SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The top-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team extended its win streak over UC Santa Barbara to 15 with another sweep Saturday at Rob Gymnasium. Set scores were 25-19, 25-21, 29-27.
The Rainbow Warriors (22-2, 5-1 BWC) also improved to 9-0 on the road this season with their 16
th sweep of the year. UH is now 10-0 all-time versus the Gauchos in Big West play.
Dimitrios Mouchlias led the Warriors with a match-high 14 kills, hitting .520.
Chaz Galloway added 12 kills, hitting .526, along with two aces and two blocks.
Spyros Chakas finished with nine kills, eight digs, and a pair of aces.
Middle blocker
Guilherme Voss had seven kills in nine errorless attempts. Freshman
Kurt Nusterer got a rare start at the other middle blocker spot and finished with four kills and four blocks.
As a team, Hawai'i hit .418 for the match with six aces and seven blocks.
Ryan Wilcox led the Gauchos (5-15, 1-6) with 12 kills, while Nick Amoruso added 11.
UH took an early 9-5 lead in Set 1 with a 5-1 run that included an ace by Mouchlias. The lead was eight at 16-8 after a five-point spurt. The Gauchos trimmed the deficit to five but the Warriors closed out the set with kills by Mouchlias and
Kurt Nusterer.
Nusterer recorded back-to-back blocks to help UH take a 15-11 lead in Set 2. UH pushed the lead to six after a Voss-Chakas double block and kill by Galloway. The Warriors posted four blocks in the set and took a quick 2-0 lead in the match.
UCSB would not go down easily. The Gauchos led 15-11 at the media timeout in Set 3 and 17-13 before Kāna'i Akana came in with tough serving to pull the Warriors to within one. The Gauchos pushed the lead back to three but UH slowly closed the deficit. A kill by Galloway pulled Hawai'i to within 22-21 and a
Jakob Thelle roof tied the score at 23. The Warriors erased two set points and on their third match point, a Chakas kill ended the match much like he did one night earlier.
UH returns to Honolulu for a four-match homestand to conclude the regular season beginning with a two-match series with Big West leader UC Irvine, Friday, April 7 and Saturday, April 8.
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