Top-ranked Hawaii men’s volleyball sweeps Lincoln Memorial
The undefeated Hawaii men’s volleyball team started off the week going 1-2-3.
Today, the Rainbow Warriors remained No. 1 in the coaches poll, had two players earn weekly Big West honors and defeated Lincoln Memorial 3-0 in their third straight road match.
Senior opposite Rado Parapunov and senior hitter Colton Cowell both put down 10 kills, and Hawaii ran its record to 8-0 with a 25-15, 25-15, 25-23 sweep of Lincoln Memorial in Harrogate, Tenn. Redshirt freshman Brett Sheward made his first start at setter, with 25 assists in the first two sets.
Freshman hitter Chaz Galloway had six kills without an error on seven attempts when playing in the first two sets. Freshman hitter Dimitrios Mouchlias added six kills with one error when playing in the final two sets.
The Warriors, who set a national record last year in hitting percentage (.435), hit .603 against the Railsplitters (3-3), including hitting .722 through Set 2 before Hawaii subbed out four of its starters.
Hawaii outblocked Lincoln Memorial 9-3 with senior middle Patrick Gasman in on seven, including two solo. The Warriors also had a 7-1 edge in aces.
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Evan Cory led the Railsplitters with 15 kills. All three of LMU’s blocks came in Set 3.
Hawaii finishes its four-match road trip Tuesday at King in Bristol, Tenn. (2 p.m. Hawaii time).
Also today, Parapunov was named the Big West player of the week for the eight time in his career after helping the Warriors open the road trip with wins at No. 5 Lewis and No. 12 Loyola. He had a career-high 22 kills with 10 digs against the Flyers, then re-set his career-high with 23 kills against the Ramblers.
Sophomore libero Gage Worsley was named the conference’s defensive player of the week, the third of his career. He had 13 digs against Lewis and 11 against Loyola, averaging 3.0 digs per set in the eight sets.
Also today, Hawaii was the unanimous No. 1 pick in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I-II Men’s Top 15, receiving all 16 votes. Last week, the Warriors had 15 votes with the other going to then-No. 3 UCLA.
The Bruins (3-1) were upset last week at UC San Diego, dropping them to No. 6.
Behind the Warriors are No. 2 BYU (6-0), No. 3 UC Santa Barbara (5-0) and No. 4 Long Beach State (4-0).
