ESPN Honolulu Rainbow Warrior play-by-play voice Tiff Wells with his six biggest takeaways from the previous week for the Bows
1 – One Year Early. #WarriorBall25 returned just eight players from the 2024 squad that fell in the semifinal round of the Hawaiian Islands presents the 2024 Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship and missed the National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship for the first time since 2018 (no one in 2020 due to Covid-19). After losing five players to graduation and seven to the transfer portal, this year’s squad welcomed 11 of the most highly touted newcomers (including what some called the most talented freshman class in program history). Talented, but unproven. Fans were quickly introduced to Adrien Roure after his opening week performance against McKendree, which garnered Conference honors. A strong and powerful Bulgarian, Kristian Titriyski emerged as the starting opposite and leading point scorer. A trio of middles including Kurt Nusterer, Justin Todd and Ofeck Hazan and an additional arsenal of pin hitters including Louis Sakanoko, Clay Wieter, Finn Kearney and Kainoa Wade gave Head Coach Charlie Wade depth throughout his lineup. The upperclassmen mainstays in the starting seven (`Eleu Choy and Kurt Nusterer) were joined by sophomore setter Tread Rosenthal and at times, anywhere from three to four underclassmen to round out the lineup. Preseason rankings of top five in the nation and third in the conference gave the fan base optimism. An undefeated January was highlighted by a comeback win against Harvard on January 10th and the program’s first ever two-match regular season series sweep at BYU on Jan. 31 and Feb.1. After a 9-0 starts, UH suffered its first loss to Stanford. A regular season series sweep (by way of two sweeps) over UC Irvine gave the Bows a 2-0 start to Big West play. They secured two wins in the 29th Outrigger Volleyball Invitational and a second-place finish to USC. A surprising split at CSUN left the Rainbow Warriors seeking a new look with the injury to their starting opposite (Titriyski). Back-to-back sell-outs (14th and 15th in program history, first consecutive sell-outs since 1996) against Long Beach State was punctuated by a senior night victory. Following a surprising loss at UC Santa Barbara to end the regular season, the team (including five all-conference selections) knew they needed a win in the conference tournament semifinals against UC Irvine to keep their season (and hopes of making it back to the NCAAs) alive. UH dug deep and didn’t leave anything in the hands of the selection committee as they made the final and won their fourth conference tournament title, earning the program’s 10th NCAA appearance. No one on the 19-player roster had NCAA Championship experience and the nerves showed a bit as UH was down by eight early to Penn State. The keiki figured it out to take the opening set by six and then hold on to win the match earning their ninth NCAA semifinal appearance, this time against UCLA. With no Titriyski and a foot injury in Friday’s practice to Louis Sakanoko, the Bows were not at 100%. UH’s season ended in the National Semifinal at the hands of UCLA in straight sets. Five AVCA All-Americans, five Big West Conference selections, a 27-6 record, a Big West Conference Tournament Championship, 10th NCAA appearance and an NCAA Semifinal finish. Not sure how many outside the program and state could have seen this coming and the best is yet to come.
2 – Two Walk-Ons To All-Americans. One hailed from Waialae, O`ahu. He grew up watching the program and saw his sister play her final year for UH. The Farrington product began his UH career as a redshirt freshman and celebrated with the team as they won the 2021 National Championship. The other calls Columbus, Indiana home but lists Indianapolis as the hometown because as he says, “if you hear Columbus, you think of Ohio, not Indiana.” His UH career started as a redshirt freshman in 2022 as the Bows won their second consecutive National Championship. Their careers started as “C-side guys,” where they were expected to setup and break down the nets, get water, and be floor wipers and a linesman during practices. Sometimes your only reps would come after practice. In a day where the easy way out is to hit the transfer portal, `Eleu Choy and Kurt Nusterer saw it through and wanted to finish what they had started; ending their careers as Rainbow Warriors. Mainstays in the starting lineup the past two years, they left their emotions on the court as they helped the Bows to 50 wins. Each were named Honorable Mentions by both the Big West and AVCA All-America. Nusterer will head to California to work for Goldman Sachs, while Choy stays on the island to join Fukunaga and Associates.
3 – Finn-tastic NCAA Debut. The April 5th ankle injury to starting opposite Kristian Titriyski left UH with a void. The lateral change was made to place freshman Finn Kearney in his more natural right-side position, despite training all year as a left-side hitter. Six straight double-digit kill performances helped UH make their 10th NCAA appearance after the victory over Long Beach State in the conference tournament final. Like all of his teammates, Kearney made his NCAA Championship debut in the quarterfinal against No.7 seed Penn State. With UH trailing 11-4 in the first set, Kearney went back to the service line. When he exited, the set was tied at 12 but the momentum was all on the side of Hawai`i. His service run keyed the comeback. Six kills, three aces in the frame, Kearney helped UH rally from eight points down to win the set by six. When it was all said and done after UH won the match in four sets, Kearney had his first career double-double (16 kills and 10 digs) and career highs both in aces (4) and digs (10). Following the Long Beach State victory over UCLA in Monday’s National Championship match, Kearney was named to the All-Tournament Team.
