UC Irvine sweeps Hawaii men's volleyball in rematch
Apr. 6—In the month since Hawaii's five-set win over UC Irvine to win the Outrigger Invitational, one team has gotten healthier and the other one hasn't.
In the month since Hawaii's five-set win over UC Irvine to win the Outrigger Invitational, one team has gotten healthier and the other one hasn't.
It showed Friday night at Bren Events Center as the fifth-ranked Anteaters, who lost in five sets to No. 4 Hawaii in March, handled the Rainbow Warriors in a 25-20, 25-19, 25-21 sweep in Irvine, Calif.
Junior outside hitter Hilir Henno hit.679 with a match-high 20 kills in 28 swings to lead the Anteaters (17-7, 6-1 Big West ), who snapped a 15-match losing streak to Hawaii dating back to 2018.
Setter Brett Sheward had a match-high 34 assists, four digs and was in on five of UC Irvine's nine blocks and outside hitter Nolan Flexen, who missed 12 consecutive matches including the Outrigger tournament with an injury, had nine kills in his third match back.
UCI outhit Hawaii.425 to.204 and outblocked UH 9-3.
"We just are going to have to play better, " Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. "Everything reverts to the mean. At one point we're going to get a couple, two, three guys playing really well at the same time and we'll get back on track in winning sets and matches."
Senior Alaka'i Todd had a team-high 12 kills and junior Keoni Thiim, who started his ninth match of the season at outside hitter, had 10 kills and both of Hawaii's aces.
Hawaii got off to an efficient start offensively hitting.452 in the first set. The only problem was UC Irvine was even better, finishing with a staggering.588 hitting percentage on 22 kills in 34 swings to take an early 1-0 lead.
The Anteaters committed their second hitting error on their first set point as Hawaii survived two of them before Henno put away the set with his eighth kill.
Henno was one of four Anteaters with at least four kills in the opening set as he finished with eight in 10 swings and one error.
UH didn't commit a hitting error in the entire set but couldn't keep up with the firepower of UCI on offense. Sheward, a former Rainbow Warrior, had 17 assists in the opening set.
"I'm happy with the progress that we can play a set like that with 14 kills and no errors. That's kind of back to where we've been—just weren't able to sustain it, " Wade said.
Neither team hit nearly as well in the second set with Hawaii hitting negative with 12 hitting errors and committing another four errors from behind the service line.
Hawaii trailed 14-13 before it was outscored 11-6 to fall behind two sets to none. Sakanoko was blocked on three consecutive swings, forcing Wade to bring in senior Chaz Galloway in his place.
Galloway served one set point in UH's favor before a Keoni Thiim error ended the set.
Sakanoko didn't return to the match and finished with five kills and six errors.
"The guys aren't making mistakes on purpose. You have to stay aggressive and some errors are more acceptable than others, " Wade said. "We finished the (second ) set with 12 (errors ). It wasn't any one thing. Way too many errors to be able to win a set like that."
Hawaii fell behind 17-10 in the third set allowing Wade to go deep into the bench to bring in Oguzhan Oguz for the first time in conference play.
Thiim and Todd were the only players to finish with more than five kills as middles Guilherme Voss and Kurt Nusterer combined for three kills apiece on 15 swings with no errors.
Thiim's back-to-back aces forced UCI to take a timeout in the third set as Hawaii closed to 21-19.
The Anteaters got their final four points to close it out on three kills from Henno and one of 11 service errors by Hawaii.
The two teams will play again today at 3 p.m.
