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Spyros Chakas made sure Hawaii would pass its final test before conference play.
With the third-ranked Rainbow Warriors facing a deficit late in the fourth set of Sunday’s series finale with No. 15 Lincoln Memorial, Chakas twice tied the set with the final two kills of his career-high 17.
His serve on match point forced an overpass that fellow outside hitter Chaz Galloway hammered to cap a 25-14, 22-25, 25-13, 25-23 win and the Warriors (13-2) completed a sweep of the three-match series with the Railsplitters (8-3) before a crowd of 2,024 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
Chakas hit .441 to lead the UH attack and the Warriors will take a nine-match winning streak into their Big West opener at UC San Diego on March 2.
“It’s good practice for the conference games,” Chakas said.” We know we’re going to have strong opponents, we know we’re going to get pushed from every team in conference games and I think when we have the mentality of finishing sets strong and doing our best we’ll be good.”
UH started the match with opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias, the Warriors’ kills leader, on the bench after he appeared to hurt his foot in pregame warmups and Alaka’i Todd made the first start of his career.
After the Warriors rolled through the first set, Lincoln Memorial closed the second set with a 7-1 run to snap UH’s streak of 19 sets won in the series with the Railsplitters.
“It looked like our energy went down in the second half of the second set that’s what we were discussing (in the break),” Chakas said. “Talking about how our energy should go up and I think we did it and it paid off.”
Mouchlias entered the match to start the third set and seemed to energize the Warriors in a commanding win. The fourth set would be a duel unto itself as the Railsplitters threatened to push the match to a fifth set with leads of 21-19 and 22-21.
Chakas delivered tying kills and Mouchlias pushed UH ahead at 23-22 and 24-23. Chakas, who had two aces earlier in the set, then fired a serve that set up Galloway’s 11 kill of the match.
“I’ve had a lot of chances this year to serve an aloha ball and it’s really special seeing the crowd there clapping,” Chakas said. “I think you get more energy, you feel the crowd, you feel the energy.”
UH coach Charlie Wade, who issued two successful challenges at pivotal moments of the fourth set, also appreciated the late tension that closed UH’s sweep of a six-match homestand.
“It’s great, we haven’t been in that situation a ton and that’s a really good team,” Wade said of the Railsplitters, who fell short in the fourth set despite hitting .548 with 18 kills and one error.
“That’s really good to be able to have another team on the other side of the net that’s playing that productive and that efficient and just getting in those long sideout battles.
“It’s good for us to be able to know we can do it and I thought it was fun at the end. It was ultra competitive and nice to see us make some plays down the stretch.”
UH ended up hitting .410 in the final set with 19 kills and finished at .358 for the match. UH middle Guilherme Voss contributed eight kills and five blocks and Mouchlias and Cole Hogland added six kills each. Setter Jakob Thelle finished with 40 assists and four kills of his own.
Lincoln Memorial outside hitter Cole Campisano put away seven of his team-high 16 kills in the fourth set and hit .538 for the match. Justin Sharfenaker added six kills in 10 swings in the final set and finished with nine.
Wade said Mouchlias was available to start the match but made the lineup change shortly before the opening serve of the match. With UH needing a spark coming out of the second set, Mouchlias came out of the locker room without the jacket he’d been wearing on the sideline and took some warmup swings. He entered the lineup to start the third set and promptly hammered his first attempt of the match down the line.
“He came out in the third set and gave us a lift and he and (Thelle) just have more time on the court together right now so there’s better connection,” Wade said.
Source: Star
