George F. Lee / glee@staradvertiser.com
Hawaii put up a triple block against Long Beach State on Saturday.
Louis Sakanoko put down the final two kills as No. 4 Hawaii beat No. 1 Long Beach State in the one that mattered more, coming back Saturday on senior night for the Rainbow Warriors and splitting the two-match series.
UH (23-4) battled from a 2-1 deficit in sets to topple LBSU 21-25, 25-20, 18-25, 25-19, 15-13 in front of a frenzied crowd of 9,771 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
The Beach, who fell to 24-2, won Friday night’s match in four sets.
Both teams are 6-2 and tied atop the Big West.
‘Eleu Choy, Kawai Hong, Kurt Nusterer, Zachary Thompson and Clay Wieter were feted after their final regular-season home matches.
The Warriors finish their regular season with two matches at UC Santa Barbara next week. UH hosts the Outrigger Big West Championship from April 24 to 26.
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Saturday’s match attracted a sellout turnstile crowd of 9,771. Combined with Friday’s, it is the first back-to-back sellout for UH men’s volleyball since 1996 against UCLA.
Freshman Finn Kearney led UH with 17 kills, starting again in place of injured standout Kristian Titriyski.
Nusterer had 10 kills with no errors on 12 swings and was in on a team-high six blocks.
Sakanoko had nine kills, and was at his best at the end, finding wide-open floor twice. LBSU had tied the final set at 13-all after UH had taken 6-3 and 11-8 leads.
Alex Kandev led the Beach with 16 kills, Skyler Varga had 14 and Daniil Hershtynovich 12. Moni Nikolov was in on six of LBSU’s 13.5 team blocks. Varga was match-high with three aces.