Since the start of Big West Conference play, every weekend has seemingly had its share of highs and lows for the Hawaii men’s volleyball team.
The biggest roller coaster of emotions came last week at UC Irvine, which began with the fifth-ranked Rainbow Warriors losing a first set in which they hit .452 as a team with no errors and committed just two service errors.
To play at such a high level and still get beat shook the team a little bit, middle blocker Kurt Nusterer said Tuesday. Doubt started to creep in.
“We were all over the place,” Nusterer said. “Why isn’t this working? We played really good from a statistical point of view and we still lost. What is going on?”
The wild swing of emotions that began with losing Spyros Chakas to a season-ending injury in the final match before conference play was at an all-time low on Friday after UH was swept by the Anteaters to fall to 3-4 in Big West play.
Hawaii was eliminated from earning one of the two seeded byes into the semifinals of the Big West Tournament next week. UH hadn’t lost four times in seven matches since 2018, which is before anyone on the team now, even sixth-year senior Alaka’i Todd, had become a Rainbow Warrior.
A team that has been to four straight national finals suddenly was lacking the one thing such a talented group with a pedigree of winning would never think possible.
Confidence.
“You throw in the element of seven guys playing together that have never, ever, played together … I really think it’s a collaborative that we’re trying to build here,” Nusterer said. “Individually we have that confidence. We’ve got the pieces and we’ve seen time and time again that we have the potential to play well. Going forward it’s going to be all about uniting everything and everyone.”
It remains to be seen how these next two weeks will play out. Hawaii (21-5, 4-4) closes the regular season with matches on Friday and Saturday at UC San Diego (11-13, 3-5) before returning home to host the BWC tournament beginning next Thursday.
If the season does continue after next week, UH can look back to Saturday as a major turning point.
After losing a fourth consecutive set to the Anteaters, Hawaii found a way to scrap out a 27-25 victory in the second set.
Then it was like the team of old returned to the court as UH not only closed out a four-set victory, but did it in emphatic fashion, leaving UC Irvine frustrated and bewildered on the court as Hawaii won both sets by an identical 25-18 margin.
“At the end of it, that’s one of my biggest responsibilities is to kind of keep my eye on that and make sure they are happy and confident, especially when you get into more stressful, adverse situations, to keep the confidence level high,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said Tuesday. “This time of year it’s always like that. This year, I’d say more than most, right, because of some of the adversity we’ve been through. It’s nothing really new. It’s just got a little different twist to it this year.”
Hawaii needs one win against the Tritons to secure the No. 3 seed in the Big West Tournament. That would mean UH would play the nightcap in the first round next Thursday with a win setting up a semifinal match likely against the Anteaters in the 7 p.m. game on a Friday night at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
UC Irvine jumped Hawaii to No. 4 in the AVCA rankings this week with UH falling to No. 5.
In the latest KPI rankings, which helps determine the two at-large berths into the eight-team NCAA tournament field, Hawaii is ranked No. 6 behind UC Irvine (No. 4) and Long Beach State (No. 2).
The top six teams in those rankings play in either the Big West or the MPSF. UCLA is No. 1 with Grand Canyon at No. 3 and Brigham Young at No. 5.
A fourth match this season against UC Irvine with an at-large berth on the line is a plausible scenario for next week, which would make too much sense for how the last month has gone for the Rainbow Warriors.
“We lost to CSUN and we were, ‘are we that team? Are we still a championship caliber team?’ ” Nusterer said. “Our confidence has been all over the place.
“I think based on how the games went this past week, we’ve had our highs and lows, but we’ve really started to hit a turning point. I think it’s going to set us up to hopefully peak at the right time.”
That time is now.
RAINBOW WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL
At LionTree Arena, La Jolla, Calif.
No. 5 Hawaii (21-5, 4-4 Big West) vs. UC San Diego (11-13, 3-5)
>> When: Friday and Saturday, 4 p.m.
>> TV: ESPN+
>> Radio: KKEA 1420-AM / 97.5 FM
