SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The No. 1-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team completed with series sweep of No. 3 UC Santa Barbara with another straight-set win Saturday in a non-conference match at Rob Gym. Set scores were 25-22, 25-19, 26-24.
After dropping the first set in the first match of the series on Thursday, the Rainbow Warriors (7-0) reeled off nine straight set wins over one of the nation's top teams on their homecourt. UH extended its win streak over the Gauchos to nine and have won five straight in Santa Barbara.
Opposite
Rado Parapunov put on a show, blasting a match-high 20 kills, hitting .438. The Sofia, Bulgaria native added four aces – three in the opening set – five digs, and one block in one of his most dominant matches ever in a Rainbow Warrior uniform.
Outside hitter
Chaz Galloway and middle blocker
Patrick Gasman each added seven kills while outside hitter
Colton Cowell chipped in with six kills, nine digs, and three blocks. Gasman finished the series with 19 total blocks to push his average to a nation's best 1.70 per set.
As a team, the Warriors hit .416 for the match with six aces and seven blocks. Setter
Jakob Thelle dished out 38 assists and his third kill, put an end to the match. Middle blocker
Guilherme Voss was perfect on all five of his kill attempts.
Randy DeWeese had team-highs of 12 kills, three aces, and three blocks to lead the Gauchos (4-3), who hit .330 for the match and made a game of it throughout.
In Set 1, UH scored five straight points with the help of three aces by Parapunov for an early 8-4 lead. The advantage was 15-8 after Gasman's overpass kill but the Gauchos responded with four straight of their own to pull within three. From there, Parapunov took over with four kills as the Warriors closed out the set. UH hit .500 as a team with four blocks and three aces.
The second set was tied at 12-all until Hawai'i scored five of six which included a three-point stretch in which Parapunov had back-to-back kills and an ace. Another three-point spurt capped by a Cowell kill made it 22-16 and all but secured the set win for the Warrior.
Set 3 was a battle as the Gauchos led 10-7 in the early goings. UCSB led 17-13 until the Warriors used a 6-2 run to even the score at 19. The score was tied three more times until DeWeese's kill gave the Gauchos set point. But Parapunov's 20
th kill followed by a
Max Rosenfeld kill gave UH match point and Thelle's swing off a
Gage Worsley dig ended it.
The Warriors take the next week off before hosting UC San Diego, March 26 & 27 in a pair of Big West matches at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
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