He has been so good for so long that it comes as a surprise to many that it took this long for the national recognition. But it came on Monday following his final home match.
“I probably cared more about it freshman, sophomore year,” Hawaii senior hitter Stijn van Tilburg said after being named the Sports Import/AVCA national player of the week in men’s volleyball. “I think there’s been weekends where I’ve been better. There was the time (sophomore year) against Stanford that I did well both nights and they gave it to someone on the east coast.
“I had given up. Not that the individual awards are important. I am most happy with the win.”
Saturday’s five-set victory over Long Beach State in the Big West tournament title match is what led to van Tilburg being recognized twice, first as the tourney’s most valuable player. He had a match-high 25 kills with no errors on 46 attempts, hitting .543.
The Dutch national also had nine kills in the semifinal sweep of UC Irvine last Friday. He averaged 4.25 kills per set and a .460 hitting percentage in the two wins that gave the Warriors the automatic bid into the NCAA tournament at Long Beach State.
Top-seeded Hawaii has a bye into the May 2 semifinals and will play the winner of Tuesday’s match between USC and Lewis.
It was the third time this season that top-ranked Hawaii (27-2) had the national player of the week, the other two going to junior opposite Rado Parapunov. The three honors were the most for any team this season and matched the number Hawaii had in 2002.
Van Tilburg said he hopes the ultimate recognition comes next week for his setter, Joe Worsley, that of being named the national player of the year.
“I am thankful for having such a great setter,” van Tilburg said. “I know he doesn’t care, but I’d be happy if he won it.”
With his performance last week, van Tilburg moved up to No. 7 on the program’s career kill list with 1,388. He is 31 away from passing Jason Olive (1,418) for No. 6 and 41 away from passing current Warriors assistant Josh Walker (1,428) for No. 5.
