Rainbow Warriors bounce Penn State in 4 to advance to national semis

COLUMBUS, Ohio >> The second-seeded Hawaii men’s volleyball team found a way to advance despite not playing its best in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship.

Freshman opposite Finn Kearney had a team-high 16 kills and four aces and Louis Sakanoko added three clutch aces, including two back-to-back in the fourth set to help the Rainbow Warriors turn back No. 7 seed Penn State 25-19, 21-25, 25-23, 25-23 at the Covelli Center.

Senior Kurt Nusterer added nine kills and three blocks and freshman Justin Todd added eight kills with four blocks and hit .800 out of the middle with two of Hawaii’s 10 aces as UH (27-5) needed every advantage from the service line to thwart the upset-minded Nittany Lions (15-16).

Matthew Luoma had a match-high 17 kills to lead Penn State, which held Hawaii to a .238 hitting percentage. The Nittany Lions had lost to Hawaii in straight sets in the Outrigger Invitational in March with two of those set loses coming by double digits.

“That’s a lot better team than we played in March. I really thought coming into it that was going to be one of the toughest matches of the week,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “At the end, it’s win and advance. We didn’t have a great night and we still won. We didn’t receive very well, we didn’t attack very well and still we were able to advance to the national semifinals.”

Hawaii will play two-time defending national champion and No. 3 seed UCLA on Saturday in the semifinals at 2 p.m. Hawaii time.