HONOLULU — It will be, as Hawaii setter Tread Rosenthal said, “the clash of the titans.”
No. 3 Hawaii and No. 5 USC dispatched their opponents in the 29th Outrigger Volleyball Invitational in straight sets for the second straight night, setting up a power-packed de facto tournament championship between the Rainbow Warriors and the Trojans at the Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday night.
UH (19-1) swept No. 19 Penn State, 25-13, 25-23, 25-12 on Friday in front of 5,405 (6,692), answering the only real challenge they faced in the second set on an evening that the team’s top offensive threat, freshman opposite Kristian Titriyski had the night off.
[Note: See below for more photos of Hawaii-Penn State men's volleyball.]
USC (15-2) dropped a home-and-home series with then-No. 2 UC Irvine in mid-February. Like UH, it won two matches at BYU, including one via sweep just before the Outrigger.
“For sure you got two top five teams playing really well all season, so it should be some pretty high-level stuff,” UH coach Charlie Wade said.
Hitter Adrien Roure had his most efficient outing of his freshman season, putting down 15 kills against just one error on 22 swings for a .636 percentage.
“I feel amazing right now, but I'm gonna feel tired in a couple of minutes for sure,” Roure said.
His French countryman Louis Sakanoko added nine kills and freshman opposite Kainoa Wade supplied five in getting the start for Titriyski.
Charlie Wade said it was a valuable chance for his son to get some valuable run with the A-side in a meaningful match in case Titriyski has to miss a night later this season.
“It was just treat him like a normal oppo,” said Rosenthal, who guided his team to a .397 hitting night to PSU's .049. “He's one of the best oppos in the nation coming into this year, and he's really good. So it was, feed him. He had a few errors early; (we’re) just not yet calibrated, we haven't been together a lot, but he's a really good player, and we can trust him in a lot of situations.”
The ‘Bows had to rally from two points down late in Set 2 against the struggling Nittany Lions (5-12), including at 23-21. UH scored the last four points, including three on the serve of middle Justin Todd, and Roure clinched the set with a kill.
The singular highlight might’ve been Sakanoko’s improvised back-set to Roure on a fake bic attack as he jumped over the 3-meter line in Set 3.
“It looked pretty cool, I’ll give him that,” Rosenthal said.
“He should have hit the ball,” Wade grumbled.
UH outblocked PSU 10-2. Will Kuhns led the Nittany Lions with 13 kills on .450 hitting.
Also at the game, Spectrum Sports volleyball analyst Chris McLachlin was surprised with an overhead message from President Barack Obama — McLachlin has been chosen among the 2025 class to be inducted into the UH Sports Circle of Honor.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
