Hawaii opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias put away a career-high 31 kills and the fourth-ranked Rainbow Warriors rallied for a five-set win over No. 14 UC Irvine today in Irvine, Calif.
A day after securing the second seed and a bye in the Big West tournament, the Warriors rallied from a 2-1 deficit to complete the series sweep over the Anteaters with a 21-25, 25-18, 25-27, 25-20, 15-11 victory at the Bren Events Center.
Mouchlias flew past his previous best of 21 set on Jan. 31 in a loss at Ball State to help UH rally to a five-set win for the second straight Saturday in the Warriors’ regular-season finale. The sophomore posted his kill total in 49 attempts and hit .510 for the match. He also served up two aces and assisted on five blocks.
UH outside hitter Spyros Chakas added 16 kills and middle blocker Guilherme Voss contributed seven kills on 11 swings and was in on seven blocks.
UH was able to overcome UC Irvine opposite Francesco Sani’s 24-kill performance in the program’s 11th straight win over the Anteaters. Freshman outside hitter Hilir Henno added 15 kills.
UC Irvine went on a 9-2 run midway through the opening set and held off a UH rally to take its first lead of the series.
Mouchlias had a seven-point service run as part of a 10-2 UH surge and the Warriors pulled away to even the match.
The third set was a sideout duel and UH had a set point at 25-24 when Sani was credited with a controversial kill when it was ruled his attack went off a touch at the net. The Anteaters took the lead with a block and Doug Dahm’s kill in the middle gave the Anteaters the set and a 2-1 lead in the match.
UH took a 19-13 lead in the fourth set and forced a fifth when Chakas fired an ace on set point.
The teams traded runs and UH took a 9-8 lead on a triple block of Sani. After Sani came back with a kill to tie it again, a Chakas kill triggered a 5-0 run that included four UCI attack errors. The Anteaters fought off two set points before Chaz Galloway scored from the back row to end the match.
Source: Star Ads
