Another week. Another award.
Hawaii junior opposite Rado Parapunov picked up his fourth Big West player of the week honor in five weeks on Monday after helping the top-ranked Rainbow Warriors go 3-0 last week in California.
The Bulgarian national averaged 4.89 kills per set, hitting .472 with 1.33 blocks per set as Hawaii continued its undefeated season. The Warriors completed a six-matches-in-10-days trip last week with a win over Concordia-Irvine and two over UC San Diego.
In Saturday’s rematch with the Tritons, Parapunov had a match-high 18 kills, hitting .640. On Friday in the opener against UCSD, he had 11 kills and five blocks. In Tuesday’s sweep of Concordia-Irvine, he had 15 kills and a season-high six blocks.
Parapunov leads the country in points per set (5.36), is No. 3 in hitting percentage (.493), No. 6 in kills per set (4.28) and No. 7 in aces per set (0.51).
It was the sixth weekly award for Parapunov in his career. Also on Monday, Punahou graduate and UC Santa Barbara libero Ryan Wilcox was named the Big West freshman of the week for the fourth time this season.
Hawaii (23-0, 6-0 Big West) puts its NCAA-record sets-won streak of 69 on the line against No. 3 UCSB (17-5, 5-2) in the Warriors’ final regular-season home matches on Friday and Saturday.
Also on Monday, Hawaii fell a spot to No. 2 in the Ratings Percentage Index, a computer-generated ranking that measures strength of schedule. The Warriors were at No. 1 in the inaugural RPI but were passed by defending NCAA champion Long Beach State this week.
In the AVCA Top 15, Hawaii received all 16 first-place votes for a second straight week. The top five stayed unchanged, with LBSU (21-1, 6-0) again the unanimous No. 2. Behind the 49ers are UC Santa Barbara, Pepperdine (18-6, 7-3 MPSF) and UCLA (17-7, 7-3 MPSF).
USC (15-8, 6-4 MPSF), which defeated Long Beach State, Stanford and Brigham Young in the past 10 days, jumped from ninth to sixth.
