UC Irvine men’s volleyball falls to Hawai’i in NCAA championship match

LOS ANGELES — Hawai’i outside hitter/opposite Louis Sakanoko stopped UC Irvine head coach David Kniffin on his way out of the press conference after their NCAA championship match on Monday night.

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“See you next year,” Sakanoko said to Kniffin, shaking his hand.

The second-seeded Rainbow Warriors defeated the unseeded Anteaters 3-1 (15-25, 25-18, 25-18, 25-20) in the NCAA men’s volleyball final at Pauley Pavilion, ending their surprising tournament run with a loss.

UCI’s pride remained despite the outcome, especially considering the efforts to build interest in the program.

“This is a tough moment in time because we’re coming off the loss,” Kniffin said, “but it’s also a super exciting moment in time when I look at everything that’s been amassed through UCI men’s volleyball in the years that I’ve been here, and it’s pretty darn cool. And these guys should be proud of that, and I know they wanted to win.”

It’s Hawai’i’s third national title in the past six years, but its first since 2022. All three of those titles have been won under head coach and Cal State Fullerton alumnus Charlie Wade.

The Rainbow Warriors (30-5) beat third-seeded Big West Conference rival Long Beach State in the semifinals to reach the final for the fifth time in the past seven tournaments (there was no tournament in 2020).

Freshman outside hitter Andrej Jokanovic led UCI (21-9) with 13 kills and three blocks while hitting .229, and senior opposite Will D’Arcy added nine kills and four digs. Junior middle blocker Trevor Clark had six kills and six blocks and sophomore middle blocker Micah Goss had a season-high six blocks and three aces.

Clark and Jokanovic were each named to the all-tournament team.

The Anteaters opened the first set with a 5-1 scoring run, seemingly oblivious to the crowd of Hawai’i fans that dominated most of the crowd of 8,400. UCI was the far more efficient team in the first set, hitting .562 compared to the Warriors’ .167.

UCI also committed just one service error, while Hawai’i had five.

“The mindset going into this was no different from any other game we’ve played this season,” D’Arcy said. “You don’t want to let the big moments get too big, so we were pretty steady going into it. Just playing point to point.”

Goss served up the Anteaters’ first ace of the day, and it gave them a 16-5 advantage roughly halfway through the set. Hawai’i countered with a kill by Kristian Titriyski and an ace from Tread Rosenthal, but two service errors in a matter of three serves stalled any momentum the Warriors were looking to create.

Jokanovic had two kills from the left side to close out the first set with a 25-15 win.

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The Anteaters fell behind early in the second set and couldn’t overcome the adjustments Hawai’i made to stay in system. A 3-0 scoring run got UCI within four points of tying the set, and Dos Pueblos product Goss’ strong performance late in the set helped, too.

Andreas Brinck set Goss for a scoring strike, then he teamed up with Cameron Kosty for a block that closed the gap to 23-17, but Hawai’i ultimately won the frame, 25-18.

The Big West opponents went point-for-point in the third set until the Warriors strung together four unanswered points to pull ahead 15-11. Sakanoko (12 kills) was dealing with pain from a torn ligament in his right hand, but it didn’t deter him from sending a kill down the middle to cap the scoring run.

“I completely tore my ligament in the last game,” Sakanoko said. “So it was a little tough to play with it, but I don’t want to give up on my team, so (I did) everything to be on the court and to be efficient. And it worked pretty well.”

Hawai’i was hitting .359 by the end of the set – which was good enough to make up for the 15 total service errors it had accumulated – and won it 25-18.

Sakanoko’s three aces got the Warriors an early 8-6 lead in the final set and celebratory confetti cannons were rolled out just as Hawai’i pushed the lead to 14-11. A block by Clark and a D’Arcy ace nearly caught the Anteaters up before the Warriors finished off the match.

Tread Rosenthal, a former Mira Costa High standout and the son of Mira Costa athletic director Michael Rosenthal, finished the match with 44 assists, three kills, six digs and three blocks.

UCI received one of the at-large spots for the tournament, which was expanded from nine to 12 teams this season. The Anteaters beat unseeded Penn State, stunned top-seeded UCLA in a regional final then took out fourth-seeded Ball State in a semifinal on Saturday.

“You play this 12-team bracket over and over again, and I don’t know how many different iterations there would be,” Kniffin said. “We do this thing over in a week. It’s not going to finish the same.

“You want to put on a great championship, and I think the volleyball community at large isn’t really that concerned about who wins. It’s about having a great tournament. This is a great tournament.”

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