There’s a lot of hard work going on in Gym II this week for No. 4 Hawaii as the Rainbow Warriors prep for the season-opening tournament. But the hard work also is going on one floor away in the third-floor office of assistant Joshua Walker.

The 2010 second-team AVCA All-American has been watching videotape — limited as it is — on Hawaii’s three opponents this week. The Hawaiian Airlines Classic field features three foes with different styles of play in New Jersey Institute of Technology, the Warriors’ opponent on Thursday; Concordia-Irvine and USC.

“It’s not too bad this time of the year,” Walker said. “There’s not much data on the other teams. You’re more concentrating on your side of the net this time of year anyway.

“In the end we just want to make sure we’re prepared with what we’re doing.”

This is the first of four regular-season tournaments for Hawaii, three of which are in the Stan Sheriff Center. The Warriors’ goal is to bookend the year with tourney titles, the last being the Big West in April.

“It’s the first time that it will be in Hawaii and it’s huge,” senior hitter Brett Rosenmeier said. “I know our fan base is going to love it. We’ll be able to stay at home and have that support for what could be the biggest tournament all year … hopefully the NCAA tournament will be bigger … but for us the main goal is to win the Big West tournament.

“This week’s tournament, I think we want to get the kinks out that we had last week (in the exhibitions against British Columbia) and start off the season well with opponents that will challenge us in good ways.”

A look at the field:

No. 4 Hawaii (0-0)

The Rainbow Warriors opened the season last week with two exhibition sweeps of British Columbia, using mostly a veteran lineup. The biggest differences were at libero, where sophomore Gage Worsley has replaced the graduated Tui Tuileta, and on the outside, with junior Colton Cowell getting the nod over Rosenmeier.

Hawaii won the inaugural Classic last season without dropping a set, sweeping Stevens Institute, Juniata and USC. Then-junior setter Joe Worsley was named the most outstanding player; he was joined by teammates Rado Parapunov and Stijn van Tilburg on the all-tournament team.

Hawaii leads the series with all three tourney participants: 44-37 against USC, 2-0 vs. Concordia-Irvine and 2-0 against NJIT. The Warriors took two matches from the Eagles last year and two from the Highlanders in 2009.

Hawaii returns 10 from the 19-8 team that finished tied for second in the inaugural Big West season and lost to eventual NCAA champion Long Beach State in the conference tournament. The Warriors were the only ones to defeat both Long Beach State and UCLA in 2018; the 49ers and Bruins met for the national title.

Hawaii coach Charlie Wade is in his 10th season in Manoa.

NJIT (0-2)

The Highlanders are on the road for the first six weeks of the year, not playing at home until Feb. 15, when they open the EIVA season with George Mason, their ninth contest of 2019. NJIT was in Indiana last week, swept by then-No. 14 Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday and nearly pulling off the reverse sweep at Ball State, dropping the fifth set 15-10 on Saturday.

Junior middle Luca Berger earned the EIVA defensive player of the week award on Monday, the 6-foot-10 Brazilian finishing with a combined 20 kills and 18 blocks, including six solo.

Berger is one of five international players for NJIT, picked to finish fourth in the EIVA preseason poll. Two of those were named to the league’s ‘Players to Watch” — sophomore opposite Albaro Gimeno (Spain), last season’s EIVA rookie of the year, and graduate student Enrique De Diego Garcia (Spain), a middle who played three seasons at Cal Baptist before that program was dissolved.

Also on the roster for fifth-year coach Danny Goncalves are Kamehameha graduate Chris Wise, a senior libero, and Moanalua’s Parker Lui, a junior libero. Wise has played in all eight sets and has a team-high 17 digs.

Concordia-Irvine (0-3)

The Eagles won just one set in three matches against Big West teams at the UC Santa Barbara Asics Invitational last week: Cal State Northridge (a 3-1 loss), Long Beach State (3-0) and UCSB (3-0).

Former BYU coach Shawn Patchell is in his sixth season with the former NAIA power that is in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation for a second year. The Eagles were picked to finish sixth in the seven-team league.

Twelve letterwinners are back, including senior middle Hunter Howell, an honorable mention AVCA All-American. Also back are three Hawaii high school graduates: sophomore libero Addison Enriques (Kamehameha-Hawaii), sophomore opposite Owen Chun (Hanalani) and senior setter Pono Kaaa (Punahou). All played in the three matches last week. Kaaa split time with Chandler Gibb at setter. Chun played as a reserve with a combined nine kills, and Enriques finished with a combined 21 digs.

USC (0-0)

The Trojans are celebrating the golden anniversary of their program, which has won four NCAA championships, the last in 1990. USC warmed up for its trip with Friday’s win over Alberta, a 25-20, 25-20, 21-25, 25-21 victory over the third-ranked Golden Bears from Canada.

The Trojans’ catchphrase is “Resurgence.” It’s something that began at the end of last season, when they finished 8-20 but picked up stunning late wins over No. 3 UCLA and No. 5 Pepperdine, the latter in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament quarterfinal. SC was picked fourth in the MPSF preseason poll.

Coach Jeff Nygaard has 14 players back for his fourth season, including five starters led by senior hitter Jack Wyett, an honorable mention All-American. Among the six newcomers is freshman hitter Brandon Browning, VolleyballMag.com’s 2018 high school player of the year.

On the roster is Punahou graduate Jameson McKibbin, a freshman setter who continues the family tradition at Troy. The lineage includes brothers Riley and Maddison, uncle Owen and aunt Claudia. Jameson’s mother, Diana McInerney McKibbin, played on Hawaii’s first national title team in 1979.