Top-ranked Hawaii sweeps UC Irvine to finish a perfect regular season

Apr. 18—The Hawaii volleyball team's powerball number is 2021.

The Rainbow Warriors completed the program's first undefeated regular season with Saturday night's 25-17, 25-18, 25-13 smacking of UC Irvine in SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

A night after outlasting the unranked Anteaters in five sets, the Warriors dominated all phases—as well as three challenges—to improve to 15-0 overall and 10-0 in the Big West.

"The job's not finished yet, " said UH opposite Rado Parapunov, who slammed 13 kills, rifled five aces, and had his hand prints on three of the Warriors' 8.5 blocks. "It means we're on the right path. We're doing something good. There's still a lot of work."

The Warriors needed only 62 minutes to set up the post-match celebration for soon-to-be-departing seniors Parapunov, Colton Cowell, Patrick Gasman and James Anastassiades, and juniors Gage Worsley and Jackson Van Eekeren. Anastassiades is a student assistant this season. Worsley and Van Eekeren will earn degrees next month. It won't be aloha ball yet. UH is host to the Big West tournament this week and, if it does well, seeks a berth in the NCAA tournament.

Of the perfect regular season, UH coach Charlie Wade said, "it's a title, it's not the title. We're still focused on another couple weeks of competition."

The top-ranked Warriors made an emphatic whistle-to-whistle statement. The bottom line was the service line. The Warriors scored on 47.9 % of their serves. The Anteaters had no answer for the Warriors' succession of jump-spin servers. The Warriors racked up 10 aces, and often forced the Anteaters to start their double-setter offense well behind the 3-meter line. The Anteaters sided out at 45 % in the first and third sets.

"We've seen it in practices, " Wade said of the Warriors' serving.

Wade crafted a serving lineup of Jakob Thelle, Cowell, Gasman and Parapunov. "Those four in a row are bringing it every time, " Wade said. "There's no question we can put some service pressure on teams."

In the first set, Gasman served six consecutive points, including two aces. The Warriors built a 24-11 lead before the Anteaters made it interesting, scoring six in a row.

In the third set, Parapunov put down six of his 13 kills and regained his disruptive serve. "Rado struggled the last week or two (with his serves ), " Wade said. "He wasn't very good in Northridge (a week earlier ). He struggled again (Friday ) night. I told him, as one of our golf analogies, he's on the pull driver tonight. I want him to pull drive, and take a rip, and he embraced that and got the payoff for it."

In a six-serve sequence, Parapunov produced five aces and forced a free-ball return that outside hitter Chaz Galloway crushed. The Anteaters called two timeouts to try to chill Parapunov, but had limited other tactics. Two of the aces were against pin attacker Joel Schneidmiller, the Anteaters' most prolific hitter. Schneidmiller finished with nine kills, but made five attack errors and hit.200.

"I think all the emotions from the last few nights, especially tonight, " Parapunov said of his mindset. "(Wade ) was like, 'green light.' That gave me the confidence to go as far as I can, and whatever happened, happened. Thankfully that happened."

Wade said : "We certainly haven't had as many nights (power serving ) as I'd like. Tonight was pretty good when a guy goes back like that and has a good turn. ... When these guys get it dialed in, it's certainly a nice weapon."

The Warriors also received a boost from Chaz Galloway, a freshman outside hitter who missed Friday's match because of a non-coronavirus-related illness. Galloway contributed to three blocks, delivered an ace, and kept plays alive with his middle-back passing. Wade noted Galloway also had six kills in 13 errorless swings. "He's a nice (player ) to have on the floor, for sure, " Wade said.