Hawaii needs marathon to top UC Irvine in men’s volleyball
After narrowly missing out on his first career triple-double in a five-set marathon victory, Hawaii setter Tread Rosenthal picked up food from Chipotle, jumped in a team van and had only one thing on his mind. “I want to go to sleep,” he said. The AVCA National Player of the Year candidate deserved a good night’s rest after leading the second-ranked Rainbow Warriors to a 25-22, 19-25, 23-25, 25-23, 18-16 win over No.
5 UC Irvine on Friday night at Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif. Hawaii (22-3, 5-0 Big West) holds a two-game lead over the Anteaters (15-4, 3-2) at the midway point of conference play after outlasting UC Irvine in a match that took 2 hours, 40 minutes. Rosenthal had 53 assists, 11 digs, tied a career-high with nine kills and was in on six blocks for the Rainbow Warriors, who won for the 11th time in their past 12 matches on the road at UC Irvine.
Hawaii had to rally to win the last two sets and gave up five straight points to fall behind 13-11 in the fifth before coming back to secure the win on its fourth match point. “I think in the fourth and the fifth we just kind of settled in and played a lot of cleaner volleyball and not let a lot of the dumb errors and the dumb mistakes kind of ruin us,” Rosenthal said. “We’re pretty comfortable playing from behind.
Maybe it isn’t a great thing, but I think it is something that we have. ” Hawaii improved to 2-0 in five-set matches and is 8-0 away from home this season. Sophomore opposite Kristian Titriyski put down 16 kills to lead four UH players in double figures and Louis Sakanoko added 14 kills and seven digs.
Sophomore middle Trevell Jordan hit a career-high . 750 with 12 kills and no errors and Adrien Roure posted a double-double of 12 kills and 11 digs. Jordan and Hawaii’s other middle, Justin Todd, combined for 18 kills, both of Hawaii’s solo blocks and eight block assists.
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