Hawaii’s fourth different starting lineup in as many matches finally took its toll.
The third-ranked Rainbow Warriors, who remained without two major pieces of their offense, ended up on the wrong end of a 25-22, 25-22, 27-25 sweep by No. 18 UC Santa Barbara on Saturday in the regular-season finale for both teams at The Thunderdome in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Senior opposite Geste Bianchi hit .450 with a match-high 21 kills to lead the Gauchos (12-15, 3-7 Big West), who snapped a 20-match losing streak to Hawaii dating back to 2016, when both schools were in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
Bianchi, who led the country in kills per set last season, helped the Gauchos hit .364 and hand Hawaii just its second three-set loss of the season.
“It was disappointing. We would have liked to play better, but you’ve got to give credit to Santa Barbara,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “They played an entirely different lineup, which we kind of knew with what they have been doing all season, but you never know what combination. The opposite was just unstoppable.”
Finn Kearney and Adrien Roure had 11 kills apiece to lead Hawaii (24-5, 7-3), which was locked into the No. 2 seed in the Outrigger Big West Championship next week regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s match.
UH will have a bye into the semifinals and play the winner between No. 3 seed UC Irvine and No. 6 seed Cal State Northridge on Friday night, with major NCAA Tournament ramifications. UH will likely need to win its semifinal in order to continue its season.
The Rainbow Warriors are hopeful to get opposite hitter Kristian Titriyski and outside hitter Louis Sakanoko back for the tournament. Titriyski missed his fourth consecutive match and Sakanoko didn’t make the trip to UCSB for the two-match series.
Without them, UH struggled with its efficiency on offense and had a hard time getting many block touches on the Gauchos in the first two sets.
Hawaii finished with 4.5 of its seven blocks in the third set.
Senior ‘Eleu Choy had a match-high nine digs and setter Tread Rosenthal had 30 assists, six digs, three blocks and three kills.
Kearney had two of four aces for the Rainbow Warriors, who served in at an .887 clip.
It didn’t matter, as the Gauchos picked apart the Rainbow Warriors with a consistent serve receive that led to easy offense.
Bianchi hit .700 with seven kills in the first set for UCSB, which hit .429 in the first set and .452 in the second.
Hawaii had a chance to steal the second set when trailing 22-21, but Bianchi put down two kills and a Kearney hitting error on set point put the Gauchos ahead 2-0 in the match.
Hawaii substituted Kainoa Wade in at opposite and Justin Todd at middle to begin the third set and had its shot at winning a set.
UH led 23-22 when Bianchi again put down a ball, and freshman Ethan Saint substituted into the match and served an ace just in front of the Hawaii bench for match point.
A UCSB serving error and a kill by Rosenthal gave UH set point at 25-24, but Bianchi again responded for the Gauchos with back-to-back kills.
After a Hawaii timeout, Bianchi served an ace to end it.
“I thought if we had won the second, we win the match and maybe even the third, if we kept it going because again, everything reverts to the mean,” Charlie Wade said. “But again, we’re playing a lineup that those guys haven’t been out there together playing a whole lot and some of the miscommunication and not that consistent in terms of some of the off plays and putting balls away in transition. It’s tough.”
The Gauchos finished in three-way tie for fourth place in the conference with UC San Diego and Cal State Northridge. UCSB earned the fifth seed in the BWC tournament due to the tiebreaker and will open against No. 4 seed UCSD on Thursday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
—
Outrigger Big West Championship
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
Thursday
No. 4 UC San Diego vs. No. 5 UC Santa Barbara, 4:30 p.m.
No. 3 UC Irvine vs. No. 6 CS Northridge, 7 p.m.
Friday
No. 1 Long Beach State vs. UCSD/UCSB winner, 4:30 p.m.
No. 2 Hawaii vs. UCI/CSUN winner, 7 p.m.
Saturday
Championship, 7 p.m.
