HONOLULU — All Dimitrios Mouchlias had to do to remind himself of what he was capable of was to look up.
After the Hawaii men’s volleyball team unfurled a national championship banner in the Stan Sheriff Center rafters for the second straight January, Mouchlias helped shake the mesmerized Rainbow Warriors out of a slow start to beat Ball State in four sets for the second straight night Friday.
Mouchlias had three of UH’s nine service errors in the first set, then recovered to launch all of his career-best six aces in the last two frames of the 23-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-18 victory.
“He had probably the worst first set ever serving, then he comes back and has the best couple of sets after serving-wise,” setter Jakob Thelle said. “I think that was a huge comeback for us.”
A turnstile crowd of 6,148 (6,646 tickets issued) was on hand to see the unfurling of the 2022 NCAA banner, which was placed on the other side of the U.S. and Hawaiian flags from the 2021 banner. Unlike last year’s ceremony, every player that had a meaningful role on the march to the title was present; top-ranked UH returned its entire starting lineup and most of its key reserves.
Mouchlias struggled on opening night with as many attack errors as kills. But like the Greek standout accomplished many times last season, he followed one of his worst games with one of his best.
“To be honest, I didn’t think a lot about it,” Mouchlias said. “I know I can play well, and last night wasn’t my night. I was like, tomorrow’s a new day. Let’s go.”
Hitter Spyros Chakas led the way once again with 22 kills and four errors on 31 swings (.581). Mouchlias supplied 13 kills on .455 hitting and Chaz Galloway put down 12 on .364 as UH hit .439 as a team to BSU’s .295.
But UH’s 23 service errors were its most since facing BYU in 2015.
The No. 6 Cardinals, whom UH beat in five in the national semifinals, jumped out to a six-point lead early in Set 1. BSU applauded respectfully during the banner ceremony but came out fired up.
UH coach Charlie Wade rubbed his temples a couple of times on the miscues in the early going but was far from panicked.
“It’s kind of January volleyball where nobody’s really in midseason form yet,” Wade said. “So we’d see it really good, then kind of peaks and valleys in terms of basically our efficiency, which we’ve always prided ourselves on.”
He reminded his team of the tenets of their elite service game. UH expects to get it in at a 90% rate while still putting enough pressure on the opponent’s passers that they fall out of system frequently.
“It’s nice to see we can make that adjustment after playing so poorly, to turn it around,” Wade said. “I didn’t think we played great, but we certainly played good enough and had some good service turns. Ultimately, that ended up being the difference.”
UH finished with eight aces. Keoni Thiim and Cole Hogland had the others.
“The serve kind of defines the way you play as a team because it’s the one part of the game you are in full control of what you do,” said Thelle, who set UH’s single-season record in 2022 with 61. “I think being more cautious, more relaxed, but also more urgent to put more pressure on the receiving side was important to us.”
Libero Brett Sheward helped key the comeback with his defense; he had a career-best 17 digs.
Ball State’s All-American hitter, Kaleb Jenness, led his team with 15 kills but also committed eight errors to hit just .189.
Punahou graduate Keau Thompson went 5-for-8 with one error to hit .500 and finished his first two collegiate matches with 13 kills against UH.
UH next hosts Saint Francis of Pennsylvania for two matches Jan. 18 and 20.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.