Talented new faces make strong impression in Hawai’i season-opening win over McKendree

HONOLULU – Out with the old, in with the new. 

Led by strong debuts from a transfer and a few freshmen, the No. 4 University of Hawai’i men’s volleyball team kicked off the 2025 season in style, winning the program’s 12th straight season-opening match under head coach Charlie Wade by dispatching the No. 20 McKendree Bearcats (0-1) in four sets – (25-20, 20-25, 25-22, 25-22). Freshman outside hitter Adrien Roure finished his collegiate debut with a match-best 17 kills while rocketing a pair of services aces for good measure while senior outside Clay Wieter tallied 14 kills himself in his Rainbow Warrior debut.

Hawai’i returned three starters (8 total players) from last year’s 23-7 squad that finished as the 5th-best team in the country according to the final AVCA poll. While there was a solid returning base, the program was tasked with big reload after the graduation of all-time program greats Spyros Chakas and Guilherme Voss and the highly productive Alaka’i Todd and Chaz Galloway while key reserve Keoni Thiim transferred to BYU for his final season of eligibility. 

In came the 2024 recruiting class, one that had been quietly (and not-so-quietly) pumped up as an elite group with Roure playing crown jewel in a group of gemstone players with national team experiences. The Rainbow Warriors started three freshmen in Friday night’s season opener, seeing the latest Frenchman on the roster in the opening rotation along with middle blocker Ofeck Hazan and opposite Kristian Titriyski. 

Hazan came to the islands this year after becoming a member of the Israeli senior national team while Titriyski helped Bulgaria to a third-place finish in the European Championships in 2022 and was named as the Best Scorer at the 2023 U19 FIVB World Championship after totaling 161 points throughout the competition. Roure helped lead France to the country’s first-ever volleyball world title, regardless of age group or gender, in 2023 at the same U19 FIVB World Championship in Puerto Rico as the 6-foot-5 outside hitter posted 11 kills and four blocks in a four-set win over Iran in the title match. 

Wieter transferred to UH after spending the last four years at Lindenwood out of the MIVA, getting the start against a familiar McKendree squad that he played just last season while Kurt Nusterer, ‘Eleu Choy and floor captain Tread Rosenthal rounded out the first seven for Hawai’i on Friday.  

The Rainbow Warriors (1-0) jumped out to a two-point advantage by the first set’s media timeout, using four kills off the red-hot right arm of Roure to help counteract five service errors in the early going by UH. McKendree tried to slow the momentum of the hosts with an unsuccessful challenge on a net touch and a timeout on the point after but simply delayed an inevitable opening frame win for the Rainbow Warriors, 25-20. 

Roure totaled a set-high six kills on seven swings and hit a scorching .857 in the frame while fellow freshman Kristian Titriyski, who spent a large portion of the last week sick, racked up three aces to power Hawai’i to an early one-set advantage on opening night.

Teams traded scores to begin the second set before McKendree rattled off five straight points to double up Hawai’i and go up 10-5, forcing a timeout from UH head coach Charlie Wade. The breather helped the Rainbow Warriors settle back down, twisting together three points in a row and force the Bearcats to call for a timeout of their own. 

Despite the response by Hawai’i, the Rainbow Warriors were unable to overcome the early 5-0 run that gave McKendree a cushion to begin with as the Bearcats knotted the match at one set apiece with a 25-20 decision in the second frame. 

The third set saw some changes to the rotation as redshirt freshman Justin Todd and true freshman Finn Kearney opened the frame trying to provide a lift while the Rainbow Warriors worked towards consistency. The fresh legs provided a boost at the net defensively for UH, recording 4.5 blocks in the frame after having only one through the first two sets and helping get the Stan Sheriff Center crowd into the action. 

“I think the crowd had a lot to do with that comeback in that third set,” Wade said postgame. “That’s one of those that you start to feel it, [the crowd] starts getting into it and it is the wind in our sails.” 

Kearney, another one of the highly talented freshmen to come into the program during the offseason, spent time playing for the United States’ U19 national team in the offseason and helped the USA to a runner-up finish in the same U19 FIVB World Championship tournament in 2023. Even in his international travels, the freshman admitted that the fan support the team felt on opening night was special. 

Hawai’i freshman Finn Kearney attacks over the McKendree block during his college debut. | Photo Credit: Michael Lasquero, HSRN

“There’s nothing like it,” Kearney said of the atmosphere created by Hawai’i fans. “It’s magical, that’s one word I’ll use. I’ve never gotten the chills standing back there at the service line that much, I mean, it’s a different feeling for sure so that’s cool to experience.” 

Like the previous stanza, both sides traded points to a 6-6 tie in the third set before the Bearcats ripped off four points in a row to force a timeout with UH trailing 10-6. After a McKendree challenge flipped a two-point game to a four-point lead, Todd started to make his presence felt as he smashed one into the floor before getting a hand on three straight returns from the visitors to help Hawai’i slingshot ahead in the pivotal set, 15-14. 

Behind the continued cheers of the raucous SSC crowd, Hawai’i scored seven of the final nine points of the frame and erase a 20-18 disadvantage to take the third set, 25-22. Kearney, Roure and Wieter led the way in the set to secure the advantage, showing off mental fortitude in a big opening match moment and building on the flipped momentum from Justin Todd’s three kills and three blocks in the middle of the frame. 

Hawai’i jumped out to a 7-4 lead in the fourth stanza, building off the momentum of the third set with the help of the thousands of screaming voices in attendance. They would double the lead to go up 12-6 before McKendree strung together three points in a row to force a timeout from the Rainbow Warriors. 

The Bearcats continued the rampage, eventually tying the set at 16 before the Rainbow Warriors recovered and inched back ahead by two. A UH challenge on an in-or-out call helped give the hosts an important four-point advantage, 22-18, before back-to-back errors by Tread Rosenthal allowed McKendree some new life and forced a timeout from Wade. 

After an ace and an error at the service line by McKendree’s Sam Hoskin, UH’s Ofeck Hazan buried a set up from Rosenthal to give the Rainbow Warriors the first “Aloha Ball” chance of the season. While Roure couldn’t finish it, committing a service error on the next turn, Hawai’i wasted little time playing around as Kearney ended any Bearcats comeback hopes with the game-winning smash to end the fourth set, 25-22. 

Kearney and Hazan each finished with seven kills and appeared in each of the four sets played throughout the night. The two added three combined blocks as the net defense turned into offense as the match went on. 

“I think what you saw tonight is going to be relatively common in that you’ll see some really good performances and you’ll see some kind of peaks and valleys,” Wade said of his talented team’s opening night performance. “It’s nice to be able to make what could be lateral substitutions. When we’ve got a guy out there and he’s struggling a little bit, you can go to the next guy up.” 

McKendree was led by Kevin Schuele, who racked up 15 kills and eight digs for the Bearcats while teammate Sam Hoskin added 13 kills but struggled with seven errors (four service, three reception) in the loss. The 20th-ranked Bearcats will take aim at 4th-ranked Hawai’i once again on Sunday with first serve scheduled for 5:00 p.m. HT.