Hawaii’s Thelle and Wade earn Big West’s top men’s volleyball honors
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hawaii head coach Charlie Wade talked to setter Jakob Thelle during the second set of a match against Long Beach State on March 17 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
For the second straight year, Hawaii claimed two of the Big West’s major men’s volleyball awards.
Rainbow Warrior setter Jakob Thelle repeated as the Big West Player of the Year and Charlie Wade picked up his second consecutive conference Coach of the Year award on Tuesday.
UH has claimed the last four Big West Player of the Year awards with Rado Parapunov earning the honor in 2020 and ’21 and Thelle winning the last two. Wade shared the Coach of the Year award last season and was a unanimous pick among his five fellow Big West coaches in this season’s voting.
Thelle leads NCAA Division I-II with 10.73 assists per set while leading a UH attack that ranks second in the nation with a .373 hitting percentage.
The senior was named the Most Valuable Player of the Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship for the second straight year last weekend after helping the Warriors retain the tournament title.
Wade shared the Coach of the Year award with UC Irvine’s David Kniffin last year and earned the honor again after leading the Warriors to a share of the Big West regular-season title and the tournament championship. The Warriors opened Big West play by being swept by Long Beach State, but have won their last 11 matches while dropping three sets along that way.
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UC Irvine middle blocker Maxim Grigoriev was voted the Big West Freshman of the Year. Grigoriev ranked fourth in the conference with 1.02 blocks per set and had a season-high eight in the Anteaters’ loss to UH in the Big West tournament final on Saturday at the Bren Events Center.
UH (28-2) is the second seed in next week’s National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship in Fairfax, Va., which comes with a spot in the semifinals on May 4.
