It’s been all about the team this season for Hawaii. On Monday, taking a collective breath between the regular season and postseason, it was all about the team’s players.

Five Rainbow Warriors were named to the 14-member All-Big West first team, led by senior hitter Stijn van Tilburg earning his third such honor. Earning their second consecutive first-team honors were senior setter Joe Worsley, junior middle Patrick Gasman and junior opposite Rado Parapunov, while sophomore libero Gage Worsley picked up his first.

“I think it’s pretty cool, pretty special, to have that many of our players named,” Gage Worsley said. “It says a lot about the kind of team we have.

“There’s a lot of great players in this league. That’s the kind of level this league is at.”

Two of the three major awards went to regular-season champion Long Beach State, with Alan Knipe named coach of the year for a second consecutive season and 49ers senior opposite Kyle Ensing the player of the year. The 49ers had three other seniors on the first team in middle Nick Amado, setter Josh Tuaniga and hitter TJ DeFalco, the last of whom won the POY in 2018.

Freshman of the year went to UC Santa Barbara outside hitter Ryan Wilcox, one of three all-league honorable mentions and one of seven on the all-freshman team. The Punahou School graduate was No. 2 in kills (232) and No. 3 in aces (23) for the Gauchos. He also had 13 kills, hitting .300, when UCSB ended Hawaii’s record sets-won streak at 74 in a 3-1 loss to the Warriors on April 6.

It was the most first-team all-conference honors for the Hawaii program. They had four last season in the inaugural season of the six-team Big West and never had five in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation days before that.

Joe Worsley leads a Hawaii offense that is No. 1 in three categories: kills (14.27 per set), hitting percentage (.445) and assists (13.37 per set). He is the national leader in assists (11.36).

Van Tilburg is second nationally in hitting percentage (.484) averaging 3.88 kills per set. Last week the Dutch national moved to No. 7 on the program’s all-time kills list (1,354) and is 65 from passing Jason Olive for No. 6.

Parapunov, a five-time conference player of the week, averages a team-best 4.29 kills per set, hitting .440 with 37 aces. The Bulgarian national is No. 2 in the country in points (5.28 per set).

Gage Worsley is No. 4 nationally in digs (2.62 per set) with 11 double-figure-dig matches. His reception percentage is .957 (aced 21 times in 491 service receptions).

Gasman remains the national leader in blocks (1.45 per set). He is averaging 1.77 kills and hitting .494.

Hawaii (25-2) is seeded second into this week’s Big West tournament at the Stan Sheriff Center and has a bye into Friday’s 7:30 p.m. semifinal. Long Beach State is the top seed and will play in Friday’s 5 p.m. semifinal.

The tournament opens Thursday with first-round matches at 5 and 7:30 p.m. Third-seeded UC Irvine (17-10) faces No. 6 UC San Diego (7-17) in the opener, followed by fourth seed UC Santa Barbara (17-9) against No. 5 Cal State Northridge (13-13).

Saturday’s final has been moved back an hour to 8 p.m. All five matches will be televised on Spectrum Sports.