HONOLULU — On a championship ring night that Hawaii didn’t bring its best attack to bear, the Rainbow Warriors called upon record-setting serving and stout blocking to down Long Island University in the finale of a three-match series at SimpliFi Arena.
Third-ranked UH, after stumbling in the second set, dispatched LIU in four, 25-18, 22-25, 25-15, 25-9, on Friday to make it a 3-for-3 week against the Sharks, a first-year men’s volleyball program.
The Rainbows, missing two of their top attackers, made up for it in firing a program-record 20 aces and setting a season high with 18.5 blocks. UH’s offense lagged for much of the match before a speedy final frame raised their hitting percentage to .238.
Most of the turnstile crowd of 1,972 hung around afterward to see the ‘Bows (10-2) receive their 2021 NCAA national title rings, the second ceremony this season after the opening-night championship banner unveiling.
“Anytime we get a chance to take that stroll down memory lane a little bit, I make sure to take the time and appreciate it,” UH coach Charlie Wade said after presenting the players with their rings. “A lot of hard work went into putting us in that position. Now that we’ve won one, we’re not satisfied and going to do whatever we can to keep winning.”
Last year’s AVCA national player of the year, Rado Parapunov, appeared with a recorded message from Serbia on the big screen and wished the team well in its national title defense.
Two of the key pieces from that team, UH starting middle Guilherme Voss and starting hitter Chaz Galloway, watched from the bench. Voss was out with an unspecified ailment while Galloway has missed eight straight matches with a foot injury.
It fell to several of the UH backups to hold the line, especially after Wade sat struggling opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias and hitter Spyros Chakas in favor of Alaka‘i Todd and Kana‘i Akana after the first two sets.
Backup hitter Filip Humler stepped into a prominent role and posted career highs of seven aces and six blocks (two solo) to go with his match-high 10 kills on 18 swings.
“I’ve just got to stay humble and keep working hard,” Humler said.
Middle Cole Hogland got a rare start and responded by collaborating on a career-best 10 blocks, with two solo stuffs.
It was the fifth match of the season in which UH fired 10 or more aces. By the end of Set 3, UH had 15, two off the program-record-tying 17 the Rainbows notched in a win over Queens at the First Point Collegiate Challenge in Austin, Texas, last week.
Nine different players had at least one. Akana had a service run of 12 points in Set 4 and he tallied four aces for the match.
“It just proves everybody on the team can step up and play at a really high level,” Humler said of the reserves getting a chance.
Wade noted that often, a strong service game goes hand-in-hand with a strong block because of the extra time to add bodies at the net that comes when a receiving team is forced to scramble and play out of system.
After Set 1 went the way of most of Tuesday and Wednesday night’s sweeps, the Sharks provided some resistance.
Wade said UH suffered from a lack of practice coming off a five-match road trip that preceded this week’s series with LIU.
“We should’ve been better. We let some strange stuff go on. I think we weren’t completely dialed in. … We really haven’t strung together a couple days of practice for quite a while, and it’s kind of what it looked like.”
LIU cruised ahead 11-7 in Set 2, eliciting a Wade timeout. LIU maintained a three-point lead and went up 20-16 on crushed overpasses by setter Kasey Clouet and hitter Kade Frischknecht.
UH got to within 24-22 but could not rally out of the hole and the match was evened at 1-1 when Mouchlias had an attack blocked back into his body by Eddy Alexandre and Jordan Cooper.
LIU coach Shawn Patchell, who formerly headed up BYU and Concordia-Irvine, took pride in how his team responded after getting swept on Tuesday and Wednesday and said his team got what it needed from this trip. Taking a set off the national champs meant a lot for the Sharks, many of whom were club and junior college players last year.
LIU similarly came out with spunk in Set 3, but the service game quickly turned it around.
“UH responded how they're supposed to respond. We shouldn't be taking a set off of them, but we did. We grinded,” Patchell said. “(UH) came and they upped their game from the service line. They probably broke an NCAA record with 20 aces, but it gives me more fodder in the locker room to motivate the guys to get their extra reps.”
According to the NCAA’s record book, 20 aces tied the record for a four-set match in the rally scoring era, set by Erskine against Brewton-Parker on March 9, 2018.
Ball State has the overall rally scoring aces record of 30 set in a sweep of Central State of Ohio on Feb. 7, 2006.
“When I said we took our foot off the gas, I thought some of it was from the service line,” Wade said. “We had some guys go back when it was close and we were down, and just kind of lolly it in. We spend so much time on it, I want them bringing it.”
Humler put down a kill then unleashed four straight aces for a 15-9 lead. UH kept on the pressure from the service line, and Todd ended the frame on a back-set attack from Jakob Thelle.
“He blew that set open. He won it virtually on his own,” Wade said of Humler. “He had 21 points in four sets. … He’s a guy we absolutely need in the mix. In 2020 he was a full-time starter, he hit .370 on the year, mostly out-of-system balls. When his serve is going like that, he’s going to impact the game. He’s a really good blocker and out-of-system attacker, and his passing just needs to be okay to be on the floor and help us.”
A block solo by Hogland at the middle net was emblematic of UH’s start to Set 4, in which the Sharks burned both of their timeouts by the time the score read 8-1 Rainbows.
Akana tied the team record of 17 with a blistered serve at 9-1.
UH kept up its immaculate set with consecutive roofs.
Akana caught the baseline tape for ace No. 18, a new program record including the sideout-scoring era. His service run finally ended on a netted ball at 14-2.
Fittingly, Humler helped wrap it up with an ace at 23-5 and Thelle, Hogland and Akana combined for a block on the third match point.
A three-match series with Lincoln Memorial is next from Friday to Sunday at SimpliFi Arena.