COLUMBUS, Ohio >> It hasn’t been about the individual players all season. It’s not going to change now.

That’s the team message from Hawaii men’s volleyball at the NCAA championship tournament. Four of the Rainbow Warriors received AVCA All-America recognition on Monday, including first-teamers Jennings Franciskovic and Stijn van Tilburg.

“I don’t think any of these awards mean anything,” Franciskovic, Hawaii’s senior setter and co-captain, said. “Later on in life, I think all people care about is if you won a national championship. That’s going to be our goal right now.

“I don’t want anyone focusing on individual awards right now. We haven’t been about that this season and we don’t want it to change now. I want us to stay together, making sure we have that common goal.”

To keep that goal alive, the fourth-seeded Warriors (26-5) first will have to get past fifth-seeded Penn State (21-10) in today’s second play-in match. Hawaii had a spirited, loose practice on Monday at Ohio State’s St. John Arena while preparing to meet the Nittany Lions for the fifth time in five NCAA tournament appearances.

Monday also included a little celebration time over the All-America acknowledgements. Joining Franciskovic and van Tilburg were sophomore libero Larry “Tui” Tuileta (second team) and senior middle Hendrik Mol (honorable mention).

The first and second team had 10 players each, while the honorable mention list had 25, including Stanford junior libero Evan Enriques (Kamehameha-Hawaii).

Franciskovic and van Tilburg are UH’s first first-teamers since middle blocker Taylor Averill won back-to-back honors in 2014-15. The pair make it 20 Warriors who were named to the first team, giving the program 29 certificates because of multiple awardees. Franciskovic is just the third UH setter on the first team, joining Erik Pichel (1996) and Brian Beckwith (2006).

“It makes it cool to be named with all the other good athletes, but it’s super cool to make (first team) with my setter,” van Tilburg said. “I think all of our team deserves to be on the (All-America) team.

“And Tui. He’s a winner. If you asked anyone from his family and friends if they were surprised he’s playing in the national championship tournament, no one would be. He’s that much of a winner.“

The surprise is that Tuileta did it while playing a new position for the first time after more than a year away from competitive volleyball. The two-sport All-Stater out of Punahou was an outside hitter at USC in 2015 and named to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation all-freshman team.

“Tui’s been an impressive athlete for a long time, so I don’t think anyone is surprised by his ability to play that position at a high level,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “We were fortunate to have had enough depth (at outside hitter) that we could sacrifice his arm.

“It was significant that he understood that it made us a better team. It’s nice to see someone who made that kind of sacrifice get recognized.”

If anyone was surprised, it was Tuileta.

“It’s a surprise because there are so many other good players out there,” said Tuileta, who became eligible to join the team after the fall semester was completed. “What’s important to me was to feel accepted on this team and to play a significant role.

“This just reminded me that I’m doing the job I’m supposed to do.”

That Mol didn’t make it on either of the first two teams was a function of how the voting went, according to Wade, a member of the selection committee. While two middle blockers did make the first team, none was selected on the second and nine were named honorable mention.

“He obviously is one of a handful of middle blockers who are the best in the country,” Wade said.

Mol, who never played middle blocker until his junior season, leads the Warriors in solo blocks with 14 and has played a big part in Hawaii being the top blocking team in the country (2.76 bps). However, it is likely that Mol will not be cleared to play today against Penn State, still rehabbing a sprained right ankle suffered in Set 2 of the MPSF tournament championship match at Long Beach State on April 22.

If Mol does not play today, it would break a streak of 59 consecutive starts for the Norwegian national dating back to 2015. He is the only Warrior to have started every match this season and started all 28 last year. Sophomore Dalton Solbrig would be making his third start of the season, fourth of his career.

“It’s better but still a major hindrance,” said Mol, who was out of a walking boot and wearing an ankle brace.

As for the award, “it’s nice but it’s been about the amazing team effort this year,” said Mol, ranked 11th nationally in blocks (1.08 bps). “That shows in that we didn’t get any (MPSF) player of the week (awards) until the last week of the season (when Franciskovic was honored). This season has been about the team.”

“We’ve had so much success because we have done things well as a team,” said Franciskovic, an honorable mention as a sophomore, when Hawaii last made the NCAA tournament. “We were up in a lot of team categories statistically, not so much the individual ones.

“We have a lot of great players but why we’ve been good is the way we’ve worked together and complement each other. It’s a big reason we are still playing and a lot of teams aren’t.”

Besides leading the nation in blocks, Hawaii also is No. 1 in kills (13.56 kps), No. 2 in assists (12.60 aps), No. 5 in hitting percentage (.322) and digs (9.12 dos). Individually, van Tilburg is No. 3 in kills (4.26 kps) and 10th in hitting percentage (.380); freshman middle Patrick Gasman ranks No. 8 in blocks (1.11 bps); and Franciskovic eighth in assists (10.19 aps).