HONOLULU – The top-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team fell victim to an offensive juggernaut as second-ranked BYU won in straight-sets (25-15, 25-17, 25-20) in a highly-anticipated match-up Thursday at the Stan Sheriff Center.
 
The Rainbow Warriors (14-1) saw their 24-set win streak and 25-match home win streak both come to an end. UH, which suffered its first home sweep since BYU did it March 2, 2016, also saw its 14-match win streak to start the season come to an end and 19-match non-conference home win streak snapped.
 
The Cougars (17-0) hit .603 for match, a new UH opponent record, and tallied 10 service aces, eight alone by Gabi Garcia Fernandez, who also recorded 13 kills, hitting .688. BYU committed only five attack errors and limited the Warriors to only one team block. In contrast, the Cougars recorded 6.5 team blocks and limited UH to .246 hitting.
 
Rado Parapunov recorded a team-high 10 kills to lead the Warriors while Colton Cowell added nine kills, although both combined for 11 errors. Parapunov also had one ace, which moved him into the program's Top 10 in career service aces.
 
The former conference rivals last played in Provo, Utah last season with the Warriors sweeping the Cougars to claim the BYU Invitational title.
 
BYU raced out to a 6-1 lead in Set 1 fueled by a pair of Fernandez aces. The Cougars put down nine of their first 10 attempts to take a 15-9 lead at the media timeout. The advantage was 18-10 after a pair of Parupunov hitting errors. Two more UH errors led to a 22-13 BYU lead and the Cougars closed out the set, hitting .706. Hawai'i, which saw its 24-set win streak snapped, hit .000 with nine kills and nine errors.
 
UH kept it close through the early part of Set 2.  The Warriors led 9-8 after scoring three unanswered points capped by a Parapunov-Guilherme Voss double block. The Cougars led 14-11 after back-to-back kills by Fernandez. After the Warriors closed to within one at 15-14 following the media timeout, BYU went on a 10-3 run to close out the set spurred by three straight Zach Eschenberg kills.   
 
In Set 3, three straight aces by Fernandez put the Cougars up 13-8. An ace by Will Stanley made it 17-12 and Fernandez's 13th and final kill gave the Cougars an insurmountable 20-13 advantage. 
 
The teams will play again on Friday in front of an expected sold-out crowd at the Stan Sheriff Center. First serve is 7:00 p.m.