Sensational serving helps Hawaii to sweep over No. 8 UC Santa Barbara

HONOLULU – Rainbow Warrior Room Service, anyone?

The No. 2 ranked University of Hawai’i men’s volleyball team dealt out nine aces from behind the service line en route to sweeping through No. 8 UC Santa Barbara (11-9, 2-3 Big West) in straight sets inside Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday night, (25-16, 25-22, 25-13).

Junior outside hitter Louis Sakanoko, the reigning AVCA National Player of the Week, led the effort for the hosts with 12 kills on 17 swings along with three of the aces by the Rainbow Warriors. It was Sakanoko’s third straight outing and 12th match this season recording at least 10 kills, tied with fellow Frenchman Adrien Roure for most on the team.

Sophomore opposite Kristian Titriyski followed up his first career double-double from Friday night with 11 kills and another ace for Hawai’i (21-3, 4-0 Big West) while sophomore middle blocker Ofeck Hazan turned in a strong showing in his fifth start of the season with six kills on seven error-free swings.

Hawai’i got going early behind the heavy right arms of Titriyski and Roure, seeing the two sophomores take turns on the attack to snag a 9-4 advantage in the opening set. Consecutive aces from super serving sub Finn Kearney helped stretch the lead to eight for the hosts and Louis Sakanoko slammed the door shut on the first frame with back-to-back kills, an ace and a 4-0 run from the service line.

The second set started similarly as the Rainbow Warriors raced out to a 9-3 advantage with the help of the flying Frenchmen, but the Gauchos rallied back with four straight points to pull within a pair before a serving error from Guy Riggs slowed the momentum for the visitors.

A Titriyski staycation behind the service line helped Hawai’i double up UC Santa Barbara, 16-8, but multiple attacking errors from each the Bulgarian opposite and Louis Sakanoko sparked a 10-3 run for the Gauchos to make it a one-point margin late in the second set.

Ofeck Hazan stopped the bleeding for the Rainbow Warriors with back-to-back kills, calming the waters and setting the table for a comfortable two set lead over UCSB, 25-22.

Hawai’i hammered the Gauchos in the third frame, wasting little time in sweeping the visitors with a dominant 25-13 showing in the final set. The Rainbow Warriors stepped on the gas, scoring on 17 of the final 26 rallies and fittingly finishing the match with the ninth service ace of the night coming off the hand of junior setter Tread Rosenthal.

“Everyone is saying we play better the second night, and that’s true,” Sakanoko said when asked about the follow up performance from Friday. “They played better second night, but we do play better, like way better, and I think yesterday we didn’t play well. I think we just showed today that we can play way better.”

Saturday marked the second straight match and fifth time this season that Hawai’i tallied nine or more service aces. The Rainbow Warriors have been one of the most potent teams in the country from inside the service box for years, an emphasis for Charlie Wade

Rosenthal’s match-clinching ace was his lone point-scoring swing from inside the service box, but the setter handed out another 33 assists on a weekend he moved past Lyman Lacro for sixth all-time among Rainbow Warriors in assists. The junior sits one behind Delano Thomas (’02-04) for sixth-most service aces in a UH career as well.

Hawai’i will hit the road next, playing four straight matches on the continent against UC Irvine (April 3 & 4) and UC San Diego (April 10 & 11) before returning home to close out the regular season against CSUN.