HONOLULU – The third-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team barely broke a sweat in another dominant straight-set win over Missouri S&T, Friday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Set scores were 25-14, 25-18, 25-17.
The Rainbow Warriors (12-1) have now won 62 consecutive matches against unranked opponents at home while extending their win streak to 11 straight. UH also finished its sixth consecutive February with an unbeaten record, a streak of 36 consecutive victories dating back to the 2019 season.
Hawai'i needed only 95 minutes to dispatch the Miners, a second-year program from Rolla, Mo., for the second consecutive night. The two matches were the first between the programs.
UH hit .394 in the match and .440 in the series. Hawai'i also finished with 12 aces marking the sixth time this season of 10+ aces in a match.
Chaz Galloway led Hawai'i with nine kills, hitting .583 and served two aces. At least nine different Warriors had at least one kill while 12 players saw action including middle blocker
Zachary Thompson, who made his UH debut. The Pearl City, O'ahu native and UC Santa Cruz transfer finished with four kills in four attempts.
Spyros Chakas returned to the starting lineup and tallied six kills in seven attempts, all in one set of action.
Tread Rosenthal and
Kurt Nusterer each recorded three aces.
The Miners (8-8) were led by Nate Meyer's 11 kills and three aces. MST hit .175 for the match.
The Warriors scored the first eight points of Set 1 and extended the advantage to 10 at 15-5 at the media timeout. UH went on to hit .444 in the set led by Chakas' six kills.
UH head coach
Charlie Wade inserted several subs in Set 2 including Thompson and
Oguzhan Oguz, the latter of whom appeared in just his fourth match of the season. The Miners kept it close until the Warriors used a 7-2 run to take a 17-11 lead. Galloway finished with six kills and UH hit .571 with only one attack error in 21 attempts.
The Warriors tinkered with their lineup again in the third set but still managed six aces, including two by Nusterer. Consecutive kills by Thompson and
Alaka'i Todd made it 21-13 and UH closed out the sweep with a dirty ace by reserve
Kai Taylor.
Hawai'i will host another first-time opponents next week for a two-match series against Sacred Heart, Friday, March 1 and Sunday, March 3.
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