Aloha ball, indeed.
Before the traditional senior night sendoff in a sold-out SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center, No. 1 Hawaii made it a double celebration by clinching a share of the Big West regular-season championship with a sweep of UC San Diego on Saturday.
UH opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias put away a team-high 11 kills in his final match in Manoa and senior setter Jakob Thelle bid farewell to the home crowd by leading the Warriors to a .375 hitting performance in the 25-19, 25-22, 25-21 victory.
Outside hitter Spyros Chakas fired three consecutive aces late in the third set and finished with nine kills in 19 swings. Outside hitter Chaz Galloway added seven kills and middle blocker Guilherme Voss had six kills in eight error-free swings and was in on six of UH’s 12 blocks.
The sellout was UH’s second of the season and the program’s 13th since the arena’s first match in 1995.
The arena’s final UH event of the 2022-23 athletic year marked the final home appearances for Thelle, Mouchlias, Cole Hogland, Kana’i Akana, Filip Humler and Devon Johnson, who were honored in the senior night ceremony following the match.
The Warriors finished the regular season at 26-2 and 9-1 in Big West play, and will take a nine-match winning streak into the Big West Tournament as the top seed in the six-team bracket.
UH and Long Beach State (20-3, 9-1), which pulled out a reverse sweep at UC Irvine earlier on Saturday, ended the regular season tied atop the standings. But the Warriors owned the tiebreaker by outscoring the Beach 144-141 in their series split to open the conference season on March 17 and 18.
Both teams will have byes in the first round of the tournament and advance to Friday’s semifinals at the Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif.
The Warriors, coming off a .275 hitting performance in Friday’s series opener, got off to a balanced and efficient start in their match. UH hit .419 with just one error, with six starters contributing at least one kill, including Thelle, who took a swing from the right side off an assist from libero Brett Sheward.
The second set was far tighter, with neither team leading by more than three. After UCSD moved ahead 22-21, forcing UH’s second timeout of the set, Mouchlias’ kill off the block triggered a 4-0 UH run. He teamed with Hogland on a block of Ryan Ka to give UH set point, then put away his fourth kill of the set to give UH a 2-0 lead in the match.
Thelle gave UH control of the third set with a six-point service turn that included his 120th career ace to move within one of the UH record. Chakas’ back-to-back-to-back aces pushed UH’s lead to 24-17. After UH tried to get Humler a final kill, a UCSD service error ended the match and started the postmatch celebration.
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