4 – Middles Climb Mount Nittany. With all of the firepower Hawai`i has on the pins, sometimes the middles get forgotten. However, on a Quarterfinal Thursday afternoon where those pin hitters weren’t as efficient (no one hit over .160), it was the middle tandem of a Redshirt Junior and a Redshirt Freshman that helped Hawai`i survive and advance. The passing did well enough that allowed the All-American Tread Rosenthal to run the middles. Kurt Nusterer scored nine kills on 14 attempts and hit .571, while Justin Todd notched eight kills on 10 errorless attempts to hit .800. Combined, they went 17-1-24 to hit .667 and were in on seven of the 10 total team blocks.
5 – A Long-Time Rival Again. With the win against Penn State last week Thursday in the Quarterfinal round of the National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship, awaiting Hawai`i was long-time rival, third-seeded UCLA in the National Semifinal. The Bruins have been a thorn in the side of the Rainbow Warriors in both the regular season and in the postseason throughout the years. UCLA has dominated the series history, 65-31, including 8-1 in the postseason. UH’s only postseason win over UCLA came in the 1999 MPSF Quarterfinal round. Having met in the NCAAs two previous times, the Bruins denied the Rainbow Warriors national championships twice, 2023 and 1996. The Bruins struck first, taking Set 1 25-14 as UH only managed five kills. Despite a blowout opening set loss, UH held a 23-22 Set 2 lead before the Bruins won the final three points. Facing a six-point deficit in a must-win set, UH battled. But every time it got close, the Bruins had an answer as they ended UH’s season in straight sets (14-23-23) and denied an all-Big West National Championship game.
6 – Last Call…Party Of 5. When UCLA scored their 25th point of Set 3 to win the set 25-23 (due to a red card issued on UCLA) and the match 3-0 (25-14, 25-23, 25-23), it ended the 47th year of Hawai`i Men’s Volleyball in the National Semifinal of the National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship. It also marked the end for five Rainbow Warriors as their careers came to a close. Not many make the leap from club volleyball to Division I. Kawai Hong was a Rainbow Warrior for one season after playing club ball at Santa Clara, representing his home state in his final year. Check out his company on Instagram, @wailanahawaiiart. The dream for Clay Wieter was to play at the highest level. One college offer out of high school, he played at Lindenwood for four seasons. Transferring to UH for his final season, he was a starting Outside Hitter before back issues had him coming off the bench for the remainder of the year.After four years at UC Santa Cruz, Zach Thompson also made the move to come back home for his final two years. Team culture is key and even if some don’t play a whole lot, you need guys on the roster that want to be there and be part of a team. Kurt Nusterer came in lightly recruited and learned from guys in his position like Guilherme Voss and Cole Hogland. From walk-on to Honorable Mention All-American, Nusterer was always amazed at how many people would come to watch him play what he considered “his hobby.” Pound for pound, no one is tougher than `Eleu Choy. Another one in the line of local boys, he showcased to the younger generation on the island that height isn’t always everything when it comes to collegiate volleyball. Over the years he waited his turn; first as a redshirt and then as a backup. Managing a serve-receive that at times had multiple combinations (Roure, Wieter, Sakanoko, Kearney) over the season, Choy earned Honorable Mention accolades from both the Big West Conference and the AVCA.
7 – Next Stop. What’s next for UH? This much we know is true. The 2025 roster that was 19 players is now at 14 due to the graduation of five. There are two recruits signed for next season: Roman Payne (7’0” / MB / Carlsbad, Calif.) and Magnus Hettervik (6’6” / S / Stavenger, Norway. Do we see roster limits in Men’s Collegiate Volleyball at 18? There’s always the transfer portal as it’s been both good and bad for UH over the last couple of years. If the Big West home schedules are the same in 2026 as they were in 2024, UH travels to: Long Beach State, UC Irvine and UC San Diego, while the Bows would host: CSUN and UC Santa Barbara. Announced earlier last week during the 2025 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball National Championship, UCLA will be coming to Honolulu to take part in the 30th Outrigger Volleyball Invitational. How far east…or northeast will UH go in the non-conference? We’llw ait and see. UC Irvine will host the Hawaiian Islands presents the 2026 Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship and UCLA will be the site of the 2026 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship.