HONOLULU — Charlie Wade could see it coming at 2 p.m. warmups.
“They were absolutely focused,” the Hawaii men’s volleyball coach said of his players. “Frankly, they were pissed.”
The top-ranked Rainbow Warriors responded from a four-set loss to No. 3 Penn State on Friday by picking up their game in all phases against No. 2 UCLA in front of a rollicking, Viking-clapping, sold-out crowd at the Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday. UH tapped into the building’s excess of energy during crucial extra points in the first and fourth sets to prevail 29-27, 21-25, 25-22, 28-26.
Opposite Dimitrious Mouchlias was dialed in from the first serve and delivered a match-high 22 kills on 41 swings, hitting .390.
“When you lose and you don’t play well, you’re more upset,” said Mouchlias, who was named Most Outstanding Player of the Outrigger Volleyball Invitational. “If you play good and you lose, it’s fine. But we were upset.
“We had a (pregame) meeting in the locker room and we said, ‘We’re going to give everything we have in this game. No matter what. And that’s what we did.”
UH (17-1), UCLA (19-2) and Penn State (17-2) each went 2-1 in the tournament that also included Purdue Fort Wayne. PSU won the tournament title on sets differential; it was one frame better than the ‘Bows and Bruins by virtue of going five with UCLA on Thursday.
Setter Jakob Thelle and hitter Spyros Chakas joined Mouchlias on the all-tournament team.
Wade and Bruins coach John Speraw both marveled at the level of play over the three days and agreed the teams could very well see each other in the NCAA postseason.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that these are three of the best teams in the country,” Wade said. “Are they the best three? Maybe. But it’ll play itself out and see where we are in May.”
Where UH struggled with basics like serving and passing on Friday, those returned as strengths 24 hours later for the two-time defending national champions. They also redoubled their effort laying out for wayward balls and out dug the Bruins by eight, with libero Brett Sheward hustling for 10.
Mouchlias even used his head on one memorable play, albeit unintentionally; the Bruins sent one of his swings right back at him and it caromed off his dome and over to the UCLA side. He recovered to put down a kill on the point and fell over in the process.
After Mouchlias got up in a bit of a daze, Thelle came over and kissed the side of his head. The lithe Greek was the workhorse on a night that Chakas (nine kills, 29 swings, .138) did not have his best stuff.
“We embraced that loss yesterday in a way,” said Thelle, who had perhaps his most well-rounded match of the season with 34 assists, four kills, seven digs, two aces and two blocks. “I think it was good to have that challenge and (forced) us to come back in this point of the season. I think we accomplished that.… Everyone’s playing for each other. That’s the reason why we’re sitting here victorious. Everyone is so bought in to seeing each other happy, seeing each other succeed. I’m proud of everyone.”
Thelle and middle Kurt Nusterer, starting for the ill Cole Hogland for the second time in three days, combined on the match-clinching block on Ethan Champlin after UH rallied from down 23-21 in Set 4. It trailed by as many as four points in the set.
Nusterer’s energy was a revelation over a breakout weekend. The previously unknown freshman contributed five kills on six swings with no errors and three stuffs on Saturday.
Nusterer, who showed himself to be the team’s most high-energy player, said playing against such an opponent in front of such a crowd would help calm his nerves in the future.
Wade, sitting at the same interview table, scoffed at that.
“Definitely got thrown in the deep end of the pool today with a big crowd like that,” Nusterer said with a smile.
He deflected from his own performance, saying of Thelle, “He gets me up there with no block. I think my dog could kill the ball with the sets that Jakob’s dishing out there.”
Utility player Filip Humler even got in on the act, replacing a struggling Chaz Galloway in Set 2 and contributing three kills and a block.
UH had its first men’s volleyball sellout of 10,300 tickets issued since a memorable matchup against BYU on March 6, 2020, just prior to that season’s cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the 11th sellout in program history; 9,308 passed through the turnstiles.
The atmosphere got UCLA’s Speraw wistful about the teams’ battles of yore.
“Love being here, love the crowd as always,” he said. “What I wanted out of this week was to see where we stood, and Hawaii pressured us in some very specific ways. We’ll learn from that. I think we’ll grow from it.”
UCLA had four players in double-figure kills, led by Ido David’s 21 on 40 swings (.325). Zach Rama added 12 on 19.
But UH forced 17 combined attack errors between David and Champlin alone. UH middle Guilherme Voss was in on six blocks and Chakas five, though UCLA won that stat overall 11.5 to 9.5.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.