91Ö±²¥

The second-ranked 91Ö±²¥ men’s volleyball team is showing no sign of slowing down.

The Rainbow Warriors picked up their eighth consecutive victory and remained undefeated in Big West play with a 25-21, 25-18, 25-21 sweep of No. 13 UC San Diego on Friday night at LionTree Arena in La Jolla, Calif.

Louis Sakanoko ended a quick evening for 91Ö±²¥ with his team-high 11th kill on match point to secure the 16th sweep of the season for UH (24-3, 7-0).

It’s the first time in four Big West series 91Ö±²¥ won the opening match in three sets.

UH has won the rematch in three sets the previous three times.

“It’s always good any night to get it done quickly,” 91Ö±²¥ coach Charlie Wade said. “We were good enough. Offensively we weren’t quite as crisp, but some of that you’ve got to give (UCSD) credit. These league teams always defend you better.”

91Ö±²¥ is one win or one Long Beach State loss from securing the No. 1 seed in the Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship in Irvine, Calif.

The Rainbow Warriors are also trying to become the third team to go undefeated in regular season play in conference.

Long Beach State accomplished the feat in 2019 and UH did it in 2021. Both teams lost in the conference tournament but went on to win the national championship.

Sakanoko finished the night hitting .381 against the Tritons (11-12, 2-6) and Kristian Titriyski added 10 kills and hit .368.

Finn Kearney had four kills in six swings in the third set subbing in for Adrien Roure.

“It was time to give somebody like that a chance and he did well,” Wade said of Kearney. “His passing was really good. They targeted him early and his passing was rock solid.”

91Ö±²¥ hit .342 in the match and had nine aces to only two for UC San Diego.

Titriyski had six kills in his first eight swings to help UH take the opening set.

91Ö±²¥ made just two attack errors and had three service errors to seven for the Tritons, but the UCSD defense kept it close with 11 digs.

UH sophomore Ofeck Hazan, who got the start in the middle over Trevell Jordan, had UH’s only block of the set on a solo stuff and UCSD served out on 91Ö±²¥’s second set point.

The Tritons called their first timeout in the second set trailing 12-8 after back-to-back service aces by Tread Rosenthal.

91Ö±²¥ went wire-to-wire in the set, holding the Tritons to a .105 hitting percentage.

Josh Ewert, who had seven kills in the opening set for UCSD, had only one in the second set with two errors.

91Ö±²¥ had five blocks in the second set. Hazan recorded his second solo block and was in on two others for UH, which also had four aces to help go up two sets to none.

UCSD led from the start of the third set until 91Ö±²¥ took a 17-16 lead on a bad set by the Tritons forced by a tough Kainoa Wade serve.

Wade served two straight aces to tie the match at 16-all after UH trailed by as many as five points.

Titriyski gave 91Ö±²¥ set point with a kill to reach double figures for the 31st time in 38 career matches.

He had only four kills after hitting .750, with six in the opening set.

“I think we identified some situations where our left side blocks were able to release and kick out a little bit early on (Titriyski),” UC San Diego coach Brad Rostratter said in a postgame interview. “He’s a big talented player who had a big night. We’ve got to play a lot cleaner. We made a lot of errors on the attacking side of things and they didn’t. We need to play more consistent volleyball on our end.