No. 2 Hawaii men’s volleyball takes on No. 5 UC Irvine in back-to-back matches

Louis Sakanoko earned a standing ovation for rocketing a 75 mile per hour serve last weekend during No. 2 Hawaii’s two-match sweep of No. 8 UC Santa Barbara.

The Rainbow Warriors were dialed in from the service line with a season-high 18 aces over two matches.

Hawaii served in at more than a 90% clip and had more aces than service errors for the first time since 2024 in Saturday’s three-set sweep of the eighth-ranked Gauchos that lasted 1 hour, 41 minutes.

Hawaii men’s volleyball coach Charlie Wade, who spends more practice time in the gym having his team work on serving than most other Division I coaches, gets a sheet listing the speeds of every UH serve after each match.

The highest velocities are generally impressive, but recently it’s the lesser numbers that have impressed the head coach the most.

“They’re figuring it out,” Wade said after Saturday’s win before going to his favorite sports analogy. “You don’t have to hit driver here, you know. In a little bit of sand trap, let’s bring something else out. Let’s put it in play.”

Offensively, Hawaii is at the head of the class, leading the country in kills per set at 13.78 and ranking second in hitting percentage at .385.

Hawaii has led the nation in kills per set four times in the past eight seasons and three times in hitting percentage during that same span.

Currently, UH ranks seventh in the country averaging 1.78 aces per set and has finished in the top five in that statistic only three times since 2017.

Once was in 2022 when it won the national championship, and the other two times were in 2020, when UH was ranked No. 2 in the country when the season was cut short due to the pandemic, and 2024, when No. 1 Hawaii lost its best player, Spyros Chakas, to a season-ending injury in the final match of the Outrigger Invitational.

“I’ve always argued (serving) is the most impactful because it impacts your ability to first ball receive and side out,” Wade said Tuesday. “It’s something that we spend an inordinate amount of time on — more time year over year — and you see the benefits of it.”

Sakanoko, with one more ace, would give Hawaii five players with at least 20 this season.

Adrien Roure and Tread Rosenthal are tied for the team lead at 28, followed by Justin Todd with 23 and Kainoa Wade at 21.

Rosenthal, who still has another year of eligibility, is seventh on UH’s career list with 107 total aces and 15 behind Jakob Thelle, who holds the record with 122.

With Kristian Titriyski, who has won two of the past three Big West Offensive Player of the Week awards, back in the starting lineup, sophomores Wade and Finn Kearney are used as serving substitutes and might be the two most overqualified players for those roles in the country.

“It’s crazy. Honestly I think they could start anywhere in America,” Sakanoko said after Saturday’s UCSB sweep. “We’re all on the team. We’re all on the bus, and they just show game after game that they deserve to be there and that’s for sure a big spot for them.”

The only undefeated team in Big West play, Hawaii (21-3, 4-0) visits No. 5 UC Irvine (15-3, 3-1) today and Saturday for matches at Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif.

UH will return to the same arena in three weeks for the Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship and can close in on earning one of the two seeded byes into the semifinals with two wins over the Anteaters.

UH won all three matches at home last season against UCI and has won 10 of 11 on the road against the Anteaters dating back to 2015.

Hawaii is playing a Top 10 opponent for the sixth straight week and is 7-2 in those matches.

BIG WEST MEN’S VOLLEYBALL STANDINGS
Team	Conference				Overall
	W	L	Pct.	GB	W	L
Hawaii	4	0	1.000	—	21	3
UC Irvine	3	1	.750	1	15	3
Long Beach St.	2	2	.500	2	16	4
UCSB	3	3	.500	2	12	9
UC San Diego	2	3	.400	2 ½	11	9
CS Northridge	0	5	.000	4 ½	12	9

SCHEDULE
Friday and Saturday
Hawaii at UC Irvine Long Beach State at UC San Diego
Saturday only
UC Santa Barbara at CS Northridge