LA JOLLA, Calif. – The third-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team overcame its nemesis UC San Diego with a straight-set win Friday at RIMAC Arena. Set scores were 25-22, 25-20, 25-19.
 
The Rainbow Warriors (14-3, 1-1 BWC), which saw their nine-match win streak come to an end on Wednesday, snapped a two-match losing streak to the Tritons to even their Big West Conference record to 1-1. UH had lost two straight to UCSD after winning 60 of the first 64 matches in the series.
 
Spyros Chakas was nearly unstoppable with a team-high 15 kills, hitting .700 with only one error in 20 attempts. The Nea Smyrni, Greece native also tallied UH's lone ace on the night. Fellow Greek Dimitrios Mouchlias added eight kills while Filip Humler came off the bench and finished with seven kills (.455), three digs, and two blocks.
 
Libero Brett Sheward matched his career-high with 10 digs and setter Jakob Thelle dished out 36 assists along with three of the team's eight blocks.
 
As a team, UH hit .429 compared to .222 for the Tritons (8-7, 1-2), who were led by Kyle McCauley's 17 kills. No other Triton had more than six kills.
 
UH took its first lead of Set 1 at 10-9 after a Chaz Galloway solo stuff and two points later had a 12-9 cushion. The Tritons erased the deficit with a 4-0 run and a 17-16 lead. Hawai'i quickly regained the advantage after back-to-back McCauley hitting errors. A kill by Humler and a Thelle-Max Rosenfeld block helped UH get to set point and Rosenfeld put away a kill for a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
Hawai'i jumped out to a 9-6 lead in Set 2 but the Tritons used a 3-0 run to take back the advantage at 12-11. Back-to-back blocks by Thelle and Chakas ignited a 4-0 run for an 18-14 lead. The lead was five at 21-16 lead after consecutive kills by Chakas and Thelle's solo stuff closed out the set. 
 
An ace by Chakas help jump-start an 8-3 lead to start Set 3. The lead was eight at 18-10 after a 4-1 run before the Tritons scored four unanswered. But the Warriors would not give in and sided-out to pull off the sweep.
 
UH returns to Honolulu to host a two-match, non-conference series with Lewis, March 10 & 12 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.