HONOLULU – The University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team had little trouble offensively in a straight-set win over Mount Olive on the opening day of the 30th OUTRIGGER Invitational, Thursday at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Set scores were 25-18, 25-19, and 25-17.
The Rainbow Warriors (16-2) hit a season-high .603 for the match, committing only six attack errors in 63 attempts. The match also featured the return of All-American opposite
Kristian Titriyski, who missed the team's last 11 matches due to injury. The Sofia, Bulgaria, native finished with a match-high 10 kills, two aces, three digs, and three blocks.
Finn Kearney played two of the three sets at outside hitter and tallied nine kills, hitting .667 with two aces and one block.
Louis Sakanoko added six kills, hitting .500, while
Adrien Roure tallied five kills in just one set of action.
Tread Rosenthal dished out 36 assists and recorded six digs and three kills.
A total of 13 players saw action for Hawai'i, including freshman outside hitter
Thatcher Fahlbusch, who finished with four kills in four errorless attempts in just his third appearance of the season. As a team, the Warriors served nine aces, led by
Justin Todd's career-high four.
The Trojans (8-5) were led by Matthew Ekberg's eight kills, while Brooks Ignosci added six.
Kearney's serving turn in the first set, which included back-to-back aces, gave UH an 18-13 lead. The Warriors went on to hit .650 with only one attack error in 20 attempts in the frame.
Titriyski made his first appearance in Set 2, tallying six kills and two blocks. Kearney played the entire second set at outside hitter and finished with six kills.
Todd served three of his four aces in Set 3 to help UH open up a 15-9 lead.
Earlier in the day, top-ranked UCLA defeated No. 14 Lewis in straight sets: 25-22, 25-23, 25-19. Cameron Thorne led the Bruins (17-0) with 10 kills, while Sean Kelly and David Decker each added nine. UCLA served 10 aces and hit .364 for the match.
The second day of the OUTRIGGER Invitational on Friday has been canceled. Saturday's matches remain on schedule, pending weather conditions.
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