The first Top 10 opponent of the season didn’t change much for the Hawaii men’s volleyball team.
The second-ranked Rainbow Warriors still haven’t allowed an opponent to reach 20 points in a set after sweeping No. 7 Loyola Chicago 25-18, 25-19, 25-15 in front of a Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,488 on Thursday night.
Kristian Titriyski had a match-high 11 kills and Adrien Roure added eight kills for the Rainbow Warriors (3-0), who hit .426 as a team.
Middle blocker Justin Todd had three aces and sophomore Kainoa Wade made his season debut and had two aces late in the third set.
“Obviously, offensively we’ve been pretty good so far,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “I like our serving. I don’t love it. I think there’s a lot to love. It could get really good.”
Hawaii’s serve receive held up against the Ramblers (0-1), who finished the match without an ace.
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Hawaii had seven aces and 13 service errors, with seven coming in a first set in which Hawaii still had no problem rolling over the Ramblers.
Titriyski was a perfect 5-for-5 in kills and UH hit .650 with 15 kills in 20 swings and only two errors, which came on two Loyola Chicago blocks.
Setter Tread Rosenthal was aggressive hitting on two early and had three kills in the opening set. Roure added three, including a back-row kill on set point to take the early 1-0 lead.
Todd continued the onslaught by UH with three aces during a six-point run early in the second set to put the Rainbow Warriors ahead 8-2.
“I think I’ve always had a pretty good serve,” Todd said. “Just coming in freshman year, I could serve the ball pretty strong. It’s more just getting comfortable in the Stan and in the environment of playing in the game and having consistent technique when I serve.”
One of Todd’s serves was headed way out to the right but slammed into a Loyola Chicago player getting out of the way.
“The worst serve of the night was an ace,” Wade said.
Kainoa Wade substituted into the game to serve for Todd with UH ahead 22-18 in the second set. His season debut was extended a point when Louis Sakanoko made a kick save off a block that kept the play alive until a hitting error by the Ramblers.
Loyola Chicago was hitting more than .600 before three hitting errors in Hawaii’s final five points helped the ‘Bows extend their sets winning streak to eight.
The only suspense in the third set was whether or not Hawaii would allow 20 points for the first time this season.
A solo block by Rosenthal and a Loyola Chicago attack error out of the media timeout put the Rainbow Warriors ahead 17-12.
Hawaii led 18-14 when it rattled off six straight points.
Kainoa Wade subbed back into the game behind the service line and had two aces during his run.
“It’s really fun. I’m glad that (Todd) got all of those aces,” Titriyski said. “He deserves it. He’s been really consistent in practice and just in general his game is at such a high level.”
Todd, who practiced all fall as an outside hitter, moved back to middle, where he played last year, a week before the season started when the coaching staff realized they might be without 7-foot freshman Roman Payne for an extended period of time.
“It feels great to be playing,” Todd said. “I think we played really well. I think there’s a lot of things that we can fine-tune. We always have to consider when we win that we’re doing good, but there are a lot of things that we can do better.”
Sophomore middle Trevell Jordan had a team-high four blocks for UH, which finished with seven total.
It was the first match Loyola Chicago has played without an ace since 2022.
The two teams will play again tonight at 7.
NO. 2 HAWAII DEF. NO. 7 LOYOLA CHICAGO 25-18, 25-19, 25-15
RAMBLERS (0-1)
NO. PLAYER SP K E TA H% K% A SA SE RE D BS BA TB BE BHE PTS
28 Fabikovic 3 11 4 21 .333 .524 1 0 1 2 3 0 1 1 0 0 11.5
8 Sosa 3 9 7 18 .111 .500 0 0 4 1 1 0 2 2 0 0 10.0
21 Bell 2 3 3 6 .000 .500 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 4.0
27 Klein 3 3 3 7 .000 .429 0 0 3 0 1 0 4 4 0 0 5.0
6 Robbins 3 2 2 10 .000 .200 1 0 1 2 2 1 3 4 0 0 4.5
9 McElligott 3 2 0 2 1.00 1.0026 0 3 0 1 0 3 3 0 0 3.5
3 Sowa 3 0 0 0 .000 .000 2 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
7 Read 3 0 0 0 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
15 Hatch 1 0 0 0 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0.5
17 Deslauriers 2 0 0 0 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
22 Anderson 3 0 0 0 .000 .000 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
Totals 3 0 19 64 .172 .469 30 0 13 7 12 1 16 8 0 0 39.0
RAINBOW WARRIORS (3-0)
NO. PLAYER SP K E TA H% K% A SA SE RE D BS BA TB BE BHE PTS
10 Titriyski 3 11 4 19 .368 .579 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11.0
7 Roure 3 8 2 14 .429 .571 2 1 2 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 9.5
23 Sakanoko 3 6 1 12 .417 .500 1 1 3 0 4 0 2 2 0 0 8.0
13 Rosenthal 3 5 1 6 .667 .83326 0 0 0 1 2 1 3 0 0 7.5
20 Jordan 3 4 1 6 .500 .667 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 4 0 0 6.5
9 Todd 3 1 1 3 .000 .333 0 3 1 0 4 0 1 1 0 0 4.5
22 Greenidge 3 1 0 1 1.00 1.00 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.0
4 Wade 2 0 0 0 .000 .000 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2.0
11 Kearney 3 0 0 0 .000 .000 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
Totals 3 36 10 61 .426 .590 32 7 12 0 13 3 8 7 0 0 50.0
T — 1:34. A — 5,804. Officials — Wayne Lee, Dickson Chun, Randy Rubonal, Hunter Haliniak.
Key — SP: Sets played; K: kills; E: hitting errors; TA: Total attempts; H%: Hitting percentage; K%: Kill percentage; A: Assists; SA: Service ace; SE: Service error; RE: receiving error; D: Digs; BS: Block solos; BA: Block assist; TB: Total team blocks; BE: Block errors;
BHE: Ball-handling errors; PTS: Points (kills plus blocks plus aces).