No. 1 seed Hawai'i 3, No. 3 seed UC Irvine 1

Box score | UH presser | UCI presser
IRVINE, Calif. - First-time host UC Irvine gave top-ranked defending champion Hawai’i all it could handle for large segments, but the Rainbow Warriors ultimately prevailed, 3-1, in the final of the 2023 OUTRIGGER Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship, presented by The Hawaiian Islands, at the Bren Events Center on Saturday night. Set scores were 25-18, 21-25, 25-13 and 25-22.

The match was played in front of 4,064 spectators and a national television audience on ESPNU.

With a current league-best 11th consecutive victory, No. 1 seed Hawai’i improved to 28-2 overall. The Warriors remain undefeated away from home at 11-0, and have still yet to play a single five-setter in 2023. Fifth-ranked and third-seeded UC Irvine sees its season ended at 18-11 overall and 10-5 at home.

Hawai’i had swept the regular-season series on O’ahu two weeks ago by scores of 3-1 and 3-0, now with 14 straight wins against the Anteaters in all going back to a 3-1 home loss on Feb. 25, 2018, and nine in a row in Irvine since a straight-set decision there on Jan. 28, 2015.

Two-time defending national champion Hawai’i earns The Big West’s automatic berth into the 2023 National Collegiate Championship and will officially have a chance at a first three-peat since UCLA compiled four successive titles from 1981-84. The seven-team field will be unveiled on Sunday morning at 10 a.m. PT on NCAA.com, with this year’s tournament hosted by George Mason University inside its EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va., April 30-May 6.

UC Irvine held a slight lead through the early stages of the opening frame, but 11th-year head coach David Kniffin had to call the night’s first timeout when Hawai’i got back-to-back service aces from All-American Spyros Chakas to grab an 11-10 edge. A Jakob-Thelle-set kill down the center of the court from Chakas made it 12-10 out of the break.

What ended up an 8-1 run featured two more service aces, by Keoni Thiim, out of five for the first set from the Warriors. UH’s first block of the night came on set point, as Dimitrios Mouchlias and Guilherme Voss combined to send back fellow All-Big West first-teamer Francesco Sani.

UC Irvine came back and evened things up with a 25-21 victory in the second, and the reason was relatively straightforward, as the Anteaters fixed their service receive in the frame and did not allow a single UH ace. Meanwhile, starting outside hitter Cole Gillis came off the bench to provide a huge spark, to the tune of four kills, one ace and a block assist, after missing the first two matches of the tourney through injury.

The third set was largely over early, as Hawai’i tallied the first eight points. Kniffin, who won two big challenges during the second frame, was forced into both timeouts at 4-0 and 8-0, before UCI finally got on the board. The best and longest rally of the night, featuring a pair of stellar digs by ‘Eaters Dylan Zhai and libero Cole Power, still ended in a Mouchlias kill for 14-5. UCI only got as close as six from there on out, with the bulge growing to as many as 11 at 23-12 on a Chaz Galloway ace and a combo block by Thelle and Cole Hogland on Sani. Moments later, a Thelle dump off a perfect Chakas pass, with the Norwegian setter then returning the favor for a Chakas kill, made it 2-1 in favor of UH.

Hawai’i got out to a stellar start to the fourth as well, notching the first three points on awry UCI attacks before Thelle’s fourth serve went into the net. Back-to-back Henno kills pulled the ‘Eaters back even at 4-4. Later, UCI clawed back to tie the score at 21-21 on a Sani ace. The junior opposite and Voss then traded service errors long.

Galloway’s kill got it to match point at 24-22. A great serve by Mouchlias was passed toward the right side, where the joust was won by Galloway over UCI setter Joe Karlous.

Thelle, the reigning Big West Player of the Year, was magnificent yet again, and in finishing with 47 assists, five blocks and a pair of kills, was a repeat selection as The Big West Championship Most Valuable Player.

Mouchlias shared the match high of 17 kills, hitting at a .387 (17-5-31) clip and adding six digs, six block assists and an ace. Galloway contributed 13 kills (.417), eight digs, six blocks, two set assists and an ace. Hogland was a perfect 7-for-7 on the attack to go along with a match-high eight block assists. Chakas had nine kills, two aces and a match-high 10 digs. Voss posted seven kills and seven blocks.

Henno, a native of Pornichet, France, led UC Irvine with 17 kills and finished a second collegiate go-around with a single-season program-record and nation-leading 87 service aces. Sani collected 13 kills, six digs, five blocks and two aces. Freshman middle Maxim Grigoriev got hands to eight total blocks (one solo). Karlous had 27 assists and six digs. UCI was out-hit on the night, .330-.160.

Hawai’i is a record three-time Big West Championship victor, with an initial trophy lift at home in 2019. The Warriors are 7-2 all-time at the event, 3-1 in finals, and a perfect 3-0 against UC Irvine, having posted semifinal wins in 2018 and 2019 prior to tonight’s first meeting in a title tilt. UCI is back to an even 5-5 in tourney play.