HONOLULU – The fourth-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team remained perfect on the season after a straight-set win over Harvard, Wednesday in the first of two non-conference matches at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Set scores were 25-18, 25-17, 25-20.
The Rainbow Warriors (3-0) continued their dominant play by hitting .400 for the match, the second time they've reached .400 in three contests this season. A total of 13 players saw action including freshman
Kainoa Wade, who made his collegiate debut and finished with eight kills, two blocks, one dig, and hit .533 in 15 errorless attempts.
UH was led by outside hitter
Adrien Roure, who tallied nine kills, hitting .375. Middle blocker
Ofeck Hazan had six kills in 10 errorless attempts along with a match-high six blocks while setter
Tread Rosenthal dished out 33 assists and also recorded six digs, five blocks, two kills, and one ace.
As a team, Hawai'i totaled 11.5 blocks compared to three for the Crimson (0-1), who hit .129 for the match.
Harvard was led by Logan Shepherd and Owen Fanning, who tallied 12 and 11 kills, respectively.
Kainoa Wade, the son of UH head coach
Charlie Wade, was a standout prep player at Kamehameha Schools-Kapālama. The true freshman entered the match at the start of the second set and ignited the Hawai'i offense, recording his first kill at 7-6 in the second set and would not record an attack error in 15 swings.
Also getting his most extensive playing time of the season was sophomore outside hitter
Louis Sakanoko, who finished with four kills, three digs, and two blocks in two sets of action.
UH scored the first three points of Set 1 and never looked back. The Warriors extended the lead to five at 13-8 after a triple block and made it 21-14 following Roure's fourth kill. Hawai'i went on to hit .346 in the set with 2.5 blocks and two aces.
Hawai'i jumped ahead 12-9 in Set 2 after a 4-1 run. UH would go on to out-score the Crimson 10-3 to close out the set as Wade finished with three kills and the 'Bows hit .452 in the frame.
Freshmen
Finn Kearney and
Justin Todd entered the lineup in Set 3. The Crimson made it a game tying the score at 14. But UH's block spurred a 4-1 run to give them the cushion they needed to close out the match. Wade recorded kills number seven and eight during a three-point run to complete the sweep.
The teams play again on Friday at 7:00 p.m., at SimpliFi Arena.
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