HONOLULU — BYU couldn’t hold a 2-0 set lead in losing a tough five-set decision to Hawaii on Friday (20-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-23, 19-17.)
The match lasted just short of three and a half hours and featured the type of competitive back-and-forth play many anticipated when the No. 1-ranked Hawaii team faced off against No. 2 BYU.
The fifth set proved especially competitive, with the Cougars fighting off five match points before Hawaii’s Patrick Gasman ended things with a service ace.
The final set saw the Rainbow Warriors jump out to a quick 9-4 lead before BYU came storming back to score five straight and tie things at 9-9. Consecutive points scored by BYU’s Gabi Garcia Fernandez gave his team a 13-11 lead, but was answered by three straight from Hawaii, giving the home team the lead at 14-13. The Cougars proved unable to take back the lead from there, losing out on an otherwise hard-fought match.
BYU set the tone early, working well to dominate the first set much like it did throughout Thursday’s straight-set win over the home Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. The second set saw Hawaii rebound and take a commanding 19-13 lead before the Cougars scored 12 of the next 15 points to forge a remarkable comeback set win.
But Hawaii proved not to go out without a fight and built a big 19-10 lead in the third set before fighting off a late Cougar rally to extend the match. The fourth set featured tight play throughout with the home team proving able to break away late, leading up to another tightly-contested fifth set.
The course of play featured a lot of discussion and delays in between points, causing the match to go longer than normal while disrupting a lot of potential rhythm sought by either side.
BYU was again led by Garcia Fernandez and his 21 kills on a .405 hitting percentage. Garcia Fernandez also broke the all-time BYU service ace record for a season with his three scored in the match.
Davide Gardini added 17 kills for the Cougars with Zach Eschenberg scoring 14 of his own.
Hawaii’s Rado Parapunov led all scorers with his 30 kills on a .440 hitting percentage.
The Cougars drop to 17-1 on the year with the loss while Hawaii improves to 15-1.