HONOLULU – The top-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team kicked off the 2023 season with a four-set win over No. 6 Ball State Thursday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Set scores were 25-16, 25-23, 22-25, 25-17.
In a rematch of last year's NCAA Championship semifinals, UH (1-0) won its season-opener for the 10
th straight year and extended its home win streak to 19 matches dating back to 2021. Head coach
Charlie Wade also improved his record in season-openers to 12-2.
The teams meet again on Friday at 7:00 p.m. at SimpliFi Arena. Before the match, the team will unveil their 2022 national championship banner in a pre-match ceremony.
Spyros Chakas led a potent UH offense, which hit .402 as a team. Chakas tallied 19 kills, hitting .402 while fellow outside hitter
Chaz Galloway added 14 kills on a .462 clip. Middle blocker
Guilherme Voss had 11 kills in 14 error-less attempts. Galloway, opposite
Dimitrios Mouchlias and setter
Jakob Thelle each had two aces.
The Cardinals were led by All-American Kaleb Jennes, who tallied 18 kills and nine digs. BSU (0-1) out-blocked the Warriors 10-5.5 with setter David Flores record a match-high five blocks.
It was all Hawai'i in Set 1 as the Warriors jumped out to an 7-2 advantage. The lead was 20-9 after a kill by Galloway. The Warriors hit .440 for the set with three aces and limited the Cardinals to .080. Chakas had a team-high eight kills.
BSU led 7-5 to start Set 2 but a 7-1 Hawai'i run put the Warriors back on top 12-8. UH extended its lead to six at 19-13 after a Mouchlias kill. The Cardinals would not go away, pulling to within 21-19 after a 4-1 run and 24-23 after an attack error by
Cole Hogland. But on the next play, Hawai'i made it a 2-0 lead in the match after Thelle and Hogland teamed for a double block.
UH jumped out to a 7-2 lead in Set 3 before the Cardinals used a 6-1 run to tie it at 9-9. BSU led 15-13 at the media timeout. UH trimmed the deficit to one at 22-21 after a BSU attack error. But back-to-back points by the Cardinals gave them set point and a kill by Jenness sent the match to a fourth set.
In Set 4, the Warriors led 8-3 forcing a BSU timeout. An ace by Galloway made it 10-4 and UH led by seven before the Cardinals inched back to within four at 19-15. But four straight Warrior points all but sealed the victory.
#HawaiiMVB
