HONOLULU — The second-ranked University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team completed a dominant weekend at home, sweeping No. 8 UC Santa Barbara (25-16, 25-22, 25-13) on Saturday night at the Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. The victory improved the Rainbow Warriors to 21-3 overall and a perfect 4-0 in Big West play, extending their home win streak over the Gauchos to 14 matches.
Louis Sakanoko anchored the Hawai'i attack with a team-high 12 kills on a blistering .588 hitting percentage. Sakanoko was a force across the board, adding three aces, three digs, and two blocks.
Kristian Titriyski followed closely with 11 kills, while
Adrien Roure contributed six kills and a team-high four blocks.
Setter
Tread Rosenthal orchestrated a clinical offense with 33 assists, leading the team to a .378 hitting percentage for the match. Middle blocker
Ofeck Hazan got the start and was nearly perfect, recording six kills on seven swings for a .857 hitting percentage while matching the team-high with four blocks. Defensively, the Warriors out-blocked the Gauchos 7.5 to 3.5.
UC Santa Barbara (11-9, 2-3) was led by Ethan Saint with 10 kills. However, the Gauchos struggled to find rhythm against a stifling Hawai'i defense that held them to a season-low .188 hitting percentage.
The Rainbow Warriors set the tone early in Set 1 with four straight points to take a 6-3 lead. UH never looked back as consecutive aces by
Finn Kearney extended the cushion to 16-9. The Warriors hit a blistering .478 in the opening frame, with four aces and 2.5 blocks, to cruise to a 25-16 win.
In Set 2, UH jumped out to a 6-2 lead following a pair of three-point spurts. After the Gauchos rallied to pull within two, a Titriyski ace capped a 5-0 run to give Hawai'i a commanding 16-8 advantage. UCSB didn't go quietly, using an 8-2 run to trim the lead back to 20-18, and a Josh Aruya ace made it a one-point game at 21-20. However, Hazan slammed home consecutive kills to restore a 23-20 lead, and UH held on for the 25-22 victory.
The third set was all Hawai'i as the Warriors built an 11-7 lead behind a 4-0 run. The lead ballooned to 17-9 after a 6-1 surge, and UH hit a match-high .550 in the final frame to seal the series sweep with a 25-13 finale.
UH will begin a four-match road trip starting with a pair of critical matches at UC Irvine on April 3 and 4 at the Bren Events Center.
#HawaiiMVB
