The fourth-ranked Hawaii men’s volleyball team used its block to cancel out the noise of 5,387 fans that packed Smith Fieldhouse only to see the visiting Rainbow Warriors beat No. 5 Brigham Young 25-18, 25-22, 22-25, 25-22 on Saturday night in Provo, Utah.
The Rainbow Warriors blocked the Cougars 10 times in the opening set and held BYU to a .147 hitting percentage to sweep the two-match road trip and remain undefeated at 8-0.
Hawaii had won only four times in 29 all-time meetings in Provo before knocking off the Cougars (6-4) on back-to-back nights in front of two crowds that combined for more than 10,000.
Freshman opposite Kristian Titriyski had a match-high 17 kills, seven digs and seven blocks and sophomore outside Louis Sakanoko added a season-high 13 kills to help give Charlie Wade his 300th victory as Hawaii’s head coach.
“We don’t get too caught up in any kind of individual achievement, and what 300 means is there is a lot of people that have been in this program since I took over that have helped us really take it to some high levels of success,” Wade said. “We’re just still trying to get better. It was a nice win tonight and in terms of the wins, the only thing I want is 301.”
Both teams were significantly less efficient on offense in the rematch, but Hawaii benefited from 16.5 blocks. Junior middle Kurt Nusterer tied his career high for the second match in a row with 10 blocks and helped hold BYU outside hitter Keoni Thiim to 14 kills in 33 swings with nine errors.
Thiim, a Kalani High School alumnus and former outside hitter for three years at UH, started the match with four errors and no kills in his first eight swings.
Lucas Torres subbed off the bench opposite of Thiim to aid the Cougars with 14 kills in 28 swings, but BYU finished with 32 hitting errors in four sets.
“Just watching the film, we made some adjustments in-match,” Wade said. “The efficiency for both teams were down and you see this when high-level teams start playing each other. The serves are tougher and a lot of balls off the net and just setting high balls and you just hit for a (lower) percentage.”
Titriyski, who had his nose bloodied when he took a kill from Thiim off of his face in the fourth set, stayed in the match and jumpstarted the match-sealing 3-0 run to end it with his final kill.
He hit .235 for the match and had one of Hawaii’s five aces.
“It means everything. Every point, every set, every game for me, for the team, means everything,” Titriyski said in a post-match interview on BYUtv. “We came here to fight until the last point and we showed it yesterday (and) today. I’m proud of the boys absolutely. The crowd was amazing. BYU playing amazing also. Respect for them.”
Hawaii setter Tread Rosenthal finished with 42 assists, four digs, four blocks and two aces.
UH went for the sweep in the third set when BYU took a 24-14 lead.
Hawaii held off eight consecutive set points, with Rosenthal firing seven hard serves in a row to put a scare in the Cougars.
Thiim, who was blocked three times during the 8-0 run, finally put down a kill to end a long rally to force the fourth set.
BYU led the fourth set 20-18 when UH closed on a 7-2 run.
“When we were more efficient serving and making them have to earn points rather than just giving them free points, it certainly tilted in our favor,” Wade said. “I think (Tread) went 23 serves before making an error and he ended up serving 29 times with one error. That was back to where he was last year and then some. That’s a really good sign for us going forward.”
BYU starting setter Noa Haine, a Punahou alumnus, had three assists and two digs before he was pulled in the first set with UH ahead 17-9.
Sakanoko had eight of his 13 kills in the second set to help UH go up 2-0 and ended the match hitting .296. He also led the team with eight digs.
“He’s been so volatile, but you look at what he did from the service line over the last two nights where he’s recognized that he doesn’t have to go out there and swing out of his shoes on every attempt. He served inbounds at over 90% again tonight,” Wade said. “That kind of efficiency and consistency is really, really valuable to us. If you asked me three weeks ago, I probably had him fourth on the depth chart. It’s nice luxury to have a guy like that.”
Hawaii returns home for a quick turnaround hosting No. 9 Stanford at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on Wednesday and Friday.
NO. 4 HAWAII DEF. NO. 5 BYU 25-18, 25-22, 22-25, 25-22
RAINBOW WARRIORS (8-0)
ATTACK SET SERVE BLOCK DEF. REC.
NO. PLAYER SP K E TA PCT. A E SA SE BS BA BE D BHR RE PTS
5 Choy 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 2 0.0
8 Nusterer 4 0 0 2 .000 0 0 0 2 0 10 1 0 0 0 5.0
15 Taylor 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
13 Rosentha 4 2 2 10 .000 42 0 2 1 0 4 1 4 0 0 6.0
23 Sakanoko 4 13 5 27 .296 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 8 0 2 15.0
7 Roure 4 7 4 21 .143 1 0 1 3 0 5 0 1 0 0 10.5
10 Titriyski 4 17 9 34 .235 1 0 1 5 1 6 0 7 0 0 22.0
16 Hazan 4 6 2 12 .333 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 1 0 0 8.0
TEAM 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
Totals 45 22 106 .217 44 0 5 12 2 29 2 24 0 4 66.5
COUGARS (6-5)
ATTACK SET SERVE BLOCK DEF. REC.
NO. PLAYER SP K E TA PCT. A E SA SE BS BA BE D BHR RE PTS
21 Taylor 4 5 1 7 .571 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 6.5
6 Fife 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 2 0.0
1 Benson 4 6 6 21 .000 1 0 1 3 1 3 0 4 0 0 9.5
20 Thiim 4 14 9 33 .152 1 0 1 3 0 2 0 6 0 2 16.0
3 Herget 4 1 0 4 .250 41 1 0 3 0 2 0 5 0 0 2.0
5 Hales 4 5 4 10 .100 0 0 0 0 1 6 0 0 0 0 9.0
10 Torres 4 14 7 28 .250 2 0 1 3 0 2 0 7 0 0 16.0
9 Tufuga 3 4 5 12 -.083 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 5 0 1 5.0
7 Haine 1 0 0 1 .000 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0.0
TEAM 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
Totals 49 32 116 .147 48 1 4 14 2 18 0 33 0 5 64
T — 2:15. A — 5,387. Officials — Maile Jewkes, Les Calles, Marcus Moore, Dan Swensen.