The thunderous roar let out by most of the 7,209 fans inside SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center when UC Irvine served out on match point felt like equal parts jubilation and relief.
With two teams ranked in the Top 5 in the country all season feeling the pressure of a do-or-die semifinal in the Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship, second-seeded Hawaii used the advantage of an opening-round bye and a raucous home crowd to turn back the third-seeded Anteaters 25-21, 15-25, 25-21, 25-23 on Friday night.
Adrien Roure put down a career-high 18 kills, with eight coming in the final set, and Finn Kearney added 10 for Hawaii (25-5), which advances to play No. 1 seed Long Beach State tonight at 7. It’s the fourth time in seven Big West tournaments that Hawaii and Long Beach State will meet in the final.
“It wasn’t pretty. Offensive numbers for both teams were down early,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “We were just good enough. Still, the error percentage for us is not where we like it to be, but sometimes it’s where those errors come, and tonight we were able to be good enough at the end to win three sets.”
Hawaii hit .306 for the match against the Anteaters (21-7), who hit .234 and were outblocked 14.5-6.5
Nolan Flexen led UCI with 15 kills and senior Hilir Henno, who had 24 kills in a three-set sweep of Hawaii that ended UH’s season last year in the same conference semifinals, was held to nine kills and hit .111. He did have six of UC Irvine’s 12 aces that helped keep it in the match.
“Obviously we were exhausted. That was a 19-hour turnaround, so, the fact that we’re playing back-to-back, and especially that late at night, that was a tough draw,” UCI coach David Kniffin said. “That’s the gauntlet that is the Big West. You earn your way into that bye.”
The Anteaters were coming off a marathon five-set win over Cal State Northridge in the opening round that went to 19-17 in the fifth set.
The loss likely eliminates UC Irvine from NCAA Tournament consideration, although Kniffin feels his team is deserving of another opportunity.
“If the purpose of the selection committee is to find the two best teams that didn’t qualify through an automatic bid, the first place you’re looking is the Big West,” Kniffin said. “It is dominant in the Big West right now.”
Hawaii’s approach to this weekend was treating both Friday and tonight as must-win matches.
“I know Hawaii and Long Beach both have an opportunity to win the league championship (tonight) and the league winner gets an automatic berth,” Wade said. “I’ve been in this match (BWC semifinals) and won and got left out. There’s a match (tonight) to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. I’ve been saying it all year, we’ve got to be in it and we’ve got to win it to make sure we’re in.”
Hawaii welcomed back Louis Sakanoko after a two-match absence. He struggled offensively, hitting minus-.091 for the match with five kills and seven errors, but had a career-high seven blocks and six digs.
The teams took turns winning a set before Hawaii held a 17-11 lead in the pivotal third set after a kill from Justin Todd.
The Anteaters roared back with eight of the next 10 points to tie it at 19-all on Henno’s fourth ace.
Setter Tread Rosenthal and Kurt Nusterer responded with kills for UH, which scored the final three points, with Nusterer pinpointing the final two serves that led to Kearney kills to give UH the lead.
“We should be pulling out that set,” Flexen said. “Just a few volleyball things tactically that feels for us that really was the difference. We came out a little bit harder in the fourth set and Hawaii is a great team. It was a battle. It was a dogfight.”
Hawaii led 20-18 in the fourth set when both teams sided out for the final 10 points. A UCI service error ended the match and secured Hawaii’s third home win over the Anteaters this season.
Roure hit .636 in the final set and willed UH to the victory with his fourth straight match of double figures in kills.
“On this team we have some seniors like Kurt that put so much work in practice and in games and we just want them to play in more games,” Roure said. “We want to play more, so we’ve go to win tonight. This was my first tournament here and I wanted to really show what I could do.”
Henno, the reigning AVCA National Player of the Year, said he played in UH’s arena nine times in his career.
“I think I counted that I’ve been here nine times and every single time it has been exceptional,” Henno said. “Whether it was full or not, the atmosphere is crazy. You go to the court and you just hear everybody shouting. If you’re not experienced, you just get scared. Every single time was very memorable. Looking back it was just crazy.”
No. 1 Long Beach State 3, No. 4 UC San Diego 0
Freshman opposite hitter Alex Kandev hit .600 with a match-high 14 kills and the defending champion Beach (26-2) secured a repeat trip to the final with a 25-18, 25-23, 25-17 sweep of the Tritons (18-11).
The first match of the tournament not to go five sets ended in 97 minutes. Freshman setter Moni Nikolov had four of Long Beach State’s six aces and added a match-high 35 assists and four kills in five swings.
Senior middle blocker DiAeris McRaven, a Moanalua alumnus, had three kills and a block. Skyler Varga had seven kills and hit .545 and Ben Braun added five kills and hit .571.
The Beach hit .400 in the match.
Sebastian Lara, Josh Schellinger and Peter Selcho each had seven kills for the Tritons.
