return to normalcy for the No. 1-ranked Rainbow Warriors, who were swept by No. 2 Long Beach State 25-22, 25-20, 30-28 at Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif.
An emotional week that began with news that senior Spyros Chakas has played his final match in a Rainbow Warriors uniform after an injury suffered Sunday against UC Irvine continued with the first loss in the past 17 matches for Hawaii (17-2, 0-1).
Skyler Varga had a match-high 12 kills and Moanalua alumnus DiAeris McRaven had two kills and two blocks for Long Beach State (17-1, 3-0), which has won 10 home matches in a row against Hawaii.
“I think the best thing for us was getting back out on the court,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “Obviously it was an emotional week and just a lot to deal with and just getting back out and kind of getting some normalcy and playing and competing was really good. We’re going to be a work in progress here for a bit.”
Senior Alaka’i Todd had at team-high 10 kills and Keoni Thiim, starting in the place of Chakas, had nine kills and eight digs.
Senior middle Guilherme Voss added eight kills and hit .462 and senior Chaz Galloway added seven kills after briefly leaving the match in the second set.
Galloway returned to the court but was seen limping for the rest of the match.
“He went down with an ankle and I don’t know the full status,” Wade said. “Sometimes those have a tendency to swell up overnight and we will keep an eye on it and hopefully he’s good to go for (today).”
Hawaii, which entered the week leading the country in hitting percentage, was held to a .236 clip while the Beach hit .337.
Sotiris Siapanis added 10 kills and had four blocks for Long Beach State, which had 10.5 blocks in the match.
Kurt Nusterer had three block assists for Hawaii, which finished with six blocks overall.
UH was swept for the first time since losing in three to Long Beach State at home last March.
Hawaii was whistled for a net violation on set point in the first set, which was upheld after a review.
The Beach closed the second set on a 10-2 run after falling behind 18-15 on a kill by Voss.
Hawaii had three set points in the third set, but couldn’t close out the Beach.
The match was tied at 28-all when Siapanis hammered a kill and Voss hit out to finish the match.
“We didn’t play particularly well and we were competitive in every set, so not that we’re into moral victories, but a couple things go a different way in those sets and we could be in there still playing,” Wade said. “We’re going to have to work through some stuff with our offense and looking forward to coming out and competing (today).”
Freshman setter Tread Rosenthal had a team-high 29 assists and ‘Eleu Choy had nine digs and three assists.
The two teams will play again today at 4 p.m.