ESPN Honolulu Rainbow Warrior play-by-play voice Tiff Wells with his six biggest takeaways from the most recent week.
1. Lasting First Impression – #WarriorBall25 marked the eight consecutive year for Hawai`i Men’s Volleyball leading the nation in attendance (7,072 fans per match). After waiting eight plus months for #WarriorBall26, the excitement for the season opener was evident as fans waited in line to get their first glimpse of the team. Five starters (three of which were All-Americans) returned and joined by a group of highly touted newcomers, “the best show on the island” was back on the Taraflex. A lot of eyes were on UH-NJIT as this was the only regular season match on the NCAA schedule for Friday. What would the offense look like under third year starting setter Tread Rosenthal? How would a highly touted libero fill in to lead the backrow and serve receive? With how tall the team is, how soon would their impact be felt at the net? An opening set statement 25-11 victory paved the way for a dominant weekend. Three service aces, five blocks, 11 kills on 18 swings, siding out at 91% (11-of-12) off first ball contact, UH nearly played pefect. For January volleyball, it was relatively clean for the home team during the first week of the season. While there were maybe a few too many service errors on night one (14 total) in that third set (8), Hawai`i committed only four hitting errors. The Bows hit .517 and notched 13.5 total team blocks in the 85-minute victory. A night later after the day off from competition, UH maintained its strong form offensively (hit .517 again) in its second straight 3-0 win over NJIT while limiting the service errors (8). UH nearly drew 11,000 (10,952) fans over the first two matches against an unranked team. With an exciting and talented group off to a 2-0 start, expect even more fans to come with No. 7 Loyola in town this Thursday and Friday.
2. Only Depth If You Use It – Throughout his 17-year tenure as Head Coach, Charlie Wade has routinely said “it’s not depth if you don’t use it.” Entering the season with 19 on the roster and with quality depth at every position, the battles are on in practice for playing time, whether as a starter or to be in the rotation off the bench. Unfortunately for UH, the depth was tested right away as two players who would be in the rotation (MB Roman Payne and OPP Kainoa Wade) were out for the week with injuries. Fortunately for UH, they have depth and it was on display as Justin Todd moved back into the middle and Kristian Titriyski remained as the opposite. Different combinations were utilized at both the Outside Hitter (Adrien Roure, Louis Sakanoko and Finn Kearney) and Middle Blocker (Todd, Trevell Jordan and Ofeck Hazan) positions. Hawai`i even designated two liberos for both matches, in Quintin Greenidge and Kai Taylor. This could be deepest team in terms of talent across the roster UH has ever had.
3. Year 3 Of Tread – The individual accolades for Tread Rosenthal after the 2025 season completed were very nice: AVCA All-America First-Team and Big West First-Team. For the 6’11 Setter however, the end goal was playing for a National Championship. UH fell short of that goal after losing 3-0 in the National Semifinal to UCLA. Despite the team not playing at full-strength, Hawai`i felt they had the talent to play for a title and win it. Being swept in their final match of the season left a sour and bitter feeling around the team. No one felt that more than Rosenthal who had another summer with USA Volleyball and hit the weight room as well. It was evident last week during media availability when both him and Louis Sakanoko mentioned how tough it was to not only lose to UCLA but ending the year one match short of playing for a title. These two Juniors know their time in college is finite and are hoping for a payoff year or two for this program and for themselves before their time is done. During week one of the season, Rosenthal was more aggressive in running the middles when he was off the net and bettered the ball in his location to his hitters. The team was efficient, hitting .517 in the two-match series versus unranked NJIT. He leads the team in assists (9.33 per set), but he also tops the roster with 11 blocks, is second in aces (3) and tied for second in digs (7) after one week of play.
4. Next Episode For Tre – When Trevell Jordan and GCU lost in the MPSF Quarterfinals last April, little did he know it would be the last time wearing a Lopes jersey. Not even a week after the program finished its 17th season as a varsity program, the athletic department decided to cut the program and offer it as a club sport. It left Jordan and his teammates in a state of shock, confusion and questioning of what to do, where to go next. With all of the top teams vying for his services, Hawai`i won the sweepstakes and landed the 6’10 sophomore middle blocker as a transfer. After hitting .417, averaging 1.68 kills/set and 1.02 blocks/set en route to spots on the MPSF’s All-Freshman and Honorable Mention teams in 2025, Jordan immediately added depth to UH’s group in the middle. Earning a start in his UH debut, Jordan scored four kills on six swings and added six blocks. Four more kills and a block on night two stamped a second straight UH win. Joining our broadcast on our Sunday post-match show, you could hear his smile as he described his first week as a Rainbow Warrior. GCU’s loss is UH’s gain.
5. Smooth Q – With the graduation of All-American libero `Eley Choy, the Rainbow Warriors were looking to add depth at that position and they found one from Cambridge, Ontario. Junior Quintin Greenidge is UH’s first Canadian since 2015 when Brook Sedore was on the roster. A member of Canada’s U21 team that won silver at the 2025 NORCECA Pan American Cup and also competed at the FIVB U21 World Championships this past summer, Greenidge brings international experience to Hawai`i. He also compiled 298 digs in two years for the University of Windsor, while named to the all-rookie team and received second-team all-star accolades during his collegiate days in Canada. He brings a smooth demeanor, a calm presence to UH’s backrow and that was seen almost immediately in the season opener. He went 24-of-25 in serve receive, many of those were near perfect passes to Tread Rosenthal and that first touch helped UH side out 82% (78-of-95) off first-ball contact in the series against NJIT. UH yielded just two reception errors off the 69 serves put in play (95 total) from the Highlanders over the weekend. Nothing flashy from Q, just smooth passing and after a night where he recorded one dig (granted not a lot of attacks came his way), Greenidge had a match-high eight digs.
6. Midseason Form In Week 1? – While the energy may have dropped off a bit here and there during match two, overall it was a very good opening week for UH. Offensively they hit for a high number (.517 both night) with just 11 hitting errors. Efficiency was the name of the game for the starting outsides (Adrien Roure: 17-2-26, .577 and Louis Sakanoko: 10-0-15, .667) and Kristian Titriyski (23-5-41,.439 and five aces) looked in good health after missing the final eight matches of 2025 with injury. Defensively, UH held the Highlanders to .099 hitting while giving up just two aces and being blocked six times (both aces and all blocks came in match two). NJIT never got above 17 points in a single set and didn’t hold a lead in the match until Set 2 of the second match. Instant impacts from substitutes Finn Kearney (four kills, two blocks and of course his 6-0 serving run to help UH close out Set 3 on night two), Ofeck Hazan (two kills, one ace and four blocks) and Magnus Hettervik (three assists and one ace) showcased just some of the depth that UH has on its roster. While there are things to work on and fine tune, there’s a lot to be excited for after seeing this group in person twice during the season opening week.