No. 1/1 Hawai’i responded in a big way to the opening salvo from No. 3/2 UC Santa Barbara thanks to the performance of All-American middle attacker Patrick Gasman.
Gasman had a match-high nine blocks along with a career-high 14 kills as the Rainbow Warriors rebounded from a nine-point opening game loss to beat the Gauchos 16-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-20 on Thursday in Santa Barbara, California.
Gasman, who entered this three-match series third in the nation hitting .545, finished the series opener with a .571 attack percentage. The middle attacker also was one of three Rainbow Warriors to hit more than .400 and have five kills in this match-up between two undefeated teams.
All-American opposite Rado Parapunov finished with a team-high 16 kills while hitting .419, including having a game-high five kills in the third game to help give the Rainbow Warriors (5-0, 1-0 Big West) a one-game lead. Middle attacker Guilherme Voss contributed seven kills and zero errors on a .778 attack percentage.
Hawai’i overcame having a team-low .103 attack percentage to finish the Big West match out-hitting UC Santa Barbara .322 to .252.
The two teams started this series as the top rated offenses in the nation. The Rainbow Warriors had more than a .300 attack percentage in each of the final three games and held the Gauchos (4-1, 0-1 Big West) to a match-low .075 attack percentage in the final game.
Hawai’i finished with a season-high 14.5 blocks — eight more blocks than UC Santa Barbara.
Along with Gasman, Parapunov added seven blocks as the Rainbow Warriors extended their season-opening winning streak to five matches.
Both Gasman and Parapunov entered the match leading the nation averaging more than 1.38 blocks per game. In addition, it is the fourth consecutive match that Gasman had more than five blocks.
Opposite Randy DeWeese in the loss finished with a match-high 21 kills. This was the second time in the last three matches that the All-American had more than 20 kills.
UC Santa Barbara and Hawai’i will continue their series on Friday with another conference match. The series finale between the teams on Saturday will count as a non-conference match.