After a second dismantling of New Jersey Institute of Technology to open the 2026 season, the returning members of the Hawaii men’s volleyball team were presented with championship rings from last year’s Big West tournament win.
The celebration was somewhat subdued as the chase to win the next one, and possibly something even bigger, is already underway.
In a match very similar to Friday’s opener, the second-ranked Rainbow Warriors hit .517 as a team and were never threatened in a 25-17, 25-16, 25-17 sweep of the Highlanders on Sunday in front of a Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 5,267.
Kristian Titriyski put down a match-high 11 kills, Adrien Roure added nine kills and Louis Sakanoko, playing in only two sets, had six kills in seven swings without an error.
Hawaii (2-0) again only had two hitting errors after two sets and hit an absurd .778 in the second set to improve to 21-0 all-time against teams from the EIVA not named Penn State.
“Overall, the efficiency of the offense (I) was somewhat surprised, pleasantly,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “We hit for a big number both nights and both setters did a nice job running the offense.”
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Junior Tread Rosenthal was his normal top self with 30 assists, three blocks and a kill, and fans got a potential glimpse of the future in freshman Magnus Hettervik, who made his UH debut.
Hettervik, who is from Stavanger, Norway, said he and his brother were best friends with former UH All-American setter Jakob Thelle.
He entered the game first as a serving sub in the second set, and closed out Hawaii’s final four points in the third set with three assists. His first to middle Ofeck Hazan was a clean hit that got as high of a bounce as any other kill of opening weekend.
“Me and Ofeck get a lot of reps in practice and Coach was telling us this last practice we have a really good connection together, and I also really feel it,” Hettervik said. “It was great playing my first game in the Stan in front of the fans. It was really nice. I’ve been really looking forward to it.”
Hawaii came out with the same efficiency on offense, hitting .533 despite getting blocked for the first time in the two-match series.
Rosenthal spread the ball around to everybody as his two middles and three pins all recorded a kill in the opening set.
Hawaii had three service errors and a reception error, but was again dominant at the net with 5.5 blocks. Titriyski, Sakanoko and Justin Todd all were in on three blocks to lead the way.
“I think we prepared for each game the same, so the first game we were really focused to getting the energy first and don’t let the other team dictate how we play basically,” Sakanoko said. “I think we did a pretty great job with that and two victories, so very happy.”
Daniel Letkowski opened the second set with a kill for the Highlanders to give NJIT (0-2) its first lead of the season.
NJIT scored three of four points coming out of a timeout to pull to 10-8 before UH ran away with another set.
Sakanoko kept three separate plays alive with above-average digs from the back row and Roure went up for a shot on two before flicking a pass to Sakanoko for a kill during a 8-2 run in which the ’Bows had a little fun.
Hawaii had 24 kills in 33 swings after two sets for a .667 hitting percentage.
UH made similar changes to its lineup in the third set as it did on Friday, bringing in sophomores Finn Kearney on the outside and Hazan in the middle.
Hazan scored a one-on-one block early and then was subbed out after pounding a ball for Hettervik’s first assist.
“We’re locked in on the small things,” Sakanoko said.
Hawaii returns to the arena on Thursday for the first of back-to-back matches on consecutive nights against No. 7 Loyola Chicago.
HAWAII DEF. NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 25-17, 25-16, 25-17
HIGHLANDERS (0-2, 0-0 EIVA)
ATTACK SET SERVE BLOCK DEF. REC.
NO. PLAYER SP K E TA PCT. A E SA SE BS BA BE D BHE RE PTS
20 Fedmasu 3 5 3 11 .182 1 0 0 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 7.0
9 Lopez 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0.0
8 Moorhead 3 6 3 15 .200 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 7.0
15 Tidhar 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0.0
3 Figueiredo 3 0 0 0 0 24 0 0 1 0 0 0 4 0 0 0.0
19 Nowak 3 6 9 25 -.120 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 7.0
5 Latkowski 3 5 1 9 .444 0 0 1 6 0 2 0 0 0 1 7.0
2 Aleixo 3 9 4 24 .208 0 0 0 2 1 2 0 0 0 1 11.0
4 Uryniuk 2 1 0 1 1.000 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.0
1 Girard 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
TEAM 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
Totals 32 20 85 .141 29 0 2 13 2 8 0 11 0 5 40
RAINBOW WARRIORS (2-0, 0-0 BIG WEST )
ATTACK SET SERVE BLOCK DEF. REC.
NO. PLAYER SP K E TA PCT. A E SA SE BS BA BE D BHE RE PTS
13 Rosenthal 3 1 0 1 1.000 30 0 0 1 2 1 0 5 0 0 3.5
7 Roure 3 9 1 13 .615 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 3 0 1 10.0
10 Titriyski 3 11 3 19 .421 1 1 3 3 0 4 0 1 0 0 16.0
11 Kearney 3 3 1 7 .286 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3.0
20 Jordan 3 4 1 6 .500 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 4.5
22 Greenidge 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 1 0.0
23 Sakanoko 2 6 0 7 .857 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 3 0 0 7.5
9 Todd 2 2 0 3 .667 0 0 0 2 0 3 0 0 0 0 3.5
8 Hettervik 2 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.0
15 Taylor 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
19 Parks 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
16 Hazan 1 1 1 2 .000 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 2.5
TEAM 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
Totals 37 7 58 .517 37 1 5 8 3 13 1 21 0 2 51.5
T — 1:37. A — 5,952 (tickets issued), 5,267 (turnstile). Officials — Randy Rubonal, Wayne
Lee, Kevin Chun, Kerwin Stenstrom.
Key — SP: Sets played; K: kills; E: hitting errors; TA: Total attempts; PCT.: Hitting percentage; A: Assist; E: Setting error. SA: Service ace; SE: Service error; BS: Block solos; BA:
Block assists; BE: Block errors; D: Digs; BHE: Ball-handling errors; RE: receiving error;
PTS: Points (kills plus blocks plus aces).