Hawaii freshman hitter Hanna Hellvig has shown her versatility and all-around game all season, whether it is with kills, blocks, digs or aces, or all of those. It is no surprise, then, that the Swedish national was nominated in all three categories for Big West weekly honors: overall, freshman and defensive.
The conference settled on Freshman of the Week on Monday, the second for Hellvig this season. She came up big last week as No. 11 Hawaii (12-1, 2-0) opened Big West play with road victories last week at Long Beach State and Cal State Northridge.
Hellvig tied her career high with 17 kills in the four-set win against The Beach, adding three blocks, two digs and an ace. She had a career-high 20 digs in the four-set win over the Matadors, adding 14 kills for her fifth double-double of the season, as well as a team-high four blocks and two aces.
Hellvig has led the Rainbow Wahine in kills in five out of the past six matches.
Also Monday, Hawaii remained No. 11 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25 while the only team to defeat the Wahine this season — Baylor — received its first-ever No. 1 ranking.
The Bears (11-0), the last unbeaten team in Division I, received 54 of the 64 first-place votes to become just the 20th program to be ranked No. 1 since the poll began in 1982. Baylor swept Hawaii on Sept. 22 in Waco, Texas.
Nebraska (10-1, seven first-place votes) moved up a spot to No. 2 and defending NCAA champion Stanford (7-3, one vote) fell two spots to No. 3. The Cardinal lost to No. 8 Washington (10-2) on Sunday; the Wahine defeated the Huskies 3-1 in the season-opening Hawaiian Airlines Classic.
Teams ranked Nos. 4 through 14 remained the same. No. 4 Pitt (13-1) received one vote and No. 9 BYU (11-2) one vote. Missouri (8-3), which Hawaii defeated at the Baylor Classic, dropped three spots to No. 22.
Hawaii remains the lone Big West team ranked. UC Santa Barbara (13-1, 3-0 Big West) received 27 votes, tying the Gauchos with USC at 30th.
