No. 1 Hawaii sweeps No. 8 Stanford in Jakob Thelle’s return

Hawaii setter Jakob Thelle punctuated his return from a three-match absence with a walk-off ace in the top-ranked Rainbow Warrior volleyball team’s sweep of No. 8 Stanford today in Stanford, Calif.

Thelle stayed on campus during the Warriors’ road trip to North Carolina two weeks ago to rest a sore knee, and the AVCA All-American ran an efficient UH attack that hit .440 in the 25-22, 25-19, 26-24 victory at Maples Pavilion.

UH opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias led the Warriors (8-0) with 12 kills on 23 attacks to hit .391 and outside hitter Spyros Chakas added 11 kills on .375 hitting. Middle blocker Guilherme Voss was in on five of UH’s eight blocks and had six kills on seven swings.

Thelle finished with 32 assists, two kills and two aces, the second coming on match point, and UH ran its winning streaks to 17 matches and 21 sets dating back to Jan. 13.

Will Rottman, an All-America outside hitter last season, led Stanford (7-3) with 13 kills on 27 attacks to hit .222. Freshman opposite Theo Snoey finished with nine kills on .313 hitting and three aces.

The Warriors and Cardinal will change venues to close their series on Saturday in Burnham Pavilion.

UH trailed 18-15 in the first set before going on a 6-1 run that included aces from Thelle and Chakas and was capped by a block by Voss and Mouchlias. A Mouchlias serve that was initially ruled wide was reversed after a challenge by UH coach Charlie Wade. The ace gave the Warriors set point and a Stanford service error ended the set two points later.

UH hit .696 with 16 kills on 23 attempts without an error in the second set. The Warriors ended the set on a 4-0 run capped by a block of Rottman by Mouchlias and Cole Hogland.

UH erased a four-point deficit in the third set, and with the score even at 22-22, Thelle took a swing that was ruled to have gone into the net. Wade challenged the call and the officials again overturned it, ruling the ball had touched a Stanford blocker. The point was replayed and Chakas put away back-to-back kills to give UH match point. Stanford survived to force deuce, but Thelle fed Voss in the middle to give UH another match point and this time ended it with an ace.