AUSTIN, Texas – The top-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team combined for 25 aces in a pair of straight-set wins on the opening day of the First Point Collegiate Challenge Friday at the Austin Convention Center. After defeating Fairleigh Dickinson, 25-10, 25-14, 25-15 to open the tournament, the Rainbow Warriors (6-2) served Queens out of the gym with a 25-10, 25-11, 25-8 victory.
 
In the nightcap win, UH tied a program-record with 17 aces including seven by Spyros Chakas and five by Jakob Thelle. The 17 aces were a rally-scoring record and most since Hawai'i had 17 against UC Irvine in 1995.
 
Thelle, who missed the team's last two matches at Ball State, recorded nine aces on the day and increased his nation-leading total to 27 on the year. The Tonsberg, Norway native led UH to .403 hitting against FDU and .371 against Queens.
 
In the day's opening match, Hawai'i tallied eight service aces and 10 total blocks against the Knights (0-2), who are competing in their first intercollegiate season, in a match that lasted 75 minutes. The Warriors needed only 68 minutes against the Royals (4-4) and finished with 10.5 total blocks.
 
In the two matches, opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias did not commit an error with 19 kills in 26 attack attempts. The Soufli, Greece native extended his streak to three errorless matches and is hitting .615 with 40 kills in 65 attempts during that span.
 
UH will close out the tournament with a match-up against Stanford, Saturday at 6:00 p.m. CT (2:00 p.m. HT).
 
UH vs. Queens
UH scored the first eight points of Set 1 with the help of back-to-back aces by Thelle. The lead was 11-1 and the Warriors never looked back as Mouchlias recorded six of his match-high 11 kills in the opening frame.
 
Hawai'i jumped out to a 9-2 lead in Set 2 and used an 8-0 scoring run with Thelle behind the service line for a 21-7 advantage. The Norwegian finished with three aces in the set while Mouchlias went 5-of-6 at the net.
 
It was more of the same in Set 3 as UH scored 10 straight points with Chakas at the service line for a 12-2 lead. The Greek tallied four of the team's six aces in the frame.
 
More remarkably than UH's 17 aces in the match were only three service errors. The Warriors served at a remarkable 97% clip.
 
UH vs. Fairleigh Dickinson
Thelle and middle blocker Guilherme Voss returned to the Hawai'i lineup against FDU after missing the two matches due to health and safety protocols. Thelle finished with four aces, five kills and 27 assists while Voss had two kills, an ace, and three blocks.
 
Chakas had a match-high 11 kills while Mouchlias posted eight kills in 12 attempts with a team-high four blocks.
 
Artem Vetrov led the Knights with seven kills.
 
FDU hung tough early in Set 1 trailing 8-7 before Thelle went back to the service line. Three aces and eight consecutive points later and the Warriors saw their lead balloon to 16-7. UH closed out the set on a 9-2 run to take the opening frame. Hawai'i hit .500 with four aces and three blocks.
 
The Warriors opened Set 2 with an 8-3 lead and Thelle-Voss-Chakas triple block made it 15-7 at the media timeout. In Set 3, UH led 11-5 after a 5-1 scoring run and 22-10 after back-to-back kills by Thelle.