SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The sixth-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team won for the first time at UC Santa Barbara since 2010 with a straight-set win over the 11^th-ranked Gauchos Friday, in the first of two Big West Conference matches at Rob Gym. Set scores were 25-16, 25-15, 26-24.
 
The Rainbow Warriors (16-6, 4-3 BWC) needed only 83 minutes to snap a six-match road losing streak to the Gauchos (10-10, 3-4) in Santa Barbara. The teams play again on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. PT (4:00 p.m. HT).
 
UH recorded 11.5 team blocks, including 5.5 in the first set and hit for a .459 clip. The Warriors were nearly flawless in the first two sets, siding out at 84 percent, despite the Gauchos hitting .381 in Set 2. In comparison, Hawai'i hit .684 in the frame, committing only one errors in 19 attack attempts.
 
Opposite Rado Parapunov led the way with 11 kills, hitting .474 while middle blocker Dalton Solbrig went for a career-high 10 kills, hitting .750. Middle blocker Patrick Gasman matched his personal best with eight blocks while outside hitter Brett Rosenmeier continued his recent onslaught with eight kills and five blocks. Rosenmeier has not committed a hitting error in his last two matches and 33 combined attempts. 
 
Corey Chavers led the Gauchos with a match-high 13 kills.
 
An overpass kill by Rosenmeier gave UH a 13-9 lead in Set 1. Moments later, a Gasman-Stijn van Tilburg double block put the Warriors up 20-13 and two more blocks propelled the Warriors to set point. Van Tilburg put away his second kill as UH took the early lead in the match.
 
Early in the second set, consecutive aces by Rosenmeier gave UH a 5-1 lead. The Warriors maintained the advantage and pushed the advantage to seven at 17-10 after a Rosenmeier kill. Hawai'i scored five of the final six points to close out the set.
 
UCSB scored the first four points of Set 3 before the Warriors inched to within two at 8-6 with three straight points. UH finally caught UCSB and took a 20-19 lead after a kill by Solbrig and solo block by Parapunov that capped a 4-0 run. Van Tilburg finished off the match with an ace on UH's second match point.