COLUMBUS, Ohio >> There were far fewer fans and much less noise than at a typical Hawaii men’s volleyball home game.
Nonetheless, the NCAA-styled black and tan court with the logos of all eight qualifying teams for the NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship inside the Covelli Center provided a different challenge for a starting group of Rainbow Warriors who had played a combined zero points in the NCAA Tournament.
Second-seeded Hawaii didn’t play its best but managed to survive and turn back No. 7 Penn State 25-19, 21-25, 25-23, 25-23 in the quarterfinals to advance to a semifinal match on Saturday against No. 3 seed UCLA.
Freshman opposite Finn Kearney had a team-high 16 kills and four of Hawaii’s 10 aces but also tallied 11 errors and hit .125.
UH’s three starting pin hitters all hit .160 or worse and the Rainbow Warriors struggled to receive Penn State’s serve for much of the match. Middles Kurt Nusterer and Justin Todd combined for 17 kills in 24 swings to give UH just enough offense to get past a Penn State squad that looked much different than the one the ’Bows swept in the Outrigger Invitational in March, when it won two of the three sets by double digits.
“That’s a lot better team than we played in March. I really thought coming into it that it 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.”
The Rainbow Warriors (27-5) will play the two-time defending national champion Bruins in the second semifinal on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Penn State (15-16) held Hawaii to its third-lowest hitting percentage of the season at .238.
Matthew Luoma had a match-high 17 kills and senior Will Kuhns added 11 kills and nine digs and hit .421 to lead Penn State, which started the match on an 11-3 run.
The Rainbow Warriors roared back with nine straight points, led by Kearney, who had three of his four aces during the scoring run that put Hawaii ahead 12-11.
UH scored 22 of the final 30 points in the set to go up 1-0, with Kearney also contributing six kills.
“I think one of the main things against that team is keeping the serve in to begin with. The rest of our stuff is good enough,” Kearney said. “Just starting every rally with a good serve into the court and something that is a little harder to handle is always great.”
After hitting .367 in the opening set, UH was held to .184 or worse over the next two sets as Penn State rallied to put a scare into the heavy favorites.
A combined 12 hitting and service errors by UH allowed the Nittany Lions to even the match in the second set and Hawaii again struggled passing, which opened the door for PSU to lead 12-10 in the third.
Todd served tough, with one of his two aces during a four-point run to put UH back in front 14-12, and Hawaii never trailed again in the set while also never leading by more than three points.
The Nittany Lions tied it at 22-all before a hitting error and a Tread Rosenthal ace gave UH set point.
Nusterer closed it out with one of his nine kills on Hawaii’s second set point to put the ‘Bows back in front.
“I see the ball come and I’d like to think I’m confident I can get a kill, and really just hoping not to make an error,” Nusterer said.
UH looked to be down 16-13 in the fourth set when Hawaii challenged an out call on a Louis Sakanoko swing that was overturned to a kill to make it a 15-14 score.
Sakanoko put UH ahead 18-17 with back-to-back aces.
The set was tied five more times, with the last coming on a Nusterer kill out of a UH timeout to make it 22-22.
An attack error and a double block by Sakanoko and Todd gave UH match point. Kuhns put down a kill to survive once before Todd ended it with his eighth kill in his 10th attempt. He hit .800 with no errors.
Nusterer credited his setter with getting the middles the right balls at the right time.
“Tread has gotten so much better this year. The sky is really the limit for him,” Nusterer said of the sophomore setter. “From last year to this year, he is miles better and (the middles) owe a lot of credit to his improvement. He’s helping me get great offensive situations.”
Rosenthal, who finished with a match-high 38 assists, also had five kills and two blocks with an ace.
Kearney added a match-high 10 digs and senior libero ‘Eleu Choy finished with nine.
Hawaii improved to 12-7 in its 10th NCAA Tournament appearance and will play UCLA in a rematch of the 2023 national final won by the Bruins in four sets.
UCLA swept No. 6 seed Belmont Abbey in the first match on Thursday, with Zach Rama leading the way with 13 kills. The Bruins hit .455 for the match.
NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship
At Covelli Center, Columbus, Ohio
Thursday Quarterfinals
>> No. 3 UCLA (21-6) def. No. 6 Belmont Abbey (17-9), 25-18, 25-21, 25-19
>> No. 2 Hawaii (27-5) def. No. 7 Penn State (15-16), 25-19, 21-25, 25-23, 25-23
>> No. 1 Long Beach State (28-3) def. No. 8 Fort Valley State (16-10), 25-21, 25-16, 25-16
>> No. 5 Pepperdine (21-9) def. No. 4 Loyola Chicago (25-4), 18-25, 28-26, 25-13, 25-20
Saturday Semifinals
>> Long Beach State vs. Pepperdine, 11 a.m.
>> Hawaii vs. UCLA, 2 p.m.
Monday Championship
>> Winners, 1 p.m.
TV: ESPN+
Radio: KKEA 1420 AM / 92.7 FM (UH match only)
NO. 2 SEED HAWAII DEF. NO. 7 SEED PENN STATE
25-19, 21-25, 25-23, 25-23
NITTANY LIONS (15-16)
ATTACK SET SERVE BLOCK DEF. REC.
NO. PLAYER SP K E TA PCT. A E SA SE BS BA BE D BHE RE PTS
17 Kuhnsq 4 11 3 19 .421 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 9 0 2 12.0
7 Merk 4 0 0 0 .000 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 5 0.0
13 Rose 4 5 1 8 .500 0 0 0 1 0 6 0 2 0 0 8.0
15 Luoma 4 17 9 41 .195 1 0 1 2 0 5 1 4 0 2 20.5
10 Schwob 4 1 1 6 .000 35 0 1 3 0 2 0 8 0 0 3.0
9 Gabriel 4 5 4 13 .077 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 7.0
5 Cosgrove 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
12 Harvey 3 8 3 19 .263 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 5 0 0 9.0
3 Dittman 2 1 3 8 -.250 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 1 1.0
20 Trubey 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
TEAM
Totals 4 48 24 114 .211 43 0 4 10 0 17 1 37 0 10 60.5
RAINBOW WARRIORS (27-5)
ATTACK SET SERVE BLOCK DEF. REC.
NO. PLAYER SP K E TA PCT. A E SA SE BS BA BE D BHE RE PTS
5 Choy 4 0 0 0 .000 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 1 0.0
8 Nusterer 4 9 1 14 .571 0 0 0 2 0 3 2 0 0 0 10.5
13 Rosenthal 4 5 0 7 .714 38 1 1 2 0 2 1 2 0 0 7.0
23 Sakanoko 4 9 5 25 .160 3 0 3 4 0 4 0 5 0 0 14.0
9 Todd 4 8 0 10 .800 0 0 2 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 12.0
4 Wade 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0.0
7 Roure 4 5 6 26 -.038 1 0 0 2 1 2 0 3 0 2 7.0
11 Kearney 4 16 11 40 .125 2 0 4 2 0 3 2 10 0 0 21.5
15 Taylor 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
TEAM 1
Totals 4 52 23 122 .238 45 1 10 14 1 18 5 30 0 4 72
T — 2:22. A — NA. Officials — Joe Gustafson, James Kuziela, Anthony Hines, Zac Wiles.
Key — SP: Sets played; K: kills; E: hitting errors; TA: Total attempts; PCT.: Hitting percentage; A: Assist; E: Setting error. SA: Service ace; SE: Service error; BS: Block solos; BA:
Block assists; BE: Block errors; D: Digs; BHE: Ball-handling errors; RE: receiving error;
PTS: Points (kills plus blocks plus aces).
