Hawaii holds off USC before a record crowd of 9,943 to reach the Final Four

After 37 ties over the final two sets, a simple Southern California touch of the net on Hawaii’s seventh match point meant the Rainbow Warriors are fighting on.

No. 2 seed Hawaii closed out the Trojans 25-22, 24-26, 25-23, 32-30 in the first NCAA Tournament regional it has ever hosted and played in on Saturday to advance to its seventh NCAA Final Four in the past nine seasons.

A season-high, sold-out Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 9,943 broke the NCAA Tournament record for the largest single-match attendance.

The thunderous roars never stopped from player introductions until USC (20-8) was called for a net violation to bring a stunning end to a match that lasted two hours, 40 minutes despite not going to a fifth set.

“All four sets were close obviously, and it’s two closely matched teams and both teams thought they have a chance to win a national championship this year and we’re fortunate enough to advance,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “These guys have played a lot of high-level volleyball. There’s nothing out there that we haven’t seen before.”

Hawaii sophomore opposite Kristian Titriyski put down a match-high 19 kills and Adrien Roure added 13 kills, six digs and a career-high seven aces.

Louis Sakanoko added 12 kills, five blocks and four digs as all three UH pin hitters had their moments, which the ’Bows (28-5) needed.

Hawaii took a 2-1 lead in the third set when Tread Rosenthal served a ball out of a USC timeout and a Trojans player’s return hit the scoreboard on the second touch. The set was tied 19 times before Hawaii scored the final two points to earned a much-needed set win after USC won the second.

“Tread had an uncharacteristically poor night serving and a lot of times that’s why we start him serving to get the most opportunities,” Wade said. “He’s got the clutch gene and when the game is on the line, he is going to give you a good effort.”

Rosenthal finished with a match-high 56 assists, six digs, three blocks and three kills.

Roure gave UH a 20-13 cushion in the fourth set with four of his seven aces to put UH on the verge of a win.

The Trojans rallied to score 12 of the next 17 points and set the stage for a deuce set that just seemed to keep on going.

“We’ve been saying that since the beginning of the year that when that last ball drops, we won’t have no regrets,” said USC senior outside hitter Dillon Klein, who overcame a slow start to finish with a team-high 16 kills. “I just credit that fourth set, the end of it, to our mentality (we’ve had) all year.”

All four sets were decided by three points or fewer and two went to deuce.

USC hit .294 with 51 total kills but was helped out by 27 UH service errors.

Hawaii hit .328 with 61 total kills. Both teams had 9.5 blocks, but UH doubled up the Trojans in aces, 9-4, with Roure leading the way.