HONOLULU — Spyros Chakas made teammate Max Rosenfeld a promise on senior night.
“Spyros looked back at me before he served, and he’s like, ‘this one’s for you,’ and he got an ace. That was pretty sick,” said Rosenfeld, one of three Hawaii men’s volleyball outgoing players being honored on Saturday following a match against No. 5 UC Santa Barbara.
No. 4 UH made sure the seniors went out with more than just a consolation prize as it rallied for a five-set win over the No. 5 Gauchos, 19-25, 25-20, 24-26, 25-18, 15-10, to complete a two-day sweep and establish the Rainbow Warriors as the No. 2 team in the Big West Conference with one more week in the regular season.
That Chakas ace in the fourth set was one of several key moments on a rowdy, protracted night at SimpliFi Arena in which UH trailed 1-0 then 2-1 in sets, putting its 15-0 home record on the season in jeopardy.
In explanation of his bravado with his team behind overall and trailing and 12-11 in the frame, the hitter Chakas was matter-of-fact.
“Max has been one of my best buddies since the first day I came here,” the sophomore said. “I stayed at his house my first two weeks in Hawaii. We shared a lot of things. We’re really close and I love him and I’m really proud of him.”
A season-high crowd of 5,982 (6,744 tickets issued) lent its support in braving a night of bumper-to-bumper traffic attempting to get into the Manoa Lower Campus parking structure – in combination with baseball and softball games, many fans were turned away as access was closed off entirely around the 7:05 p.m. first serve. The ones who made it through saw UH (20-5 overall) improve to 5-3 in the Big West, then celebrate outgoing players Rosenfeld, Avery Enriques and Kyler Presho.
“So much (of a help). Just unbelievable, the crowd, I hope people come out and support at the Big West tournament,” UH coach Charlie Wade said of the event UH will host in two weeks. “There was no doubt in that fourth and fifth set, the crowd had a lot to do with our success.”
Chakas and his Greek countryman Dimitrios Mouchlias combined for 34 kills. Middle Guilherme Voss added 12 kills on 24 swings and setter Jakob Thelle stepped up his personal attacks as the match went along to finish with six kills on 11 attempts.
For the second straight night, backup hitter Filip Humler was effective in spelling struggling starter Chaz Galloway. Humler, who started the last three sets, had seven kills and six digs.
UCSB (16-8, 5-4) dropped into a tie for third place with UC San Diego, which upset first-place Long Beach State in five sets on Saturday.
UH hit .387 to UCSB’s .315 and outblocked the Gauchos 9.0 to 4.0.
Gauchos hitter and Punahou alumnus Ryan Wilcox kept his head up after putting down 15 kills on 45 swings with seven errors. Wilcox was the 2021 Big West tournament MVP last spring on the same court as his team went through the bracket without facing the hosts.
“I gotta give credit to the ‘Bows. They were serving a pretty tough match. They were serving hard, and they were consistent,” Wilcox said after UH won its 12th straight match in the series. “We tried to handle it and we did for the most part, but it’s hard to keep up with a team when they’re bombing like that. Props to them for that.”
If the standings remained the same for the tournament back at SimpliFi in two weeks, UH and UCSB would be on a course to meet in the semifinals.
“Another positive that we got out of this is gaining experience in this environment,” Wilcox said. “There’s no other place with a crowd like this. And I think we’re one of the few teams in the league that got to experience it, and so that’ll play to our advantage when we get to the end of the Big West tournament.”
The Gauchos were cruising early on behind opposite Haotian Xia, who through three sets had 18 kills on 26 with just one error (.654).
He finished at 21 kills on 38 swings with four errors (.447), but was dangerous at the service line throughout in dealing six aces.
“He was playing out of his mind. When he’s on, he’s friggin’ on,” Wilcox said.
“The opposite (Xia) was literally unstoppable for most of the night,” Wade said. “We finally got a bead on him late.”
After UH rode the crowd to a runaway win in the fourth set, Xia fired an ace and the Gauchos took a quick 2-0 lead in the fifth. Thelle was called for an uncharacteristic double contact on a back set and UCSB led 5-3.
Wilcox hit a ball long through high hands and UH took a 6-3 lead.
Chakas put down a kill after a pancake save by Humler for an 8-6 advantage. UCSB coach Rick McLaughlin challenged that the ball was down, unsuccessfully.
Serving sub Keoni Thiim put down an ace on the baseline tape for a three-point lead and exulted in the crowd’s cheers. He narrowly missed another in the back right corner, which Wade challenged, unsuccessfully.
Chakas put down a kill through the Gaucho block for a 10-7 lead.
Xia fired his sixth ace of the match to get within 10-9 and Wade called for time. Voss ended the Gaucho spurt with a quick kill in the middle and Mouchlias followed with a right-side kill off the block.
Voss and Mouchlias stuffed Dayne Chalmers on the Gauchos’ left side and UCSB burned its last timeout at 13-9.
A Thelle back set to Mouchlias set up match point and after a sideout by the Gauchos, Mouchlias put it away with a crosscourt strike.
Wade said the team would do a separate “senior” ceremony for assistant coach Joshua Walker, who has accepted an assistant position with the Baylor women’s volleyball team and will leave after the season.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.