By: Tiff Wells – ESPN Honolulu’s Hawaii Men’s Volleyball Play-by-Play
1 – Milestone For Chakas. With his Set 2 ending service ace on night two, Spyros Chakas entered an exclusive club. The Senior Outside Hitter from Greece became the 10th Rainbow Warrior with 100 career service aces. Now tied with Yuval Katz and Sivan Leoni for eighth-place in UH history, Chakas is three aces shy of tying Eyal Zimet. He’s a major part of the team that leads the nation in aces per set at 2.62 as we enter the second week of March. Just last year, Jakob Thelle set the new UH program record for service aces with 122.
2 – Ain’t Nothing But A G Thang. Senior Middle Blocker Guilherme Voss nearly went perfect on night two after a respectable opening night in the series against Sacred Heart. Night one saw Voss record five kills and six blocks. A very efficient second for Voss as he notched ten kills on 12 errorless swings to hit .833 for the match. With his four blocks, he passed Costas Theocharidis for seventh-place in UH history and sits at 383 entering The Outrigger, just 23 total blocks shy of tying Taylor Averill and Matt “Dragon” Rawson for fifth-place. The CEO of The Mānoa Roofing Company helped the Bows record 17 total team blocks in the six sets played against Sacred Heart. Also noticeable is the connection between Voss and Freshman Setter Tread Rosenthal. It’s becoming more crisp as we enter month three of the regular season, leading to more bounce kills and more routes being run by G.
3 – We Goin’ Streaking!!. With the two wins over the Pioneers, UH is now 11-0 all-time against members of the NorthEast Conference. 5-0 against LIU, 3-0 versus Saint Francis, two wins over Sacred Heart and one win over Fairleigh Dickinson. The Bows ride the nation’s second-longest winning streak at 13 (No. 1 Grand Canyon has won 15-straight ahead of The Outrigger). Since 2012, UH has not lost at home to an unranked team, a streak of 64 consecutive matches. 13 matches remain in the regular season and it’s more than likely UH will face ranked teams from here on out.
4 – You’ll Always Remember Your First. For Graduate Student Middle Blocker Zachary Thompson, Sunday’s match is one he’ll always remember. The Pearl City native and Punahou alum admitted to us in the Tony Group post-match show that he learned of his place in the starting rotation about thirty minutes prior to first serve. For the local boy to earn his first start of the season in The Stan, a facility he came to often as a kid watching UH play and seeing it on TV, it came full circle for him when he heard PA voice Ben Kiaaina announce his name to the crowd. Once the chicken skin wore off, Thompson put down two of his attempts without a hitting error and was in on a block. What a moment for the UC Santa Cruz grad transfer who just celebrated his birthday this past Tuesday.
5 – He’s 17! For a fourth time this season, Tread Rosenthal took home the Big West Conference Freshman of the Week award. Running the nation’s most efficient offense (UH enters the week hitting .408), Rosenthal has also provided his own offense from the service line. Leading the team in service aces (26), he’s averaging .58 aces per set. Not a bad number when you consider he didn’t begin to spin serve until he came to UH last August. Defensively, he’s second on the team in digs (61) and has been a force at the net, third on the team in blocks (33). Even at 6’9,” Rosenthal has shown the ability to set every type of ball. Sure there have been times where location and/or tempo is off and while that may frustrate the fan, just remember he’s technically supposed to be a Senior in High School.
6 – March Madness. After 15 matches, UH sits at 14-1 and is ranked third in the country. Three ranked opponents (Loyola Chicago, Ball State and Stanford), UH is 4-1. While UH did its part to help Grow The Game, the back half of the schedule is what the fans really wanted to see. It begins on Thursday with Day 1 of the 28th OUTRIGGER Volleyball Invitational. The nation’s lone unbeaten and top-ranked team (Grand Canyon), a top five ranking conference member (UC Irvine) and a top 20 team (Lewis) join host Hawai`i for arguably the top non-conference tournament in the country. UH looks to keep the Invitational trophy on the island after last year’s 2-1 performance that eventually saw Penn State win the title based on point differential (UCLA, Hawai`i and Penn State all went 2-1). Early storylines include: Kevin Kauling facing off against his former team (Lewis), an opportunity for UH to take on the top-ranked team in the country Grand Canyon, who could still be undefeated and a return of Brett Sheward, UH’s former All-American Libero who was a starter on the 2022 National Championship and 2023 NCAA Runners-Up teams who now is the starting Setter for UC Irvine as a graduate transfer. Once the Outrigger closes, UH will turn its attention to Big West Conference play as they fly to Long Beach to face The Beach in the Walter Pyramid, a venue they have not won in since 2015 (9 consecutive losses)