Sans Chakas, No. 1 Hawaii men's volleyball swept by No. 2 Long Beach State

Right after Hawaii men’s volleyball coach Charlie Wade disclosed that senior star Spyros Chakas would miss the rest of the season with a severe injury, middle Kurt Nusterer stepped up to the microphones of a media scrum.

He shared a story from his arrival as a freshman going into the 2022 season, when the Rainbow Warriors played an exhibition at UC Irvine down several key players, while the Anteaters competed at full strength.

Nusterer remembered feeling proud that UH gave a respectable effort in a loss. Then he talked to Chakas.

“Spyros just totally ripped into me,” Nusterer recalled Tuesday. “He’s like, ‘you can never be satisfied with losing.’ Definitely when I look back, he’s absolutely right.”

The No. 1 Rainbow Warriors faced a similar situation Friday, when they faced No. 2 Long Beach State in front of an announced Walter Pyramid crowd of 4,012 minus Chakas, their floor leader and key piece of 2021 and 2022 national championship teams who hurt his left knee at the end of Sunday’s match against UC Irvine.

During Friday’s match in Long Beach, California, Chakas tweeted his support from afar as he begins the long recovery process.

UH gave a valiant but ultimately fruitless effort in its Big West opener as it took a lead past the midway point of all three sets, only to fall in a 25-22, 25-20, 30-28 loss to the Beach.

The ‘Bows (17-2) had their 16-game winning streak snapped at a place they have not prevailed since 2015. They hit just .236 with a season-low one ace.

LBSU coach Alan Knipe expressed sympathy for UH’s untimely loss of a player of Chakas’ caliber.

“First of all, it’s a really, really unfortunate situation to a very good player and a really good kid,” Knipe said in the LBSU postgame press conference. “Really enjoyed our team competing against him. I know it’s a big deal for (Hawaii). So I really feel for anyone who gets that kind of injury.”

Knipe said he wasn’t sure exactly what his counterpart Wade would do to adjust in the team’s first game since the injury. Wade started senior hitter Keoni Thiim in his stead; Thiim responded with nine kills and eight digs.

“I thought we did a good job prepping on that and I thought the communication was really good from the coaches to the players throughout the match depending on what they were doing with the pieces they had on the floor,” Knipe said.

UH struggled to establish its pin hitters as LBSU recorded 10.5 blocks over the three sets. Opposite Alaka‘i Todd led UH with 10 kills, but committed six errors (.154) and hitter Chaz Galloway had seven kills to six errors (.048). Freshman Louis Sakanoko appeared as a serving substitute in all three sets but did not take a swing.

Middle Guilherme Voss had eight kills and Nusterer three.

Skyler Varga put down a match-high 12 kills and Chakas’ good friend from Cyprus, Sotiris Siapanis, had 10 kills as LBSU (17-1, 3-0 BWC) hit .339.

UH led 22-20 in the third on a Voss kill and earned set point on a block of Varga by Tread Rosenthal, Thiim and Nusterer.

But LBSU turned back that set point, and two more for UH, and LBSU prevailed on a Siapanis kill plus an attack error by Voss.

“A lot of good,” Knipe said. “It’s an opportunity definitely make some adjustments on some things that we did and tighten some things up. But expect the same fight tomorrow night from both teams.”

The teams rematch at 4 p.m. Hawaii time Saturday at the Pyramid.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.