HONOLULU – The third-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team put together a dominant performance in a straight-set victory over No. 5 Stanford Friday before a season-high crowd of 9,226 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Set scores were 27-25, 25-7, 25-20.
The Rainbow Warriors (10-1) extended their win streak over the Cardinal to 11 straight while also remaining perfect in the month of February dating back to the 2018 season. UH also continued its current win streak to nine on the year including seven in straight sets.
Spyros Chakas recorded one of the all-time great performances in program history with a season-high 23 kills – 10 coming in the third set – while hitting .733 with only one attack error in 30 attempts. The senior tallied 38 kills in the two-match series sweep of the Cardinal for an average of 5.43 kills per set.
Alaka'i Todd added nine kills in 15 errorless attempts while
Chaz Galloway had five kills, four digs, and three blocks.
Freshman setter
Tread Rosenthal dished out 33 assists and directed the Warriors to a season-best .594 hitting percentage. As a team, UH committed only three attack errors in 69 swings.
The Cardinal (7-3) were led by Alex Rottman's 10 kills while Moses Wagner added eight kills and three aces.
In Set 1, the Cardinal scored three straight to take a 19-18 advantage. After the teams traded side-outs, an ace by Galloway put UH ahead 24-23. Stanford fended off two set points but on UH's third try for the set, Chakas put away his sixth kill for the game-winner.
It was all Hawai'i in Set 2. Aces by Rosenthal and Chakas helped UH take a 6-1 advantage and the lead ballooned to double-digits after a 7-0 run by the serving of Todd. The Warriors limited the Cardinal to -.154 hitting in the set.
Stanford would put up a fight in the third set. Wagner's ace pulled the Cardinal to within one at 16-15 but the Warriors reeled off three straight off of
Keoni Thiim's serve. Consecutive kills by Chakas and Todd made it 21-17 and Hawai'i closed out the match on Galloway's kill.
The Warriors take the next week off before hosting Missouri S&T, Feb. 22-23 at SimpliFi Arena.
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