Hanna Hellvig played a big role in Hawaii being able to walk out of the Stan Sheriff Center on Sunday night with a Big West volleyball victory that was part of the arena’s 25th anniversary celebration.
On Monday — 25 years to the day of that opening (Oct. 21, 1994) — Hellvig kept the party going by being named the conference’s freshman of the week. It was the third such honor for the Swedish national who has led the Rainbow Wahine in kills in eight of the past 11 matches and has had double-kill figures in 15 of Hawaii’s 19 matches.
The 6-foot-2 outside hitter had 16 kills in Sunday’s five-set reverse sweep of UC Davis, half of those coming in the final two sets when Hellvig had eight kills with no errors on 12 swings. The 22-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-17, 15-12 win over the Aggies has Hawaii (16-3, 6-2 Big West) a half-game behind league leaders UC Santa Barbara (16-2, 6-1) and Cal Poly (13-6, 6-1).
In Friday’s sweep of UC Riverside, Hellvig had 10 kills and eight digs. She leads Hawaii in kills (234), is second in digs (161) and third in blocks (58) and aces (13).
Hellvig tied Norene Iosia and Kalei Greeley for most weekly freshman honors, Iosia in 2016 and Greeley in 2014. Hellvig, senior setter-hitter Iosia and senior setter Bailey Choy are the only Wahine to play in all in all 76 sets this season.
The Wahine are on the road for two matches this week with a new ranking and RPI rating. Hawaii moved up one place in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25 to No. 21 while it dropped one spot in the Ratings Percentage Index to 10.
Monday’s poll saw the top eight spots remain unchanged with No. 1 Baylor (16-0) receiving 61 of the 64 first-place votes. Defending NCAA champion Stanford (13-3) had two votes and No. 3 Pitt (19-1) one.
Washington (15-3), which lost to Hawaii in the season-opening tournament, moved up one place to No. 9. San Diego (15-4), which also lost to Hawaii in the opening week, was at No. 22 after not being ranked last week; the Toreros upset then-No. 9 BYU in Provo last week.
Missouri (12-4) remained at No. 25. The Tigers lost to the Wahine at the Baylor Invitational, where both Missouri and Hawaii fell to the host Bears.
The Wahine are 5-2 against teams in the RPI top 50, with losses at Baylor (1) and at Cal Poly (39). Hawaii defeated Washington (6), Missouri (20), UCLA (24), San Diego (29) and UC Santa Barbara (39). The RPI is a computer-generated system that rates strength of schedule based on a team’s record, the record of its opponents and the record of those opponents’ opponents.
Teams that have an RPI of 16 and better traditionally have been awarded hosting duties for the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament.
Hawaii is at Cal State Fullerton (10-8, 2-5) on Friday and at UC Irvine (4-15, 1-6) on Saturday. The Wahine rallied to beat the Titans in five and lost in five to the Anteaters earlier at the Stan Sheriff Center.
