SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The top-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team came up clutch at the end of each set in a 3-0 win over UC Santa Barbara, Friday, March 31 at Rob Gymnasium. Set scores were 25-22, 25-21, 29-27.
The Rainbow Warriors (21-2, 4-1 BWC) extended their win streak over the Gauchos to 14 straight with their 10
th consecutive road win. UH came up big when it mattered most down the stretch, pulling away from a 21-all tie in Set 1, 20-all tie in Set 2, and erasing two set points in Set 3.
UH hit .420 for the match and were led by outside hitter
Spyros Chakas, who finished with 13 kills, hitting .500. The Nea Smyrni, Greece native also tallied two aces, seven digs, and three blocks and ended the match with two straight kills.
Guilherme Voss added nine kills, hitting .727 with a team-high four blocks.
Chaz Galloway and
Dimitrios Mouchlias each had eight kills while Mouchlias recorded his third career double-double with 10 digs. Setter
Jakob Thelle dished out 35 assists and moved into the school's career Top 10 list.
The Gauchos (5-14, 1-5) were led by Nick Amoruso's match-high 16 kills. UCSB hit .273 as a team with six aces, including three by former Rainbow Warrior
Jack Walmer.
UH led 18-15 in Set 1 before the Gauchos scored four of five to tie it at 19. The teams traded side-outs until the Warriors scored a natural point off of a UCSB attack error at 23-21. Chakas scored from the bic to make it 24-21 and after a UCSB point, Galloway put away the set winner.
The Gauchos jumped all over the Warriors to start Set 2, scoring the first five points and extending the lead to 9-2. But just as quickly, Hawai'i answered back, using their own 9-2 run to tie it at 11. The Warriors eventually grabbed a three-point lead before the Gauchos tied it at 20. From there, Hawai'i strung together a 4-0 run with Kāna'i Akana at the service line to get to set point and a Chakas ended it with his eighth kill.
The Warriors again rallied from a big deficit, taking a 17-16 lead with a 5-0 run. UH momentarily took a 21-19 lead before the Gauchos used a 5-1 run to get to set point. The Warriors erased two set points, the latter on
Keoni Thiim's ace. Another tough serve by Thiim set up a Galloway kill for UH's first match point. UCSB staved off three match points before Chakas closed out the match with a back-to-back kills.
The teams play again on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. PT (4:00 p.m. HT) at Rob Gym.
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