The three men’s volleyball contenders in the Big West Conference kept pace on Saturday night.
Top-ranked Hawaii dispatched UC Santa Barbara in straight sets, 25-19, 25-21, 29-27, for the second straight night, setting up an all-important final four-game homestand prior to the postseason.
UH improved to 22-2 overall and 5-1 in the Big West with its 15th consecutive victory over UCSB. The Rainbow Warriors are 9-0 on the mainland this season; they recorded sweeps in four straight away matches against Cal State Northridge and UCSB over the last eight days.
“If I was putting odds on it, I wouldn’t have said we were going to win 12 straight sets,” coach Charlie Wade said in a postmatch Zoom interview with Hawaii media. “It’s hard to win three in a row, and then you add that they’re good teams on the road. Santa Barbara’s a good team; they just don’t have many wins (5-15, 1-6) to show for it. So thrilled with the wins and proud of our guys to come on the road and get the job done.”
No. 5 UC Irvine (6-0) and No. 4 Long Beach State (5-1) have hung right with Hawaii with four matches remaining prior to the Big West tournament at Irvine.
Irvine journeys to the Stan Sheriff Center for two potentially pivotal matches Friday and Saturday.
Wade gave middle Cole Hogland the night off in front of a pro-UH crowd at Rob Gymnasium on Saturday and turned to Kurt Nusterer. The red-shirt freshman supplied four kills and four blocks and UH hit .418, nearly identical to the night before.
“Just trying to change it up a little bit. Hoping he could touch some balls (at the net),” Wade said. “We set him a fair amount of times early. Not so much as the match went on. He’s been blocking a ton of balls at practice and just wanted to get him out there…”
It was opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias’ turn to shoulder the scoring load after a quiet night on Friday. He had a match-high 14 kills on .520 hitting while Chaz Galloway added 12 kills on .526 efficiency with two blocks and two aces.
UH led comfortably in Sets 1 and 2 — setter Jakob Thelle had a one-handed block and a one-handed assist in the opening frame — but the Gauchos threatened to extend the match in Set 3, much like Friday. UH rallied from a late four-point hole, with a key block on Dayne Chalmers by Nusterer and Thelle to tie it at 23. The teams then fended off two set points from the other.
Guilherme Voss set up UH’s third match point with a kill and Spyros Chakas, while reasonably quiet with a single-digit-kill night, ended the match in extras for the second straight night, blasting a ball high off the Gauchos’ block.
Punahou graduate Ryan Wilcox led UCSB with 12 kills and seven digs, hitting .450. Former UH backup setter Jack Walmer had 29 assists and five digs.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.