One landmark achievement secured, the final weekend of the regular season offers another shot at history for the Hawaii men’s volleyball team.
The top-ranked Rainbow Warriors clinched the program’s first Big West regular-season title with last week’s series sweep at Cal State Northridge, claiming UH’s first outright regular-season conference crown since 1980.
At 13-0 overall and 8-0 in Big West play, UH enters a two-match series with UC Irvine within sight of becoming the first team in program history to complete an undefeated regular season and the third to post a perfect run in conference play.
The series between the Warriors and Anteaters (2-11, 2-6) opens today at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center, with the senior night ceremony set to follow Saturday’s regular-season finale.
But first things first.
“You reminisce a little, but the season’s not over,” said libero Gage Worsley, one of Saturday’s six honorees. “The big prize is still yet to be won, and that’s where my focus will be.”
UH opened the season with two nonconference wins at UC Irvine on Feb. 21 and 22. The Anteaters handed the Warriors a 22-25 loss in UH’s first set of the season, but the Warriors responded by holding the Anteaters under 18 points over their next five sets before finishing the series sweep with a 28-26 win in the third set of the Feb. 22 rematch at the Bren Events Center.
The teams’ fortunes have followed much the same path since, with the Warriors off to a 13-0 start for the third consecutive season and one of two undefeated teams in the country, while the Anteaters have dropped six straight entering today’s match.
UCI is hitting a collective .246, while UH continues to lead the country at .372. Even so, UH coach Charlie Wade remains wary of the Anteaters’ potential.
“(UH assistant coach) Josh Walker does a great job of getting the scouting report and keeping us up to date and Irvine’s kind of been all over the board really,” Wade said. “They’ve been back and forth with players, they’ve had injuries and tried to adjust and they no question have a really talented roster, as talented a group of outside hitters as any team in the league.”
Senior outside hitter Joel Schneidmiller leads UCI and ranks fourth in the conference with 3.75 kills per set. He had a match-high 17 kills in the opener against UH and had 11 in the second match. Middle blocker Scott Stadick, a 7-foot graduate student, was an AVCA second-team All-American the past two years and is the Anteaters’ most efficient hitter at .376 and leads the team with 0.98 blocks per set.
UH’s seniors remain at the forefront of the Warriors’ attack, with Rado Parapunov leading the conference with 4.48 kills per set coming off a series at Cal State Northridge that earned him Big West and AVCA national Player of the Week honors. Middle blocker Patrick Gasman owns league bests with a .494 hitting percentage and 1.52 blocks per set. Worsley is second with 2.35 digs per set and outside hitter Colton Cowell is sixth with 3.12 kills per set.
Second place up for grabs
While UH secured the top seed and a first-round bye in next week’s Big West tournament, Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara are locked in a duel for second, which also comes with a bye into the BWC semifinals.
UC Santa Barbara (6-3) closes against UC San Diego on Saturday. LBSU (5-3) plays host to Cal State Northridge today and Saturday. The Gauchos and Beach split their meetings this season and if they are tied at the end of the week, the tiebreaker edge favors UCSB (points scored divided by points allowed in head-to-head sets).
UH will open its tournament run in the semifinals on April 23 against the winner of Thursday’s quarterfinal match between the fourth and fifth seeds.
Outrigger Hotels and Resorts was announced as the title sponsor for the tournament in a multi-year deal with the Big West on Thursday.
The Big West confirmed Wednesday that the tournament will be held without spectators.
