No. 4 Hawaii prevails over No. 5 BYU men’s volleyball in epic five-set match
- BYU’s Kioni Thiim, who transferred from Hawaii to play for the Cougars this season, jousts at the net with two Rainbow Warriors in a men’s college volleyball match at the Smith Fieldhouse on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025.
- BYU fans react during a men’s college volleyball match against Hawaii in the Smith Fieldhouse on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025.
- BYU’s Niko Hales (blond hair) reacts after a block with his teammates during a men’s college volleyball match against Hawaii in the Smith Fieldhouse on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025.
- BYU’s Luke Benson (1) takes a swing against Hawaii in a men’s college volleyball match in the Smith Fieldhouse on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025.
Nothing can ruin your night faster than when a team that just traveled 3,000 miles beats you 22-20 in a fifth set on your home floor.
That’s just what No. 4 Hawaii did on a rowdy Friday night in front of 5,019 dialed-in fans the Smith Fieldhouse, a place where No. 5 BYU is used to coming out on top in tight matches. Instead, the Cougars frittered away six match points in the fifth set and lost 3-2 (25-20, 22-25, 25-23, 16-25, 20-22) to the Rainbow Warriors, BYU’s third straight loss.
The Cougars took a 5-1 lead in the fifth set but Hawaii, as it did all night long, reeled the home team back in. BYU struggled passing the Rainbow Warriors serves all match long and eventually the visitors tied the set at 9-all. The two teams went back an forth, neither gaining more than a one-point advantage. A block by Teon Taylor gave BYU its first match point at 14-13, and there were five more match points that followed. But the Cougars could not finish.
Hawaii met every challenge and the score reached 20-20 on a kill by Kristian Titriyski. Tread Rosenthal fired off the Rainbow Warriors’ final ace of the night to reach their second match point at 21-20. On the next serve, Titriyski’s attack looked like it might land out but BYU attempted to play the ball and shanked the pass, giving Hawaii the win.
Titriyski took the ball and slammed it on the court as his teammates celebrated around him.
“I told the guys before the match two words: Toughness and grit,” Cougar coach Shawn Olmstead said. “We knew we were going to have to do that to beat this team, to dig real deep, and that’s hard. We were in the exact same spot last week in the fifth set (at UC Irvine) up 5-1 (and lost). That can’t happen. I thought we lacked a little there in the middle of that fifth set, just a handful of errors. We had opportunities and we just have to be tougher.”
Keoni Thiim, who transferred to BYU from Hawaii this spring, led the Cougars (6-3 overall) with 21 kills and hit .310. Thiim had dozens of family members and friends in the stands as he took on his former team.
Luke Benson added 17 kills but had 11 errors and hit just .158. Freshman Niko Hales was perfect offensively (6 kills, 0 errors, 6 swings) and had a career-high eight blocks. Setter Noa Haine finished with 46 assists, five digs and five blocks.
Titriyski led Hawaii (7-0) with 20 kills, hit .333 and had three aces. Rosenthal, a 6-foot-9 sophomore setter, totaled 43 assists, had nine kills on 12 swings with no errors (.750) and added six digs, eight blocks and two aces.
The Rainbow Warriors, who obviously play all their home matches at sea level in Honolulu, adapted just fine to serving at altitude and punished BYU with 10 aces, plus kept the Cougars scrambling with service pressure all night long.
“It was serve and pass,” Thiim said. “We fought pretty well and rallies were pretty decent, but it was just serve and pass. They had 10 aces to two, and that’s a lot of points. We’ve just got to lock in on passing and serving.”
BYU actually outhit Hawaii .336 to .309 and had 16 blocks to the visitors 15, but inconsistency in serve receive proved the Cougars undoing.
“Our ball control and serve receive was very poor,” Olmstead said. “But we can’t lose sight of why we’re playing these matches in January. We’ve got a pretty darn good team, but we have to clean up those things when they give us the opportunity to capitalize.”
It was just the fifth time Hawaii won in Provo in 30 meetings. It was also the Rainbow Warriors third straight victory against the Cougars, dating back to 2020 and including a victory in the 2021 NCAA Finals.
The two teams will meet again on Saturday at 7 p.m. MT in the Smith Fieldhouse.