Chakas leads No. 3 Hawaii to sweep of No. 5 Stanford

The Maui News

Spyros Chakas was nearly unstoppable in crushing 23 kills as the third-ranked University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team swept past No. 5 Stanford 27-25, 25-7, 25-20 on Friday night at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.

Chakas hit .733 — committing just one error in 30 attempts — as UH hit a season-best .594. The Rainbow Warriors took both matches from the Cardinal, who they beat in four sets on Wednesday.

This one started off as one would expect a showdown between top-5 teams would, with a tight first set going to extra points. An ace by Chaz Galloway put UH up 24-23, and the Rainbow Warriors eventually put it away on a Chakas kill after the Cardinal fought off two set points.

Hawaii blasted out of the gates in the second set, taking a 6-1 lead and eventually jumping ahead 14-3 on serving runs by Chakas and Alaka’i Todd. Things only got worst for the Cardinal, who didn’t score again after pulling within 18-7. After another Chakas kill, Tread Rosenthal served out the set.

The third set remained close until Hawaii put together a 6-2 run to take a 19-15 lead and were able to keep control to finish off the sweep.

Todd finished with nine kills, hitting .600, and Rosenthal had 33 assists and two aces for UH.

Alex Rottman had 10 kills to lead the Cardinal, who hit .146 for the match.

The Rainbow Warriors next host Missouri S&T on Feb. 22 and 23.