Two losses in the rear view mirror, Hawaii has set its focus ahead to another pivotal matchup in the Big West men’s volleyball race.
Tied for first place in the conference a week ago, the Rainbow Warriors slipped into fourth in the six-team race after dropping both ends of a series at league leader Long Beach State.
They’ll look to regain their footing in a return to SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center to face second-place UC Santa Barbara in their final homestand of the regular season.
“All we can do is go out and compete and see where we’re going to end up,” UH coach Charlie Wade said of the conference race.
“I really haven’t spent any time looking at seeding or (NCAA) at-large (berths) or any of that. There so much volleyball to be played still, it’s all going to play itself out … and we’ll keep going forward.”
UH (18-5, 3-3 Big West), ranked fourth in this week’s AVCA coaches poll and fifth in the Off the Block media poll, opens its series with No. 5 UC Santa Barbara (16-6, 5-2) on Friday. They’ll meet again on Saturday with the senior ceremony — honoring middle blockers Max Rosenfeld and Kyler Presho and libero/defensive specialist Avery Enriques — to follow the rematch.
The final home series of the regular season won’t be a farewell just yet for the Warriors’ seniors. UH will host the Big West Tournament, set for April 21-23, and can still earn a bye in the first round with a top-two finish in the standings.
The Warriors are 14-0 at home this season and have won the last 10 meetings in the series with the Gauchos dating back to 2017. UH claimed all four meetings last year, culminating with a victory in the semifinals of the NCAA Championship in Columbus, Ohio.
That said, UCSB capped its last visit to Manoa with an on-court celebration after capturing the Big West Tournament title with a win over UC San Diego, which upset top-seeded UH the previous night.
Since their meeting last May at the Covelli Center, the Rainbow Warriors and Gauchos saw deep and talented senior classes depart following the NCAA Tournament with new faces moving into featured roles.
“We both had multiple All-Americans that walked out the door,” Wade said. “But we still have good players, we’re still both among the best teams in the country and I’m sure this weekend will be ultra competitive for sure.”
UH will be looking for a bounce-back performance offensively after hitting .216 in the series with Long Beach State with a season-high 28 attack errors in last Saturday’s four set loss.
Although they struggled to finish points, the Warriors were in contention late in five of the six sets won by LBSU in the series and extended Saturday’s match after falling behind 2-0.
“Nobody’s really hit the panic button,” Wade said. “We know who we are, we didn’t play our best and we were playing a good team on the road. We’re having a good week of practice and looking forward to competing again this week.”
Wade said Dimitrios Mouchlias will retain his starting role at opposite after being subbed out in both matches last week. He’ll be backed up by Alaka’i Todd, who provided a spark off the bench in the third set of Saturday’s match.
While UH struggled on the pins last week, middle blocker Guilherme Voss had a career high 11 kills on Saturday and hit .621 in the series.
Punahou graduate Ryan Wilcox has taken over as UCSB’s primary attacker with a team high 3.49 kills per set on .293 hitting.
Wilcox leads the Gauchos with 272 kills on 610 swings this season, leading both categories by wide margins. Middle blocker Donovan Todorov owns the next highest kill total of 129 (on a league-best .461 hitting percentage) with outside hitter Dayne Chalmers second in attempts at 325. Wilcox’s total attempts ranks third in the Big West.
BIG WEST MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
No. 5 UC Santa Barbara (16-6, 5-2 BWC) vs. No. 4 Hawaii (18-5, 3-3)
>> When: Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m.
>> TV: Spectrum Sports
>> Radio: 1420-AM / 92.7-FM
