With a pair of hard-fought road victories over a storied rival, the No. 4 University of Hawai‘i men's volleyball team remained unbeaten exiting the weekend and picked up a milestone win for head coach Charlie Wade in the process.
The Rainbow Warriors battled their way to a 20-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-16, 22-20 win over No. 5 BYU on Friday night in Provo, Utah. Then on Saturday night, the 'Bows improved to 8-0 for the 2025 season with a 25-18, 25-22, 22-25, 25-22 win over the Cougars, picking up Wade's 300th win as UH head coach.
"We don't get too caught up in any kind of individual achievement," Wade said in a Zoom interview following Saturday's match. "And really, what 300 means is there's a lot of people that have been in this program since I took over that have helped us really take it to some high levels of success, and we're just still trying to get better.
"There's a nice win tonight. In terms of the wins, only the thing I want is 301, and we're just going to continue to get better and see how far we can take this group. It's pretty fun right now to be around the program, because we got a lot of really talented players that are super into playing volleyball at a high level. Every day at the practice, every day is a lot of fun."
Hawai‘i's winning efforts were highlighted by performances from multiple underclassmen. Freshman opposite Kristian Titriyski had 20 kills on Friday night and 17 on Saturday, leading UH both nights. Meanwhile, sophomore setter Tread Rosenthal dished out 43 assists on Friday night and 42 on Saturday.
"We know a little bit more about ourselves," Wade said following the weekend's slate. "A little more battle tested, but it's a long season. Are we a better team for the experience? Yeah."
For BYU, former Rainbow Warrior Keoni Thiim played inspired against his old team, racking up a match-high 21 kills on Friday to go with two service aces. On Saturday, Thiim had a team-high 14 kills but also had nine hitting errors.
Next up for Hawai‘i is a two-match home series against No. 9 Stanford, which begins on Wednesday and concludes on Friday. Both matches are set to begin at 7 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
