HONOLULU—The top-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team battled back after falling down two sets to record a reverse sweep over second-ranked BYU, 20-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-23, 19-17. The Rainbow Warriors avenged their Thursday night loss to the Cougars (17-1) with a marathon thriller on Friday night in front of a sold-out Stan Sheriff Center crowd.
UH (15-1), which saw its 25-match home win streak snapped the night prior, came out with the intent on avenging their only loss of the season, but it did not look good early on. Hawai'i found themselves down 0-2 in sets before mounting an epic comeback. UH played without starting outside hitter
Colton Cowell, who sat out due to an undisclosed injury and flu-like symptoms.
Senior opposite
Rado Parapunov carried the load with a career performance, recording 30 kills and 10 digs. For Parapunov, it marked his third career double-double and second this season. He hit .440 for the night with just eight errors in 50 attacks—which was also a career-high. He added five blocks and two service aces.
In the deciding fifth set, UH took a 7-3 lead with a 3-0 scoring run capped by a Humler kill. UH led 9-4 before a furious Cougars comeback which included four straight blocks to tie the score at 9-9. BYU took its first lead at 11-10 after a Davide Gardini kill and went up 13-11. But the Warriors answered, scoring three straight capped by a
Max Rosenfeld solo block. The teams traded sideouts with the Cougars erasing four match points before Gasman's fifth and final ace sealed the victory.
Setter
Jakob Thelle came in off the bench in the third set to quarterback the comeback. The sophomore notch a career-high 39 assists to go with a career-high five kills and two service aces. In only his fourth career start, freshman outside hitter
Chaz Galloway, who played in place of Cowell, posted career-highs of 10 kills and three blocks, while fellow outside
Filip Humler put down 10 kills to go with seven digs and two blocks. In addition to Gasman's career-high five vice aces, he contributed with seven kills and four blocks. Libero
Gage Worsley tied Parapunov with a team-high 10 digs.
After hitting .604 on Thursday, the Cougars hit .329, led by Gabi Garcia Fernandez's 21 kills, hitting .405, and three aces. Gardini added 17 kills and match-high 12 digs.
Set 1 started with a buzz with both teams trading blows. The Cougars took an 8-5 lead with three unanswered and made it 16-9 after UH's fifth hitting error of the set. UH closed to within 20-17 after Humler's fourth kill but the Cougars answered right back with three straight points of their own and finished the set hitting .441.
UH jumped out to a 6-3 lead to start Set 2 and mounted a 15-11 lead at the media timeout. After a Parapunov kill, a Thelle-
Guilherme Voss double-block made it 18-12. Fernandez's first ace of the match pulled the Cougars to within four at 19-15 and more tough serving by Gardini helped BYU take a 21-20 lead, capping an 8-1 run. The teams sided-out until 22-22 when the Cougars scored the final three points including two Fernandez kills as the Cougars out-scored the Warriors 12-3 to steal the set.
Hawai'i led 8-3 to open Set 3 with an ace by Gasman and solo block by Rosenfeld. UH extended its lead to 19-10 after Gasman's second and third aces followed by a Parapunov kill. The Cougars then put together a 10-3 run to pull within two at 22-20. But back-to-back kills by Parapunov and Gasman got UH to set point and Parapunov ended it to snap BYU's five-set win streak in the series.
UH led early in Set 4 before BYU tied it at 11. The teams traded leads and side-outs until the Cougars stuffed Gasman for a 19-18 lead. The Warriors got back the lead at 22-21 on Gasman's fourth ace. A big block by Galloway gave UH set point at 24-22 and Parapunov's 27
th kill put the crowd on its feet as the Warriors forced a Set 5.
Hawai'i will next open Big West Conference play by travelling to CSUN for a pair of matches, March 13-14 in Northridge, Calif., followed by a non-conference match-up at Pepperdine, March 17.
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