IRVINE, Calif. – The fourth-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team swept UC Irvine, Friday at the Bren Events Center to secure a top two seed in next week's Big West Tournament. Set scores were 25-21, 25-18, 25-22.
The Rainbow Warriors (21-5, 6-3 BWC) defeated the Anteaters for the 10
th straight time in the series and are now one game up in the Big West standings over UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego. UH holds the tie-breaker over both teams. The top two seeds in the tournament receive a first round bye.
The teams play again on Saturday to close out the regular season. First serve is 7:00 p.m. PT at the Bren Events Center.
Opposite
Dimitrios Mouchlias had a team-high 13 kills, hitting .440 along with four digs and four blocks. Midde blocker
Guilherme Voss added nine kills in 12 attempts and three blocks while outside hitter
Spyros Chakas tallied eight kills two aces and six digs.
As a team, the Warriors hit .390 with five aces and 9.5 blocks. In contrast, the Anteaters (10-14, 3-6) hit .200. Francesco Sani had a match-high 16 kills and four aces.
In the opening set, UH led by five at the media timeout before the Eaters scored four straight. The Warriors stopped the bleeding and extended their lead back to four after a
Cole Hogland kill. From the there, the teams traded side-outs and Hawai'i maintained the advantage until the end. UH hit .423 in the set with four blocks.
In Set 2, UH jumped on top 13-9 after an ace and a block before the Eaters closed to within one. But the Warriors responded with three straight points for an 18-14 lead and went on to close out the set on a 10-4 run.
Hawai'i jumped out to a 7-3 lead in Set 3. The lead was 13-7 after a 5-2 run before UCI closed to within one at 17-16. Mouchlias took over with three kills during a 4-1 run that put UH ahead 21-17. UCI scored three straight to close to within one but UH was able to side-out and Mouchlias' ace ended the match
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