Hawaii held its place atop the NVA/AVCA Division I-II men’s volleyball coaches poll through a bye week, topping the rankings for the fourth straight week.
As with the previous three weeks, the Rainbow Warriors (7-0) received 15 of 16 first-place votes in the poll released on Monday. The remaining first-place vote went to No. 2 BYU (12-2). UC Santa Barbara (5-4), Lewis (13-2) and Pepperdine (8-5) round out the top five.
UH resumes Big West play this week with their first home matches of the season. The Warriors face No. 12 UC San Diego on Friday and Saturday at SimpliFi Arena. UH swept two nonconference matches with the Tritons on Feb. 24 and 25 to close a season-opening road trip.
>> UC Santa Barbara outside hitter Ryan Wilcox, a Punahou graduate, was named the Big West defensive player of the week on Monday. Wilcox had 32 digs, averaging 4.00 per set, in the Gauchos’ split with Long Beach State. He had a career-high 18 digs in the series opener.
BeachBows open with split
The sixth-ranked Hawaii beach volleyball team opened its season with a loss to No. 19 Stanford, then bounced back to sweep UC Davis on Monday in Davis, Calif.
The Rainbow Wahine dropped three matches that went three sets in a 4-1 loss to Stanford. UH picked up its lone victory at the No. 5 flight when Kaylee Glagau and Anna Maidment swept Winslow Church and Kylee Matheson 21-9, 21-19.
The BeachBows bounced back to sweep past host UC Davis 5-0, taking four matches in straight sets. The exception was a three-set comeback for UH’s Kylin Loker and Riley Wagoner over UCD’s Ashlee Goycoochea and Jane Seslar at the No. 4 flight by 16-21, 21-14, 15-10 scores.
The BeachBows have two more matches today, taking on No. 11 California followed by a rematch with UC Davis.
