No. 3 Hawaii holds off stubborn No. 15 Lincoln Memorial in 4 sets

Hawaii outside hitter Spyros Chakas put away a career high 17 kills and the third-ranked Rainbow Warriors held off No. 15 Lincoln Memorial in a four-set victory today at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

UH’s Chaz Galloway hammered an overpass forced by Chakas’ serve on match point to cap the 25-14, 22-25, 25-13, 25-23 win and the Warriors (13-2) completed a sweep of the three-match series with the Railsplitters (8-3) before a crowd of 2,024.

UH started the match with opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias on the bench after he appeared to hurt his foot in pregame warmups and Alaka’i Todd made the first start of his career.

Lincoln Memorial took a 6-5 lead in the first set before UH scored the next 10 points with Galloway on the service line. Galloway served up an ace and setter Jakob Thelle put away two kills off of digs by Brett Sheward and Todd. The Warriors also benefited from six attack errors and six service errors by the Railsplitters.

Chakas accounted for UH’s first four kills of the second set and had two more to start a four-point run that broke a 15-15 tie. UH led 22-20 when Cole Campisano came up with a solo block on Thelle, who took a swing off a set from Galloway in a role reversal. The block sparked a 5-0 run for the Railsplitters and Matthew Gentry put down an overpass to give LMU it’s first set victory in the all-time series with UH, which had won 19 in a row.

Mouchlias came out of the locker room without the jacket he’d been wearing on the sideline and took some warmup swings. He entered the lineup to start the third set and promptly hammered his first attempt of the match down the line.

A Thelle ace and back-to-back blocks by Guilherme Voss highlighted a 7-0 UH run and the Warriors opened up an 11-3 lead on an ace from Chakas. The Warriors pulled away and hit .381 in the set to LMU’s negative-.115.

The teams traded sideouts over the first 19 serves of the fourth set before LMU took an 11-9 lead on a Campisano kill. LMU took a 15-13 lead into the media timeout, but UH coach Charlie Wade challenged a call that Chakas’ serve landed out. The call was overturned, giving Chakas an ace. He followed with another ace and forced an overpass that Galloway hammered to give UH a 16-14 lead.

Lincoln Memorial answered again and took a 22-21 lead. Kills from Chakas and Mouchlias gave UH a 23-22 lead and the Railsplitters forced another tie. Mouchlias’ sixth kill gave UH match point and Galloway completed a UH sweep of its six-match homestand.

Campisano led Lincolnn Memorial with 16 kills in 26 attempts.