HONOLULU – The third-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team were in midseason form in a straight-set win over 14
th-ranked Lewis Thursday on the opening day of the OUTRIGGER Invitational at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Set scores were 25-9, 25-18, 25-21.
The Rainbow Warriors (15-1) extended their win streak to 14 matches and 10
th straight at SimpliFi Arena heading into Friday's big showdown with top-ranked Grand Canyon. UH looked unbeatable in the opening set, siding out at 100 percent and held the Flyers to single digits for the first time all season.
UH hit .458 for the match and served 10 aces, including three by
Tread Rosenthal and two each by
Spyros Chakas,
Alaka'i Todd, and
Guilherme Voss. Chakas recorded a match-high 15 kills, hitting for a career-best .737 clip. Todd added eight kills and five digs while Voss finished with seven kills and two blocks.
The Flyers (10-9) were led by Max Roquet's nine kills. As a team, Lewis hit .206.
In Set 1, UH used four aces to surge to an early lead. The advantage was double digits at 13-3 after a 6-0 run off the serve of Todd. The Warriors continued their serving prowess with two more aces and had six for the set. UH also hit .765 with 13 kills in 17 errorless attempts.
Hawai'i scored the first five points of Set 2 and took a six-point lead before the Flyers cut it to two. But the Warriors answered right back with a 5-0 run that included a 74-miles per hour ace by
Keoni Thiim and three kills by Chakas. UH closed out the set with an ace by Voss.
The Flyers led 9-6 in Set 3 with the help of three Warrior attack errors. Rosenthal's third ace put UH back on top 11-10. Moments later, Hawai'i went on a 5-1 run which included back-to-back blocks for a 20-15 lead and never looked back.
In the tournament's opening match, No. 5 UC Irvine (13-4) rallied past top-ranked Grand Canyon in five sets, 25-21, 19-25, 24-26, 29-27, 15-6. Hilir Henno finished with a match-high 29 kills to lead the Anteaters. William D'Arcy added 19 kills and 11 digs. Jackson Hickman led the Lopes (15-1) with 23 kills.
Friday's action begins with UC Irvine and Lewis at 4:00 p.m., followed by UH and GCU at 7:00 p.m.
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