Athletes should never be judged based off a first impression.
Hawaii opposite hitter Kristian Titriyski made that point abundantly clear to the 3,828 fans inside of SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on Sunday. The 6-foot-8 freshman from Bulgaria led all players with 17 kills in 29 swings and hit .448 for the fourth-ranked Rainbow Warriors in a 25-20, 25-19, 25-16 sweep of No. 20 McKendree.
Freshman Adrien Roure added 13 kills and hit .478 for Hawaii (2-0), which played a lot more efficiently on offense than it did in Friday’s win in four sets.
The difference according to setter Tread Rosenthal was obvious.
“Kristian Titriyski,” he said simply.
UH hit .463 for the match, including a .625 clip in the first set that proved to be the closest with a margin of five points.
Titriyski, who like a few members of the team was battling a stomach flu leading into the opener, hit negative with six errors in the first two sets on Friday before leaving the match.
In the rematch Sunday, Titriyski put down 13 of his first 19 swings before recording his first error late in the second set and added two of Hawaii’s five aces to give him five in his first five sets of the season.
“Obviously Kristian felt a little better today,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “It’s hard to play at a high level without having an opposite that you can lean into, because it gets all kind of one directional. Giving the setter the opportunity to go both directions all of the time takes a lot of pressure off of everybody.”
Titriyski said he wasn’t at 100 percent just yet, but made it clear there won’t be many nights he will have in his entire UH career like the one on Friday.
“I felt better today,” Titriyski said. “I think we just played a lot better than the previous game. We made less mistakes and I just think as a team we played better and that’s it.”
A healthy Titriyski made things a lot easier for Rosenthal, who finished with a match-high 40 assists, six digs, two aces and three kills on five swings without an error.
Hawaii had nine hitting errors and 24 errors overall compared to 19 hitting errors and 38 overall in the opener.
“I think (I played) a lot better. Just the consistency with my setting and letting my hitters do what they do best,” Rosenthal said. “Obviously I served better. Friday was not great.”
Titriyski and Roure combined for 14 of Hawaii’s 17 kills in a close first set until Finn Kearney entered the match to serve for Kurt Nusterer.
Hawaii trailed 18-17 before closing on an 8-2 run with Kearney serving four consecutive points.
Hawaii needed only one rotation after that to close out the Bearcats as Rosenthal finished it off serving the final three points, including an ace to set up set point.
Hawaii hit .625 in the opening set and again played its best on the crucial points of the second set to go up 2-0.
This time, the Bearcats had it tied at 14-14 and then pulled within two at 20-18 before UH scored five of the final six points.
Titriyski closed out the set serving the final three points. Nusterer was credited with a block assist to set up set point and then put down a kill to end it on a 4-0 UH run.
Hawaii got valuable serving rotations off the bench in every set with Kai Taylor going on a four-point run in the second set and Kawai Hong coming in and serving two straight points in the third.
“I was joking those guys are making me look really smart when that happens,” Wade said. “Not only did they serve well, but they dug well and extended their own turn so it was really good to see.”
Hawaii continues its six-match homestead to start the season this week with matches today and Friday against Harvard.
