HONOLULU, Hawai’i — No. 6 BYU men’s volleyball fell 3-1 (27-25, 23-25, 25-17, 25-18) to No. 3 Hawai’i in the first of two top-10 NCAA men’s volleyball matches between these two teams in Hawai’i this week.
Both teams came into the match on nine-match winning streaks, with UH now stretching its to 10 matches. BYU will look to start a new streak in Friday’s rematch.
Outside hitter Trent Moser led the Cougars in the match with a season-high 18 kills. He also added four aces, four digs and two blocks.
BYU setter Tyler Herget continued to boost his assists-per-set average with 47 assists in the match, helping the Cougars hit .386.
Trevor Herget and Connor Oldani also racked up double-digit kills for BYU with 12 each in the match.
Set 1
Hawai’i got out to the early lead on its home floor, grabbing a 6-2 lead.
BYU fought back, and a 3-0 run got the Cougars within one at 9-8.
The Cougars used a 5-1 run to get to 15 points first, going up 15-11 on a jump set by Moser, faking the kill and getting it outside to Tufuga for the finish.
BYU was hitting .643 to UH’s .167 midway through the first set.
A 6-2 run for UH got the Warriors back within one point at 18-17. They got back ahead at 21-20.
The teams would need deuce points late in the set as the scoring went back-and-forth. On Hawaii’s third set point they took the set victory 27-25.
The set loss for the Cougars ended a 27-set winning streak coming into the match.
Set 2
A 4-0 run for UH got the Warriors out to a 6-3 lead early in the second set. The Cougars answered immediately with a 3-0 run, highlighted by a Tyler Herget ace to tie things up at 6-6.
From that point, neither team could get more than a two-point lead, trading points back-and-forth. An Oldani kill made it 15-13 to trigger the media timeout, then kills from Trevor Herget and Moser on the next two points forced a Hawai’i timeout at 17-13. A tool by Moser on the next point kept the BYU momentum going.
Just like in the first set, when BYU had a lead, UH fought back. The Warriors got within two at 23-21, forcing a BYU timeout. A UH ace on the next point made it 23-22.
On BYU’s second set point, Moser got his 14th kill of the match down to win the set 25-23 and even up the match 1-1.
Moser had eight kills on 11 swings with no errors in the set.
Set 3
For the third straight set, UH got out to an early lead, up 3-0 after a successful challenge, and then built 5-1, 8-3 and 12-5 leads.
Back-to-back aces by Oldani cut the lead to 13-9.
For the first time in the match, UH got to 15 points first after a BYU block error.
The Warriors did not look back after that. Despite a couple of kills by Trevor Herget late in the set, UH won it 25-17 to go up 2-1 in the match.
The Cougars did not lead at all in the third set.
Set 4
The Cougars started out the fourth set strong with Trevor Herget striking three kills on BYU’s first four points, getting out to a 4-2 lead.
UH would fight back, taking a 6-5 lead and stretching the lead to 15-11 at the media timeout.
BYU came back with three straight points out of the media timeout off of a combo block, UH attack error and Moser ace.
Six straight point from Hawai’i eventually put the Warriors up 22-15 to essentially put the match away. The set ultimately ended at 25-18, and Hawai’i won the match 3-1.
Up Next
These two teams will face each other again of Friday. It’s a 10 p.m. MST start, broadcast on ESPN+.