HONOLULU – The top-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team handed No. 5 UC Irvine its first conference loss Friday in the first of two Big West matches at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Set scores were 25-16, 17-25, 25-23, 25-22.
The Rainbow Warriors (23-2, 6-1 BWC) continued their dominance over the Anteaters (16-7, 6-1) with their 12
th consecutive victory in the series to create a three-way tie atop the Big West standings. UH, UCI, and Long Beach State are 6-1 with three matches left in the regular season.
The teams played high-level volleyball with each hitting close to .400 for the match. UH hit .451 with only nine attack errors in 113 attempts while UCI finished at a .396 clip. Both teams served six aces while Hawai'i posted 10 team blocks compared to only three for the Anteaters.
Dimitrios Mouchlias tallied a match-high and season-high 23 kills, hitting .452 with a career-high six blocks (three solo).
Spyros Chakas added 14 kills, hitting .419 with three aces, three digs, and three blocks.
Chaz Galloway finished with nine kills and seven digs.
Four Anteaters totaled double-digits kills led by Francesco Sani's 19. Hilir Henno added 14 kills, three aces, and six digs.
UH used an 8-1 run in the middle of the first set – with aces by Chakas and
Keoni Thiim and a pair of kills by Mouchlias – to take a 16-9 lead. An ace by
Jakob Thelle followed by a solo block by Mouchlias made it 21-14. UH went on to hit .609 in the set with three aces and three blocks.
The score was 9-9 before the Anteaters went on an 11-2 run that the Warriors could not stop. With Henno at the service line, UCI reeled off four straight for a 15-10 lead. The Eaters strung together five more to take a 20-11 lead and went on to hit .640 in the set with 16 kills in 25 errorless attempts and three aces.
With the score tied at 10 in Set 3, the Warriors scored three straight which included Chakas' third ace of the match for a 13-11 lead. UH extended its lead to 17-13 after a Galloway-
Cole Hogland double-block. After the Eaters rallied to tie it at 19 and again at 23 before the Warriors scored the final two points with the set-winner on Thelle's dump.
In Set 4, UH scored six straight with Thelle at the service line for a 13-8 lead. Thiim's second ace made it 16-12 but the Eaters slowly chipped away. UCI pulled within two at 18-16 before a 5-2 run by the Warriors made it 23-18. The Eaters scored three straight to pull within two again. A
Guilherme Voss kill gave UH match point and Hogland's kill ended it.
The teams play again on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.
#HawaiiMVB
