HONOLULU – The top-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team handed head coach
Charlie Wade his 250
th career victory in a four-set win over Concordia, Thursday, in the opener of a two-match series at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Set scores were 25-14, 22-25, 25-15, 25-23.
The teams play again on Friday at 7:00 p.m.
UH, who played without starting All-American setter
Jakob Thelle due to load management, saw its 25-set win streak snapped in the victory. The Rainbow Warriors (10-0) still managed to extend their home win streak to 23 matches while improving to a perfect 6-0 all-time against CUI.
Hawai'i was led by opposite
Dimitrios Mouchlias, the reigning Big West Player of the Week, who tallied 20 kills and eight digs, while hitting .389. Fellow Greek
Spyros Chakas added 16 kills, two aces, and six digs.
Brett Sheward started at setter and finished with a career-high 55 assists while leading the Warriors to a .402 hitting percentage. Libero
'Eleu Choy posted five digs.
Middle blockers
Cole Hogland and
Guilherme Voss combined for 18 kills on .640 hitting and eight blocks. Hogland matched his career-high with 10 kills, hitting .600 with two aces while Voss added eight kills, hitting .700 with a team-high six blocks.
The Golden Eagles (4-6) were led by Uriel Batista, who tallied a team-high 15 kills. Scott Montez added 13 kills, hitting .370. As a team, CUI hit .207.
UH jumped out to a 7-3 lead in Set 1 and made it 15-10 at the media timeout. A 5-1 run gave the Warriors a 19-11 lead and went on to hit .550 in the set with four blocks.
Concordia put up a bigger fight in Set 2. UH led 15-14 at the media timeout before the Golden Eagles scored three unanswered for an 18-16 lead. Hawai'i answered right back with three straight to retake the lead but CUI matched that with three more of their own for a 21-19 advantage. UH tied it at 22 after a Batista attack error but the Golden Eagles scored the final three points to snap UH's 25-set win streak.
Hawai'i led 15-7 in Set 2 after scoring six unanswered which included Hogland's second ace. The lead stretched to double digits at 20-10 after a kill by Hogland. UH hit .615 in the set with only one attack error in 26 attempts.
UH took a 17-13 lead in Set 4 after consecutive kills by Hogland. UH led 23-18 before the Eagles made it interesting. Three straight CIU points cut the Hawai'i lead to two. Hogland's 10
th kill gave the Warriors match point but the Eagles fought off two to pull within 24-23. Chakas put away a kill from the backrow to end the match.
#HawaiiMVB
