Rainbow Warriors advance to Big West volleyball final
Apr. 22—IRVINE, Calif. — Hawaii setter Jakob Thelle fired an ace on match point to tie the program's career record and punctuate the Rainbow Warriors' sweep of UC Santa Barbara in the semifinals of the Big West Men's Volleyball Championship today at the Bren Events Center.
Thelle's ace gave him 121 in his UH career, tying Costas Theocharidis and Pedro Azenha for the record, and the senior set the Warriors to a .394 hitting percentage in a 25-18, 25-19, 25-18 win before a crowd that created a home-court atmosphere in Irvine.
UH will face the winner of today's second semifinal between second-seeded Long Beach State and No. 3 seed and host UC Irvine. The championship match is set for 4:30 p.m. Saturday and will be televised on ESPNU.
Hawaii is seeking its third tournament championship. The Warriors claimed the crown in 2019 and 2022.
Hawaii opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias put away 13 kills in 21 swings and outside hitter Chaz Galloway added nine kills in 13 error-free swings as UH (27-2) advanced to the title match for the fourth time in the event's five-year history. Thelle finished with a double-double with 26 assists and 12 digs.
UCSB senior outside hitter and Punahou graduate Ryan Wilcox had four kills in his final match for the fourth-seeded Gauchos (8-17).
UC Santa Barbara scored the first point of the match for its lone lead of the opening set before Hawaii quickly took control and hit a blistering .632 with 13 kills in 19 attempts with one error while UCSB hit .125. Mouchlias put away his first kill off an assist from Spyros Chakas to cap a 5-1 UH run and went on to score on six of his eight swings without an error in the set. He also delivered UH's lone ace of the set.
The second set followed much the same script and a block by Guilherme Voss and Mouchlias gave UH a 17-11 lead. The Warriors took their biggest lead of the set at 21-14 when Thelle set up Mouchlias with an open net for his 10th kill of the match.
UCSB took its largest lead of the match at 3-0 to open the third set, but UH again surged ahead and led 11-8 when Galloway soared for a kill out of the back row to end a lengthy rally. UCSB's Ben Coordt answered with back-to-back kills and an ace to tie the set and prompt UH's first timeout of the match.
UH led 18-16 when serving substitute Kana'i Akana landed his second ace of the match and a block by Thelle and Voss extended the lead to 20-16. UH closed the set with an 8-2 run and Thelle served the final three points of the match, ending the night with the record-tying ace.
UH finished with 32 total digs to UCSB's 19 and held the Gauchos to a .113 hitting percentage.
