Matadors Battle Before Falling in Four Sets at No. 4 Hawai'i

HONOLULU, O'ahu - The CSUN Men's Volleyball team battled the fourth-ranked Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors through four sets before falling in a Big West Conference match Friday evening at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

Set scores were 25-20, 25-20, 23-25, 25-19 as Hawai'i improves to 17-3 overall and 2-1 in the Big West. The loss, CSUN's sixth straight, drops the Matadors to 5-9 overall and 0-3 in conference play.

KEY STATISTICS
• Kyle Hobus had a big night for CSUN, putting down a season-high 15 kills on .520 hitting. Hobus had just a pair of hitting errors on 25 swings to go with six digs, four blocks and three aces.
• Redshirt junior Daniel Wetter added 11 kills, hitting .421 on 19 attacks while Griffin Walters chipped in 10 kills (.138). Wetter and Walters each added a pair of aces as the Matadors matched their season-high with 10 team aces.
• Setter Donovan Constable handed out a season-high 42 assists and also had two aces in leading the Matadors to a .279 hitting clip (52-21-111).
• Spyros Chakas led all hitters in the match with a career-high 24 kills (.488) to lead Hawai'i which also got 11 kills from Chaz Galloway.

SET 1
After trailing 4-1 early in the match, an Allen block fueled a 4-1 CSUN that evened the score at 5-5. Neither team would lead by more than one point as the two squads battled through seven ties until the hosts got a kill to lead 14-12. The Matadors would score three straight out of a timeout, capped by a Walters/Wetter kill, to take a 15-14 lead into the media timeout. Another Walters kill kept CSUN on top 16-15 when Hawai'i scored three straight to force the final Matador timeout at 18-16. A Wetter kill kept CSUN within two at 19-17 but the hosts would pull away down the stretch for the 25-20 win.

SET 2
With the score tied at 7-7, CSUN engineered a 5-0 run, highlighted by back-to-back aces by Hobus as the Matadors opened up their largest lead of the night. CSUN would maintain five-point leads at 13-8, 14-9 and again at 15-10 heading into the media timeout. Hawai'i would then outscore the Matadors 4-1 to trim the CSUN lead to 16-14. With the Matadors still holding an 18-15 lead, the Rainbow Warriors scored three straight to knot the score at 18-18. A Hawai'i service error gave CSUN its final lead of the set at 19-18 when the hosts closed the set on a 7-1 run to win by the identical 25-20 score.

SET 3
After surrendering five of the first six points of the set, a Luke Krzmarzick kill pulled the Matadors within three at 6-3. CSUN would trail by as many as seven at 12-5 and again at 13-6 before engineering a 9-1 run to take a 15-14 lead following a Hobus kill. The Warriors scored two straight to reclaim a 16-15 lead and would hold until a kill and ace by Hobus put the Matadors back on top 19-18. A CSUN block extended the lead to two at 23-21 and the Matadors would win by that margin when Hobus put down a kill on set point.

SET 4
The Matadors were within striking distance, trailing by 11-10 following a Walters kill. Two straight Hawai'i points pushed the lead to 13-10 before the lead swelled to 17-11 forcing a CSUN timeout. The Matadors still trailed by six at 18-12 when consecutive Wetter kills trimmed the deficit to 18-14. CSUN would get within three on a trio of occasions down the stretch before Hawai'i closed out the 25-19 win and the 3-1 victory.

UP NEXT
The Matadors and Warriors will wrap up the season series Saturday night at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center at 10 p.m. PDT.

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Team Stats

Kyle Hobus

Daniel Wetter

Griffin Walters

Luke Krzmarzick

Players Mentioned

Donovan Constable

Kyle Hobus

Luke Krzmarzick

Griffin Walters

Daniel Wetter