The No. 5 UC Santa Barbara men’s volleyball team dropped a Big West match at No. 4 Hawaii on Friday night, 25-16, 25-23, 28-26, before a crowd of 4,185 at the Simpi-Fi Arena.
UCSB is now 16-7 overall and 5-3 in Big West play while the Rainbow Warriors improve to 19-5 overall, 4-3 conference.
For the fifth time in his career, junior outside hitter Ryan Wilcox posted a 5.0 kill per set average, leading all players on the night with 15 kills (.229) to go along with six digs.
Hawaii had only a slight hitting advantage of .278 to .242, while the Gauchos outblocked the Bows, led by middle Brandon Hicks’ six blocks, one shy of his season-high.
Opposite Haotian Xia was second on the team with nine kills. He also led UCSB with two of its four aces and a pair of blocks.
Outside hitter Dayne Chalmers had eight kills, four blocks and an ace. It was an efficient hitting night for the sophomore, whose .421 kill percentage trailed only Donovan Todorov’s .667 (4/6 kills) for the team.
Spyros Chakas and Dimitrios Mouchlias led Hawaii with 11 and 10 kills, respectively.
The Gauchos and Hawaii play again on Saturday at 10 p.m. PDT. The winner moves into second place in the Big West behind Long Beach State.