Hawaii men’s volleyball coach Charlie Wade estimated that his team played up to 75% of its full potential in sweeping then-No. 5 Brigham Young last weekend.
As impressive as it was earning the program’s first-ever two-match road sweep inside Smith Fieldhouse against the Cougars, doing it without playing close to their best is why senior libero ‘Eleu Choy is chomping to get back out on the court tonight for the second match against No. 9 Stanford in SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
“We didn’t reach our full potential, and I think that is what is most exciting,” Choy said Monday. “When we get (to) our full potential (and) what we look like, I think we can be very dangerous.”
That’s the scary part for this UH men’s volleyball team, which has one senior in its starting lineup and could end up going with three freshmen and two sophomores to begin tonight’s match against the Cardinal (3-3).
Hawaii’s first three opponents have all been ranked at some point early in the season, and Brigham Young presented the first real test against a Top 5 opponent in a hostile environment.
UH was strongest at the most pivotal points of the match and is still undefeated despite facing nine match points already this season, including six against BYU.
“I don’t think Kristian (Titriyski) or Adrien (Roure), neither one of them played particularly well,” Wade said directly on Monday. “They have been our two most consistent offensive performers and both of them made some loose errors … so a lot of room for improvement.”
Titriyski was named the Big West Freshman of the Week on Monday after averaging 4.11 kills and 1.22 blocks per set.
Roure averaged 1.33 blocks per set and had 12 digs in addition to three errors and 19 kills.
Those numbers underscore just how high the bar has been set, and how even on an off night, Hawaii can still be one of the toughest teams in the country to beat.
“I think we maxed it out pretty close to 100% in terms of effort and grit,” Wade said. “That can mask some poor performances every night, so you always want to start there, and from that standpoint, I think we did a really good job.”
Sophomore Louis Sakanoko, who made the All-Big West Freshman team last year and made 14 starts, got his first extensive playing time of the season against the Cougars, coming of the bench to deliver eight kills and three digs in Friday’s five-set win.
He started and played the entire match in Saturday’s four-set win and hit .296 with 13 kills and eight digs to go along with an ace. He played the full six rotations and only had one service error, serving in at 92% for the match.
“He was the best outside hitter in the building both nights. No question about it.” Wade said. “All week long, I am watching him, and I said, we lost more sets during the week in practice than we lost all weekend in that environment. The ‘B’ side was rolling and Louis was playing at a really high level. He’s a bit of a showman. He’s a really charismatic guy and that is an environment that he absolutely thrives in.”
Hawaii is 8-0 for the fifth time since 2019 and will host a Cardinal team it has defeated 11 times in a row.
Stanford is coming off two three-set losses to UC Irvine, which remained at No. 2 in this week’s AVCA Top 20 poll behind No. 1 Long Beach State. Two-time defending national champion UCLA remained at No. 3 ahead of Hawaii despite losing a match.
Titriyski, who is leading the Rainbow Warriors in kills per set (3.78) and points per set (4.89), has four of the five top offensive performances this season.
He was pulled late in the first set of Friday’s victory against the Cougars and returned to the match in the second set. He closed out the win with seven of his career-high 20 kills in the fifth set.
“I had a slow start both of the games, but the thing that helped me is I saw we were losing and I know I’m an important part of our team,” Titriyski said. “I knew that if I played bad, we for sure were going to, if not lose, it was going to be a tough game. It was a tough game even when I played good, so you can imagine if I played bad and was still on the court. I reminded myself I needed to focus on what’s important and focus on the next plays and the next balls and ignore what’s in the past.”
After playing in front of two crowds totaling more than 10,000 people in Provo, Utah, UH returns home, where it is leading the nation averaging 5,699 fans per match.
Hawaii has led the nation in attendance for seven straight seasons, not including the COVID-19-shortened season in 2021.
