Most of the names on the home side of the net for tonight’s Hawaii men’s volleyball opener will be familiar to most fans with one glaring outlier.

For the first time since 2019, the man at the controls for the Rainbow Warrior offense will not be graduated senior Jakob Thelle, who gave every paying customer at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center their money’s worth for the better part of his five-year career that ended as the AVCA Player of the Year.

The competition to fill that void has been a fun one for coach Charlie Wade to watch as he begins his 15th season as head coach tonight in the first of two matches against Loyola Chicago.

Junior Austin Buchanan is the lone returning setter for UH, which added two prized newcomers in graduate transfer Kevin Kauling from Lewis and freshman Tread Rosenthal from Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Kauling was a four-year starter at Lewis and made the AVCA All-America second team behind Thelle in 2022 before an injury cut short his senior season.

Rosenthal, who is 6 feet 8, was the starting setter on the U.S. Junior National team and was named the tournament most valuable player at the NORCECA U19 Pan Am Cup in 2023.

The skill level in the gym is what has Wade excited the most about this year’s team.

“Just some really gifted athletes and guys that really played at a high level,” Wade said. “Tread was the starting setter on our U19 team, Kevin a three-time All-American and four-year starter and even some of the young guys who haven’t played are just gifted. Justin Todd touched 11 (feet) 10 (inches). Some really nice athletes to work with and excited to have them in the gym.”

Rosenthal, 17, enrolled a year early after watching a UH men’s volleyball match at UC Irvine. He could be still months away from his final high school season. Instead, he’ll be running the offense for a four-time defending NCAA national finalist.

“I’ve been dreaming of this since I watched the 2019 Big West championship year,” Rosenthal said. “I’ve spent a long time waiting but I’m super excited to get out there and get my career started.”

Returning starters Chaz Galloway, Guilherme Voss and Spyros Chakas are back for their final seasons as the backbone of this year’s team.

Seniors Keoni Thiim and Alaka’i Todd and junior libero ‘Eleu Choy also bring experience and should see a lot more playing time as Wade looks to replace the production of Dimitrios Mouchlias outside and Cole Hogland in the middle.

Third-year sophomore Kurt Nusterer, who filled in at times last season and was productive, will get the first crack at replacing Hogland in the middle next to Voss.

“He’s been in the background for a while now because there were so many older middles but he’s finally getting a chance to play right now and brings a lot of good stuff to the team,” Voss said.

A couple of new names could eventually crack the rotation on the outside, including recent addition Louis Sakanoko, a 6-foot-5 freshman from Paris, France.

Sakanoko, who originally was planning to join the team next year, was training with the team that former hitter Colton Cowell is currently playing for in France.

After a couple of talks between Cowell and Wade, they were able to speed things up and get Sakanoko cleared to play this season.

“I could communicate with Colton and he was like, ‘I think you’ll like him and I think he can contribute’ so at this point we have guys all over the world who are playing so we’re getting lots of intel from having guys on the ground and that’s really been helpful,” Wade said. “(Sakanoko) is going to be able to contribute at either spot (outside or opposite). He’s more game ready so he won’t redshirt. He’ll be able to come in and give us some depth or maybe evolve into a starting spot.”

Hawaii gets right into it with four matches over the next nine days after returning to practice from Christmas break just a week ago.

Hawaii will host Emmanuel for two matches next week then close out the month playing three matches on the road, including one at Ball State.

“At this point you just try to hope not to get people hurt from the lead up to (the season opener) and the first couple of weeks (after it) because of how we had to train,” Wade said. “I think everyone worked hard in the offseason and are in pretty good shape.”

Rainbow Warriors Volleyball

Who: Hawaii (0-0) vs. Loyola Chicago (0-0)

Where: SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center

When: Today and Friday, 7 p.m.

TV: Spectrum Sports (Ch. 1012)

Radio: KKEA 1420-AM / 92.7 FM