University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine Hanna Hellvig earns BWC freshman honor again

JAMM AQUINO / SEPT. 12

Hawaii outside hitter Hanna Hellvig earned her fifth Big West Conference Freshman of the Week award on Monday.

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Hawaii’s Hanna Hellvig continued to make a case for Big West Freshman of the Year, picking up her fifth weekly honor on Monday.

The 6-foot-2 outside hitter had a combined 28 kills in the Rainbow Wahine’s road wins over UC Davis and UC Riverside, including 11 in the sweep of the Highlanders when she hit a career-high .450 on Sunday.

The last Wahine to earn Freshman of the Year honors was Nikki Taylor in 2013.

Also on Monday, Hawaii moved up a spot to No. 18 in Monday’s national poll while remaining at 11 in the Ratings Percentage Index, the computer-generated system used by the NCAA to rate strength of schedule.

In the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25, the Rainbow Wahine (22-3, 12-2 Big West) were the only ranked team in their conference. Hawaii is 4-1 against other teams in the poll, with a loss to No. 3 Baylor (20-1) and wins over No. 13 Washington (19-5) and No. 24 San Diego (20-5). The Wahine also have wins over two teams receiving votes: UCLA (13-10) and Missouri (16-6), which are outside the Top 25 at 27th and 29th, respectively.

In Monday’s RPI, Baylor remained at 1. The Bears handed the Wahine their first loss of the season on Sept. 22.

The RPI is a major factor in how the NCAA seeds the 64-team postseason tournament, with teams rated 1 through 16 hosting the first and second rounds. Hawaii has not hosted a subregional since 2013.

Hawaii is 7-2 against teams with a top-50 RPI, the victories giving the Wahine bonus points. Hawaii defeated Washington (9 RPI), Missouri (19), UCLA (23) San Diego (31) and Cal Poly (33), and has two wins over UC Santa Barbara (28).

The Wahine, running their winning streak to nine with Sunday’s sweep at UC Riverside, have a bye this week. Hawaii closes out the regular season at the Stan Sheriff Center with matches against Cal State Northridge (12-13, 7-6) on Nov. 21 and Long Beach State (10-15, 7-6) on Nov. 22.

Should the Wahine win out, they would do no worse than a tie for the league title and would be awarded the automatic berth into the NCAA tournament by virtue of holding the tiebreaker over both Cal Poly (17-7, 10-2) and UC Santa Barbara (19-4, 9-3).