Top-ranked Hawaii holds off Concordia University Irvine

No. 1 Hawaii’s run of consecutive sets won ended at 25, but the Rainbow Warriors quickly regrouped to extend their match win streak to 19 with a four-set victory over Concordia University Irvine tonight at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

With All-America setter Jakob Thelle sitting out the match to manage his workload, UH junior Brett Sheward shifted over from libero to direct an attack that hit .402 and the Rainbow Warriors (10-0) held off the Golden Eagles 25-14, 22-25, 25-15, 25-23 before a crowd of 3,590.

UH opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias put away a season-high 20 kills in 36 attacks and outside hitter Spyros Chakas hammered his 16th kill on match point.

UH middle blocker Cole Hogland tied his career high with 10 kills in 15 attempts and fired two aces. Guilherme Voss added eight kills in 10 attempts in the middle and was in on six of UH’s nine blocks.

In their first home match since Jan. 20, the Rainbow Warriors dominated the first set, then dropped just their third set of the season when Concordia (4-6) outdueled the Warriors late in the second to tie the match.

Hogland helped the Warriors restore order in the third set with three kills and a six-point service turn that included his second ace of the night.

The Warriors never trailed in the fourth set, but Concordia fought off two match points in a 5-1 run to close to 24-23. But Chakas hammered a kill out of the back row to end any thoughts of sending the match to a fifth set.

Concordia opposite Uriel Batista led the Golden Eagles with 15 kills, 12 coming in the first two sets. Freshman outside hitter Scott Montez added 13 kills.

UH and Concordia wrap up their series with Friday’s rematch.