By: Tiff Wells, ESPN Honolulu Hawaii Men’s Volleyball Play-by-Play Announcer
1 – First For Everything. Since the Big West Conference began Men’s Volleyball with the 2018 season, Hawai`i has never played on Day 1 of the conference tournament. Quarterfinal Thursday for the Rainbow Warriors meant a light workout and a Quarterfinal scout for their Semifinal match. UH had been the only BWC team in the previous five seasons to be either first or second and thus, receive an automatic bye into the semifinal round. Until this season. Heading into the final week of conference play, the Rainbow Warriors knew their seed would be either the three or four. Win one of the two matches at UC San Diego and they would be the three seed. Business taken care of on night one and while night two was disappointing, UH stayed on the opposite side of top seed Long Beach in The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2024 Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship that begins on Thursday. The five conference losses are the most in one year for UH since the BWC began in 2018 and it’s the most conference losses (11) since 2016 when UH was back in the MPSF.
2 – Two Scoring Runs Prevent Series Sweep. In the second match on Saturday at UC San Diego, UH couldn’t convert a set point opportunity in the first set as the Tritons four of the final five points to win the set 27-25 and take the early momentum. Set two was tied at 11 before a 7-1 run gave the Tritons an 18-12 and the Bows just couldn’t recover. The Bows couldn’t side-out on first ball contact and when they did get the point, they couldn’t string together points from the service line as the Tritons maintained the cushion to eventually win 25-21 for a 2-0 match lead. Same storyline in Set three as a 14-all set score became a 20-15 UCSD lead that UH couldn’t recover en route to their sixth loss of the season (third time being swept). While UH does have 64 wins in their series with UCSD (the most by UH against one opponent), the Tritons have three wins over the Bows in the past four years.
3 – The Thiim Reaper. One of the smallest outside hitters in the country led the way in La Jolla this past weekend for the Bows. 6’0” Keoni Thiim was one of three hitters on night one with double-digit kills (Todd with 15, Sakanoko with 10), as he had 11 on 22 swings (with just five errors) and hit .273. Adding two aces and seven digs, Thiim helped the UH offense hit .286 for the match. Night two brings adjustments, more so from the team that lost on night one. With both Todd and Sakanoko bottled up by the Tritons defense on night two, Thiim was even more offensively efficient. A team-high 12 kills on 22 swings, with just two hitting errors, Thiim added three aces, five digs and two blocks. Given the chance to start on the road, Thiim took advantage of his opportunities and ran with it.
4 – Night One For The Serving Bows. They’ve led the nation nearly all season long in both service aces and service aces per set, however, both have dropped since entering conference play. Having just 33 total aces in eight conference matches (over 31 sets played), scoring points from the service line were few and far between for the Bows. While UH has continued to do their best in finding ways to distribute the points per set of Spyros Chakas, the Bows also seem to be serving more aggressively than they were at the beginning of the season. Finding their service groove in a new arena, UH dealt their most service aces (10) in a conference match this season en route to their 4-set win. While the Bows only had four service aces in the second match, they were more efficient with their serving. Being calibrated from the serving line will be key during the Conference Tournament this week.
5 – Welcome To The Island. For the first time in quite some time, the Big West Tournament kind of seems wide open. One could make a case for each of the six teams to hoist the trophy on Championship Saturday. Only Long Beach State hasn’t played a match this season at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. The Beach has been the best and most consistent team during conference play. UC Irvine has the best individual player (Hilir Henno) who could be both conference and national player of the year. While Hawai`i went through conference play at .500, they are playing at home and the 7th man could make a big difference. UC San Diego just swept Hawai`i and despite going 0-4 (all by 3-0 scores to LBSU and UCI), their floor defense can keep them in matches. CSUN is the 5-seed but don’t sleep on the Matadors. They opened a lot of eyes with their 4-set win at Hawai`i and then followed it up with a home victory over UC Irvine the following week. While seeded sixth, UC Santa Barbara has taken both Long Beach and Hawai`i to five sets. And with one of the best right-side attackers in the conference (and nation) in Geste Bianchi, UCSB has a guy that can take over a match and give defenses absolute fits. The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2024 Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship should produce a lot of high quality volleyball in five matches over three days.
Week 12 | 6 takeaways for Rainbow Warrior Volleyball 20246 – All In. Being in the Quarterfinal round of the Conference Tournament, UH must win three matches in three days to be the Automatic Qualifier from the Big West Conference into the 2024 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship. Winning three matches in a row is something UH hasn’t done since claiming the 28th Outrigger Volleyball Invitational title last month. Going 5-5 since the season-ending injury to Spyros Chakas, has alternated wins and losses between one two-match win streak and one two-match losing streak. 3-seed UH faces 6th seed UC Santa Barbara in the Thursday evening quarterfinal and with the postseason mantra of survive and advance, UH must be all in to do to whatever it takes to get to Friday’s semifinal with 2-seed UC Irvine. Some may say it’s hard to beat a team three times (UH won both matches with UCSB this season, a 3-0 win and a 3-2 win) and others may say the opponent is the sixth seed, don’t let the sub-.500 record fool you. This talented Gauchos team won at UCLA in five sets earlier this season and nearly beat both UH and Long Beach State before falling in five sets. While UH is amongst the teams (Grand Canyon, UC Irvine, BYU, Stanford) in consideration for the two at-large berths, the easiest way to leave no doubt and not sweat on Selection Sunday (Sunday, April 21st at 7 a.m. HST) is to just win the Big West Tournament.