UCLA, Penn State and Purdue Fort Wayne give Outrigger event a Final Four feel

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM / MARCH 3
Charlie Wade’s No. 1 15-0 UH team has won 28 in a row at home.

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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM / MARCH 3

Charlie Wade’s No. 1 15-0 UH team has won 28 in a row at home.

ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2021
United States’ head coach John Speraw observed from courtside during a men’s volleyball preliminary round match between the U.S. and Argentina at the Summer Olympics on Aug. 2, 2021 in Tokyo. Speraw leads his UCLA team in this week’s tournament.

ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2014
Mark Pavlik’s No. 3 15-1 Penn State team handed UCLA its lone loss.

ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2022
UCLA coach John Speraw, background, pumped his fist and celebrated a point along with middle blocker Merrick McHenry against Pepperdine during the NCAA tournament quarterfi nals in Los Angeles on May 3, 2022. UCLA won in four sets but lost to Long Beach in fi ve in the semifi nals. Speraw brings his No.2 Bruins to won with a 17-1 record.

Mark Pavlik and John Speraw can recall the beginnings of the Outrigger Volleyball Invitational.

Pavlik was early in a now 29-year career as Penn State’s head coach when he brought the Nittany Lions to the islands to play in the early tournaments. Speraw was a middle blocker on the 1995 UCLA team that would go on to win the first of the Bruins’ nine Outrigger titles.

Other than host Hawaii, Penn State and UCLA have the most appearances in the event and neither Pavlik nor Speraw, now in his 11th season as UCLA head coach, can remember an Outrigger as deep the one that opens today at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

Top-ranked and two-time national champion UH plays host to a tournament field that features the top three teams in the coaches and media polls and announces its return from a two-year hiatus with a matchup between No. 2 UCLA (17-1) and No. 3 Penn State (15-1) today at 4 p.m.

The Rainbow Warriors (15-0) then put their 24-match winning streak on the line against Purdue Fort Wayne (12-5) at 7 p.m.

“It will have a Final Four feel to it,” UH coach Charlie Wade said Tuesday of the week ahead. “Championship caliber teams and you gotta win three matches in a short amount of time to take home the title.”

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Given the atmosphere and the crowds anticipated for the three-day tournament, “it could be better than a Final Four environment,” Speraw said before UCLA’s practice on Wednesday.

“It’s exciting for the sport,” he said. “There’s a lot of excitement about this weekend across the volleyball community. I think a lot of people are interested in watching these matches and it’s going to be fun.”

UCLA and Penn State are back on Oahu for the first time since 2018 and Purdue Fort Wayne is making its first trip since 2000.

Penn State is back for a 22nd appearance this week and Pavlik said the early tournaments in the then-Special Events Arena, “gave us the opportunity to play some of the best competition in the country.”

“The rising tide raised all boats, so we’ve gotten more competition in different places, but this was one of the places that started the whole movement,” he said.

Purdue Fort Wayne coach Ryan “Rock” Perrotte, finished his playing career with the Mastodons to compete in the Outrigger in 2000. The Mastodons enter the week just outside of the AVCA Top 15 and, “this for us is a sneak peak into what the other three teams here already know, and that’s playing at the national championship level,” Perrotte said.

“Because there’s a difference between playing at the conference level and then the national championship level where you have to raise your game ten-fold, and that’s what’s going to be on display when we play Hawaii, UCLA and Penn State.”

While Perrotte got his first look inside the Sheriff Center on Wednesday morning, he’s familiar with the reputation of the crowds that distinguish the event from others — an aspect of the week all three visiting coaches addressed.

“Love to play in front of this crowd because if you play good volleyball they appreciate it,” Pavlik said. “That’s the one thing we told our guys. This is a crowd that is so passionate for the UH teams, but they’re so sophisticated with volleyball that if you play hard, you honor the game, you’re going to be respected for that.”

Today’s opener is a rematch of Penn State’s 25-21, 18-25, 25-19, 25-17 win over UCLA in University Park, Pa., on Feb. 4 in the Big Ten/Pac 12 Challenge.

“It’s going to be a physical match,” Pavlik said. “We know UCLA’s gotten better, hopefully we’ve gotten better. It’s not going to be for the faint of heart.”

UH has won four of the last five Outrigger titles and have a six-match winning streak in the event going into today’s match with Purdue Fort Wayne.

“Really good team. They put a lot of service pressure on, they’re big and athletic and are having a really good year,” Wade said of the Mastodons. “I’m sure they’re gonna come in here and really embrace the environment and play at a high level.”