HONOLULU – On the night the University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team unveiled its national championship banner, the top-ranked Rainbow Warriors swept Loyola Chicago Wednesday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Set scores were 25-14, 25-23, 25-18.
 
UH (1-0) won its season-opener for the ninth consecutive year and for the 11^th time under head coach Charlie Wade. The Warriors also unveiled a new offense run by setter Jakob Thelle, who directed UH to a .381 hitting percentage. The junior served a career-high six aces, including four in the third set, and had four blocks to go along with 33 assists.

The night began with the banner ceremony as the first men's volleyball national championship banner was unveiled. Two-time All-American Colton Cowell, who starred on last year's squad, helped with the reveal and surprised the crowd by lowering the banner from the rafters of Simpli Arena.

2x All-American and Maui's own Colton Cowell unveils the 2021 @NCAAMVolleyball Championship banner. pic.twitter.com/iULEPNWaFa

— Hawaii Men's Volleyball (@HawaiiMensVB) January 6, 2022

 
Outside hitter Chaz Galloway led the way with a team-high 11 kills, hitting .476 while middle blocker Guilherme Voss had 10 kills on a .692 clip. After taking last year off, sophomore Dimitrios Mouchlias tallied nine kills, seven digs, and three blocks in his return. Sophomore Cole Hogland came off the bench and tallied four blocks.

As a team, the Warriors finished with 9.5 blocks and held the Ramblers (0-1) to .169 hitting.
 
UH jumped all over the Ramblers in Set 1, hitting .609 with no errors in 23 attempts and sided-out at a perfect 100 percent. Galloway and Spyros Chakas each had four kills in the set.
 
Loyola jumped out to a 11-7 lead in Set 2 before the Warriors used a 5-0 run which included a pair of aces by Thelle to take the lead. The score was tied four times before UH scored consecutive points for a 19-17 lead. Trailing 21-19, the Ramblers scored three straight for a 22-21 advantage. But Hawai'i closed out the set by scoring four of the final five points including a huge triple block to end it.
 
It was the Jakob Thelle Show to start Set 3 as the Tonsberg, Norway native ran off four aces, including back-to-back-back. UH led by as many as nine in the set. 
 
The teams wrap up the OUTRIGGER Challenge with another match scheduled for Friday at 7:00 p.m. at SimpliFi Arena.