No. 1 seed Hawai'i 3, No. 4 seed UC Santa Barbara 0

Box score | UH presser | UCSB presser
IRVINE, Calif. - Defending champion Hawai’i dispatched UC Santa Barbara behind the raucous support of a partisan crowd on hand, 3-0, in the first semifinal of the 2023 OUTRIGGER Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship, presented by The Hawaiian Islands, on Friday night at first-time host UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center. Set scores were 25-18, 25-19 and 25-18, with an announced attendance of 1,716.

With a current league-best 10th consecutive victory, top-ranked and top-seeded Hawai’i moves to 27-2 overall. The Warriors remain undefeated away from home at 10-0. Fourth-seeded UC Santa Barbara, which had entered on a season-best three-match win streak, finishes 8-17.

Hawai’i advances to a second successive Big West Championship final, awaiting the winner of Friday’s late semi between second-seeded fellow regular-season co-champion Long Beach State and third-seeded host UC Irvine. First serve for Saturday’s title match is slated for just after 7:30 p.m. PT/4:30 p.m. HT. The match will air live on ESPNU, with former U.S. Olympians Paul Sunderland and Kevin Barnett on the call.

UH had also posted a pair of straight-set victories in the regular-season series between the two teams in Santa Barbara on March 31 and April 1, with 16 straight wins now over the Gauchos overall going back to 2016, including another sweep in last year’s Big West semifinals at home.

Star Hawai’i setter Jakob Thelle’s service ace on match point put a fitting end to the contest. It was the reigning Big West Player of the Year’s 121st career ace, equaling the all-time program standard.

Thelle wound up with a first double-double for 2023 (fifth career) of 26 assists and a match-high and career-best-tying 12 digs, adding the final ace, three blocks and a pair of kills.

Dimitrios Mouchlias led all players with 13 kills, attacking at a .476 (13-3-21) clip. Chaz Galloway and Spyros Chakas contributed nine and eight kills, respectively. Galloway did not commit an error on 13 swings for a match- and career-best .692 percentage, to go with five digs and three blocks. A fifth All-Big West First Team selection, junior middle Guilherme Voss, had four kills and shared the match high of four blocks.

In the final match of an incredible career, fifth-year Gaucho leader, four-time All-Big West honoree and Hawai’i native Ryan Wilcox collected four kills, four digs, three block assists, one set assist and an ace. UCSB setter Jack Walmer, a first-year transfer who spent the past two years at UH, wound up with 16 assists. Nick Amoruso and Ben Coordt each provided six kills and an ace. UCSB was out-hit, .394-.113.

UH is 6-2 all-time at The Big West Championship, with UCSB 5-4.
 

No. 3 seed UC Irvine 3, No. 2 seed Long Beach State 0

Box score | UCI presser | LBSU presser
IRVINE, Calif. - UC Irvine put its foot on the gas early and never let off in pulling off the straight-set upset over rival Long Beach State in the semifinals of the 2023 OUTRIGGER Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship, presented by The Hawaiian Islands, inside its own Bren Events Center on Friday night. Set scores were 25-21, 25-17 and 25-20.

Fifth-ranked and third-seeded UC Irvine improves to 18-10 overall and 10-4 at home. Fourth-ranked and second-seeded Long Beach State sees its season-best eight-match win streak snapped in falling to 20-4 overall.

UC Irvine moves on to face top-ranked and top-seeded reigning Big West Championship victor Hawai’i in its first final on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. PT/4:30 p.m. HT. The match will air live on ESPNU, with former U.S. Olympians Paul Sunderland and Kevin Barnett on the call.

LBSU is left to wait for this Sunday’s selection show for the 2023 National Collegiate Championship, to see if its resume is good enough to warrant an at-large invitation into the seven-team field.

The teams were a mere six days removed from having completed their regular-season series, which LBSU swept with a straight-set decision at home exactly one week prior, and a dramatic reverse sweep inside tonight’s venue that clinched a share of a second successive Big West regular-season title for the Beach. The Anteaters were not about to let it happen again, and despite trailing as late as 11-10 in the third, with a final tie at 12-12, managed to see out their own sweep.

UCI had also swept No. 6 seed CSUN in Thursday’s first round to snap a four-match slide, while LBSU was enjoying its bye. Meanwhile, the Beach had ended the ‘Eaters’ 2022 campaign in the same round last year on O’ahu, 3-1, and was a winner of four straight meetings overall.

Tied at 15-15 in the opening frame, UC Irvine went on a 3-0 run through a Beach service error, Hilir Henno ace, and a setting error. forcing a timeout. The Anteaters were able to hold on from there, getting a fourth LBSU service error on their third set point to grab the advantage. The frame had nine tie scores and six lead changes.

Approaching the midway point of the second, Henno went on a run of kills on four of five points, including three straight, as UCI went from an 8-6 edge to a 12-7 bulge. The ‘Eaters forced a Beach timeout moments later at 17-11, and cruised for the remainder.

Much like the first set, UCI used a 3-0 mini-run to break that final tie of 12-12 in the third and take control. Two Henno kills bookended a Francesco Sani ace, and the Beach called their first timeout. LBSU was unable to get closer than two points for the rest of the frame.

Long Beach State made one final bid to keep the match alive, notching back-to-back points on a Shane Holdaway kill and an awry Henno attack to force a UCI timeout at 22-19. A service error and a solo rejection by Connor Campbell on Simon Torwie quickly brought it to match point, however, and after Henno was denied by Torwie and Sotiris Siapanis, a match-high 22nd kill by the native of France advanced the home side.

Henno’s 22 kills were a season high and matched a career best. Both prior times the sophomore had produced 20-plus kills in a single match, they were five-setters. Henno hit an efficient .471 (22-6-34) and added seven digs, three block assists and a pair of aces to continue to lead the nation in the latter category with a single-season school-record 86.

Fellow repeat All-Big West First Team pick Sani provided eight kills, five blocks, three digs and two aces. Again with increased playing time in the absence of Cole Gillis, Akhil Tangutur contributed five kills, four digs, two assists and a block. No other ‘Eater had a single kill until Campbell sent the second set to the media timeout (15-10). Campbell got hands to five total blocks, two of them solo. Rookie Maxim Grigoriev led all players with six blocks. Joe Karlous had 26 assists.

Clarke Godbold paced Long Beach State offensively with nine kills. Siapanis had seven kills and seven digs. All-American libero Mason Briggs collected four digs to eclipse the 200-dig mark for the season, now at 201. Setter Aidan Knipe dished out 28 assists. LBSU was held without a single ace for the first time this season.

Both teams are now 5-4 all-time in Big West Championship play. LBSU is 2-1 against UCI in tourney action, with an initial first-round sweep in 2021 at Hawai’i.