PROVO, Utah—The No. 2 University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team opened the BYU Invitational tournament with a 25-10, 25-19, 25-18 win over McKendree at the George Albert Smith Fieldhouse. The Rainbow Warriors (18-0, 4-0 Big West) extended their NCAA-record set win streak to 54 and has started the year with 18-straight sweeps.
 
Outside hitter Stijn van Tilburg led Hawai'i with a season-high 18 kills and did not commit an error in 24 attacks for a .750 hitting percentage. He also added two digs and two blocks on the night. Opposite Rado Parapunov recorded 14 kills while leading UH with three service aces. Parapunov was also in on five blocks (two solo). Middle blocker Patrick Gasman also tallied five blocks to go with two kills.
 
Setter Joe Worsley orchestrated UH's offense to a .468 team hitting percentage. In Set 3, the 'Bows hit .615 with 17 kills and just one error in 26 attacks. Worsley dished out 39 assists while tallying two kills, four digs and a service ace.
 
Libero Gage Worsley posted a match-high nine digs in the match.
 
The Bearcats (9-9) were led by Brendon Dunn, who had 12 kills in the loss. Hawai'i's defense held McKendree to a .135 hitting percentage.
 
Hawai'i rolled to a 25-10 win in Set 1. Six of McKendree's 10 points came off of UH serving errors. The Bearcats hit -.250 for the frame. Van Tilburg led UH in the first set with four kills.
 
Set 2 was much closer with five lead changes and 10 ties in the set. After the set was tied for the last time at 17-17, the Warriors pulled away to finish on an 8-to-2 run to go up 2-0 with a 25-19 win. Van Tilburg buried eight kills in the second set while Parapunov had four kills.
 
Except for a 1-1 tie early in the third set, UH took control early and scored in small bunches to slowly pull away from the Bearcats to capture its NCAA-record 54^th-straight set. The match ended with a solo block by Parapunov.
 
The Warriors will next take on Princeton (10-9) on Friday at 12:00 pm HT on Day 2 of the round-robin, BYU Invitational.