COLUMBUS, Ohio — The University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team's national title hopes ended with a sweep at the hands of rival UCLA in the semifinals of the National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championship on Saturday at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio.
The second-seeded and Big West champion Rainbow Warriors closed the 2025 season at 27-6 following the No. 3-seeded Bruins' 25-14, 25-23, 25-23 victory in the 97
th all-time meeting and 10
th postseason matchup between the storied programs.
A shorthanded UH rotation hit .188 while UCLA (22-6) hit .370 in advancing to face top-seeded Long Beach State in the national championship match on Monday. The Beach defeated Pepperdine in four sets in Saturday's first semifinal match.
UH outside hitter
Adrien Roure led the Warriors with 12 kills while hitting .333 and had two aces in closing out an All-America freshman season. Setter
Tread Rosenthal, also an All-American, finished with 19 assists and four kills. Redshirt freshman
Justin Todd was in on all four of UH's blocks.
UCLA had the advantage from the service line and at the net with six aces and 11 blocks. Sean Kelly led the Bruins with a match-high 13 kills while hitting .435.
UH's run to the NCAA's final four punctuated the careers of five Rainbow Warrior seniors in
'Eleu Choy,
Kawai Hong,
Kurt Nusterer,
Zachary Thompson and
Clay Wieter.
After falling short of the NCAA Championship last year, the Warriors returned to the bracket this season by claiming the Big West Championship title and advanced to the national semifinals for the ninth time.
Saturday's loss was UH's first in the NCAA semifinals since 2017, also in Columbus. The Warriors had advanced to the title match in their last four opportunities dating back to 2019.
As in Thursday's quarterfinal win over Penn State, the Warriors fell behind early in the opening set as UCLA jumped out to a 10-4 lead with an eight-point run. This time, UH couldn't overcome the deficit and UCLA's third ace of the set pushed the lead to 16-8. The Bruins remained in control through the end of the set while hitting .417 to UH's .048.
Freshman
Kainoa Wade started the second set at opposite and his first kill gave UH an 8-7 lead. A successful challenge by UH coach
Charlie Wade resulted in an ace for
Finn Kearney, but UCLA strung together a 5-0 run to take a 13-10 lead. UH rallied to catch the Bruins at 17-17 and there were five more ties until Roure made a diving save and Wade finished the point to push UH ahead 23-22. UCLA answered back to reclaim the lead and closed out the set with its seventh block.
UH shuffled the lineup again to open the third set with Wieter and
Ofeck Hazan entering the match. UCLA again played from in front early in the set and led 12-6. UH closed to 15-13 but UCLA opened up a 20-15 lead on back-to-back blocks. Roure put away three consecutive kills to cut the deficit to 21-18 and later delivered his second ace of the match to bring UH within two. A kill by
Louis Sakanoko brought UH to 22-21, but after the teams traded service errors UCLA scored the next two points to close out the match. The Bruins were assessed a red card following the final point to account for the final margin.
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