UH men’s volleyball takes 5-setter against Long Beach State on the road

Hawaii men’s volleyball coach Charlie Wade doesn’t have many firsts left to add to the resume.

He got a big one Friday, though, earning his first Big West regular-season victory over Long Beach State at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid with a dramatic 26-24, 23-25, 25-19, 20-25, 15-12 win to open Big West play.

Hawaii sophomore opposite Kristian Titriyski, who started for the first time in more than two months, put down the game-clinching kill for his team-leading 13th of the match, helping No. 3 Hawaii (18-3, 1-0) defeat the second-ranked Beach (14-3, 0-1) on the road for the first time since 2015, when both teams played in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

“Coming and getting a win against a Top 5 team on the road, and more significantly, a league win, the first match of league play, that one is probably a win against the field,” Wade said.

Hawaii had to persevere through the match after losing Louis Sakanoko to cramps midway through the third set.

Setter Tread Rosenthal, who battled cramps for the final two sets and was effectively playing on one leg in the fifth, refused to come off the court.

Rosenthal finished with 35 assists, seven kills and five blocks and set a perfect ball to the left side on UH’s second match point that Titriyski sent bouncing hard off the floor to end UH’s first five-set match of the season.

“Gutty performance with Sakanoko going down and Finn (Kearney) stepping up and Tread was hobbled almost the whole time, it was a good team win,” Wade said. “I was never seriously considering (taking) Tread out. He would have to be a hard no-go. Him on one leg is better than most.”

Titriyski ended the night with 13 kills but had nine of UH’s 17 hitting errors.

Sakanoko, who received a red card in the third set for complaining to an official, had eight kills and was hitting .500 when he was forced to leave the match.

Kearney had five kills after taking his place at outside hitter.

“Finn was huge. He was a target early,” Wade said. “Once he stepped on the floor they went at him and he gave up a couple (serves) early, but he settled down and did a really nice job.”

Wojciech Gajek, who was also battling cramps for Long Beach State, hit .381 with a match-high 22 kills for the Beach.

Skyler Varga added 15 kills for Long Beach State, which had 64 kills to only 47 for UH. The Beach committed 28 hitting errors and 26 service errors and UH gave up only six aces to a team leading the country in aces at 2.8 per set coming in.

“We talked going in, don’t give up the straight ace,” Wade said. “They got a few but certainly less than their averages are — we got their top guys off the line pretty quick. It as a challenge that we know would be there and the guys met it.”

Hawaii hit .455 with only two hitter errors in the opening set and had four key blocks. Long Beach State only had one block.

The Beach came back in the second set to win it on Titriyski’s sixth hitting error of the match.

The rest of the team only had two hitting errors through two sets as Hawaii was able to hit .370 in the match despite Titriyski’s struggles.

The Beach hit .033 in the third set with nine hitting errors and five service errors, allowing Hawaii to go back in front.

UH held Hawaii to eight kills and a .095 hitting percentage to fourth a fifth set.

All of UH’s injury issues in the match were cramps. The team was hoping to get IV treatment at the hotel after the match.

The teams play again tonight at 4.

UH men’s volleyball takes 5-setter against Long Beach State on the road

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