HONOLULU – The fourth-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team opened Big West play with a decisive straight-set win over No. 3 UC Irvine Friday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Set scores were 25-21, 26-24, 25-22.
The Rainbow Warriors (14-1, 1-0 BWC) avenged a loss to the Anteaters in last year's Big West Tournament semifinals in Honolulu, which essentially ended their 2024 season. On Friday, Hawai'i came out with a vengeance from the get-go led by
Kristian Titriyski's match-high 17 kills.
As a team, the Warriors hit .366 for the match and used tough serving in key moments of the match to pull out the victory. Hawai'i finished with six aces, including two each by Titriyski and
Adrien Roure.
Titriyski, a freshman from Sofia, Bulgaria, tallied seven kills in each of the first two sets. Both of his aces occurred late in the first two sets. In Set 1, his ace put UH on top 23-20, which the Warriors eventually won on
Louis Sakanoko's ace. In Set 2, Titriyski's second ace tied the score at 23 and Hawai'i went on to score the final three points of the set.
Roure finished with nine kills, hitting .533 with eight digs and redshirt freshman
Justin Todd posted a career-high eight kills on 10 errorless attempts.
Hilir Henno led the Anteaters (10-3, 0-1) with 13 kills, hitting .407. UCI hit .316 in the match and finished with four aces and 8.5 blocks, 7.5 of which occurred in Set 2.
UH led 22-17 late in Set 3 and seemingly on its way to a sweep, before UCI's Nolan Flexen went back to serve and strung together four straight to pull the Eaters within one. The teams sided-out and Titriyski's 17
th kill gave UH match point. William D'Arcy's attack went long to end it.
The teams meet again on Sunday at 5:00 p.m.
#HawaiiMVB
