Hawaii’s lone senior stole the show on senior night.
Vladimir Kubr, who had appeared in three matches in his two-year Rainbow Warriors career, earned a thunderous ovation when he was the last starter announced pregame.
The 6-foot-3 setter from Torrance, Calif., who had three rotations in the back row before he was substituted out for Tread Rosenthal, led Hawaii to a 10-3 lead and had the entire bench, and crowd, on their feet during UH’s 25-15, 21-25, 25-14, 25-16 victory over No. 18 Cal State Northridge on Saturday night.
A Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 8,223 saw Hawaii (26-4, 9-1 Big West) unexpectedly drop a set before securing the school’s second outright Big West Conference regular-season championship.
Kubr returned to the court in the fourth set with UH ahead 20-10 and finished out the match with two more assists. He was then honored in a post-match ceremony.
“I did not know Charlie was going to do that, but it made everything better,” Kubr said about getting the start. “It’s more than I even asked for and I feel like I played pretty good too so that makes it even better.”
Kubr served the first five points of the match in. Hawaii’s Justin Todd had a chance to cash in on an errant pass for a kill for a 6-0 run but hit the ball long.
UH challenged the play just to see if they could keep Kubr going from the service line.
“I was excited,” Kubr said. “Honestly it was weird because I knew if I played well, my brother Tread would come in and I’d support the team so no nerves. Nothing to lose.”
Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said he had made the decision to start Kubr weeks ago. Hawaii winning Friday night’s match to secure the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament had no bearing on his decision to go with the senior tonight.
“I actually told Tread on the road a couple of weeks ago and I had decided before that,” Wade said. “(Vlad) is a special guy. I had never done that before and since he’s the only senior, it was a little easier, and it was nice to get a little run and he gave us a big spark.”
Adrien Roure tied a career-high with 17 kills and Hawaii tallied a season-high 14.5 blocks against the Matadors (12-14, 0-10).
Kainoa Wade added 13 kills and hit .579 with six digs and three blocks in his second straight start.
Louis Sakanoko added seven kills and tallied a season-high six blocks.
Rosenthal finished with 36 assists, seven digs and six blocks.
Jalen Phillips had 10 of his 15 kills in the second set to lead CSUN.
“Credit to Jalen Phillips, had 10 kills in that second set, and they switched the libero to the outside and he came in and had two aces,” Charlie Wade said. “Really on us just getting a little sloppy hitting some balls out. It’s a good reminder that if you’re going to make 10 to 12 errors, it’s game on against any team in the country.”
Hawaii didn’t slow down once Kubr was taken out in the first set. Hawaii recorded 8.5 blocks in the set and gave up only five kills to the Matadors, who hit minus-.143.
Junior Kai Taylor, who hadn’t appeared in a Big West this season, subbed in for set point and served a rocket that was overpassed into an easy Roure kill to end it.
Hawaii didn’t mess around in the third set after CSUN tied the match and was up 10-3 for the second time. Justin Todd had a back-to-back aces during a six-swing turn at the service line and Roure and Kainoa Wade combined for 10 kills.