Hawaii enters the week with command of its fate in the Big West men’s volleyball race.
Controlling the emotions might be another matter after the Rainbow Warriors close the regular season on Saturday night.
The top-ranked Warriors’ final appearances at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center carry championship implications as they face UC San Diego in a two-match series starting Friday.
Aloha ball will then take on added meaning on Saturday with the traditional senior night ceremony to follow the series and regular-season finale.
Six UH players — setter Jakob Thelle, opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias, middle blocker Cole Hogland and outside hitters Kana’i Akana, Fillip Humler and Devon Johnson — will be honored in the annual senior sendoff that will likely be a night of mutual appreciation between the Warriors and their surging fan base.
In seven home matches over the past month, UH has drawn an average turnstile count of 6,861 per home date into the 10,300-seat arena. The Warriors have exceeded 6,700 in attendance in each of the past five matches, starting with a sellout for the March 11 match against No. 2 UCLA, the final night of the Outrigger Volleyball Invitational.
“It’s given us a huge boost throughout the season,” Thelle said of the fan turnout, “and we just want to give them a great show and give everything we’ve got. Now we’ve got two more games and we just want to do everything we can to make those two games really memorable for our seniors.”
Thelle has orchestrated a UH attack hitting .379 for the season, .409 in Big West play and .424 over the Warriors’ current seven-match winning streak. He is also four aces away from breaking the program’s career record of 121, shared by Costas Theocharidis and Pedro Azenha.
“When everybody hits good a lot of the credit goes to the setter,” UH coach Charlie Wade said after UH’s sweep of UC Irvine on Saturday. “That’s not just airing out the high ball and guys going over the top and crushing it. That’s a setter doing a lot of really special stuff on the floor for us.”
Mouchlias ranks second in the Big West in kills per set (3.97) and hitting percentage (.401) after hitting .446 in last week’s series against UCI.
The Rainbow Warriors (24-2, 7-1 Big West) retained the top spot in the NVA/AVCA poll released Monday and will have a chance to secure the conference’s regular-season title in the series with UC San Diego (8-14, 2-6).
After handing fifth-ranked UC Irvine its first two losses of the Big West schedule, the Warriors (24-2, 7-1 Big West) enter the week tied with No. 4 Long Beach State (18-3, 7-1) atop the conference standings. UH earned the tiebreaker edge against Long Beach State by outscoring Beach 144-141 while trading sweeps in their series in Manoa last month. The Warriors also own the head-to-head advantage against UC Irvine (16-8, 6-2) after sweeping the two-match series with the Anteaters last weekend.
Long Beach State and UC Irvine face each other in a home-and-home series starting Friday in Long Beach.
While the regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in next week’s Big West Tournament will be determined this week, UH has secured a top-two seed and a first-round bye in the tournament bracket.
The Big West Tournament opens April 20 at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center and the Warriors will open their title defense in the semifinals on April 21. The first two days of the tournament will be televised by Spectrum Sports, with the April 22 championship match on ESPNU.
BIG WEST MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
UC San Diego (8-14, 2-6) vs. No. 1 Hawaii (24-2, 7-1)
>> When: Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m.
>> TV: Spectrum Sports
>> Radio: 1420-AM / 92.7-FM
PACKING THE STAN
UH men’s volleyball attendance figures over the last month
DATE OPPONENT TURNSTILE TICKETS
March 9 Purdue Fort Wayne* 3,464 4,696
March 10 Penn State* 5,268 6,557
March 11 UCLA* 9,308 10,300
March 17 Long Beach State 6,709 7,527
March 18 Long Beach State 8,818 9,579
April 7 UC Irvine 6,710 7,399
Apri 8 UC Irvine 7,748 8,409
Averages 6,861 7,781
Source: University of Hawaii *—Outrigger Volleyball Invitational
