HONOLULU — Far from postseason form but close enough to serviceable, the two-time defending national champion Hawaii men’s volleyball team registered a four-set win over No. 6 Ball State in the 2023 season opener on Thursday night.
Top-ranked UH, returning its entire starting lineup from the team that swept Long Beach State in the 2022 NCAA championship, dominated in the early going, sputtered, then recovered nicely in the 25-16, 25-23, 22-25, 25-17 decision.
A crowd of 4,893 (5,581 tickets issued) was on hand at SimpliFi Arena, including a throng of Ball State supporters for the Cardinals’ head coach Donan Cruz, a Maui native, and players Keau Thompson and Xander Pink, Punahou graduates both.
More people are expected in house Friday for the 7 p.m. rematch, when UH unveils its NCAA championship banner in the rafters next to the 2021 edition.
Junior hitter Spyros Chakas, coming off a summer spent with the Greek national team, resumed his role as the Rainbow Warriors’ No. 1 option and put down 19 kills on 37 swings with four errors (.405).
“It was amazing. I missed it a lot,” Chakas said of playing in front of the UH crowd. “I think (Friday) is going to be even better and I can’t wait.”
Chaz Galloway was effective as the second attacker with 14 kills and two errors on 26 attempts (.462) and middle Guilherme Voss played his part as an efficient pressure-release valve with 11 kills on 14 error-less swings.
But UH’s serving and passing were not up to its lofty standard. The ‘Bows resolved to be better in both categories against a team that gave UH its toughest test in the 2022 postseason; the Cardinals, featuring some different personnel than Thursday night, pushed the ‘Bows to five sets in the NCAA semifinals.
UH led by double-digits in Set 1 but racked up double-digit errors in Set 3, when its aggressive serves missed the mark, causing the ‘Bows to launch some tamer entries from the line that in turn allowed the Cardinals to pound kills while working in system. BSU won the blocking battle 10.0 to 5.5.
Ball State’s All-America hitter, Kaleb Jenness, had 18 kills on 39 swings. He shook off a direct blast to the face from Chakas that left a mark midway through the match. Thompson, a true freshman, hit 8-3-17-.294 in his first collegiate match.
“We try to be a lot better than average, and the third set was pretty average,” UH coach Charlie Wade said. “I don’t think there’s much good that comes from losing, but nice to see us rebound and settle down and start the fourth set, staying aggressive from the service line, and being efficient while doing it.”
All-America setter Jakob Thelle, who usually likes to get in on the action with some direct swings on the second touch, did not attempt one on Night 1 of the season. Wade said that was because UH was having difficulty passing to him in his ideal spot up on the net.
“We’ve got a long ways to go, I would say,” Galloway said. “I mean, to go into passing and serving … we were making too many errors. We wouldn’t have won those games last year in the end if we were missing that many serves or not passing as well as we did.”
UH had seven aces to 15 service errors.
Chakas was the team’s emotional pulse. He roared several times during the match, either in frustration or exultation.
The one he let out at the end of Set 2, when Thelle and middle Cole Hogland stuffed BSU newcomer Tinaishe Ndavazocheva, was the latter.
After opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias was stuffed to open Set 4 — he struggled to seven kills and seven errors — UH strung together points in bunches and won going away.
“We knew that we had control of the game,” Chakas said. “We talked about how to help each other raise to the team as a whole. We executed in the end and this brought the win.”
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.