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Hawaii’s awards banquet carried over to Tuesday, with all four Rainbow Wahine who were recognized at Sunday’s team function honored by the Big West.
Led by three-time first-team selection Norene Iosia, Hawaii made up a quarter of the 16-player first team. Joining the junior setter-hitter were senior hitter McKenna Granato, senior libero Tita Akiu and redshirt junior middle Natasha Burns, who is forgoing her final year of eligibility to graduate in spring.
Hawaii (18-8, 12-2), which finished second in the Big West for a second straight season, had no players on the second or freshman teams. Third-place UC Irvine also had four on the first team, UC Santa Barbara two, and Cal State Northridge, Long Beach State and UC Davis one each.
Conference champion and 14th-ranked Cal Poly (25-2, 15-1), with three first-team selections, swept the top awards. Junior opposite Torrey Van Winden was named player of the year, Sam Crosson repeated as coach of the year and setter Avalon DeNocochea shared freshman of the year with UCI hitter Abby Marjama.
All first-team selections are eligible for all-region awards, the second step in the All-America process.
“All four of them … Tita, Tasha, Mac and Norene … have all worked hard all season long and I think deserved the recognition,” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos said. “Tita just does her job. She is the reason we were able to go to a two-man passing rotation. She covers like 75 percent of the court, and that made a difference for us. She was consistent all year.
“McKenna carried the offensive load for the team. She has been durable throughout her career and has worked hard in all facets of her game to improve throughout her career.
“Natasha has put in the time and worked hard this season, and it showed in how much she improved and grew this year alone. She was able to reach her potential and has come a long way since she first stepped on campus.
“Norene does it all for us. She blocks, digs, hits, serves and sets. What can you say about her? She is a smart, talented player. She embraced her role and added responsibilities this year to help the team any way she could.”
Iosia, who picked up the team’s MVP award on Sunday, was one of four players to earn first-team honors for a third straight year. The Torrance, Calif., native was an outside hitter as well as a setter this season as Hawaii went to a modified 6-2 offense. She had four triple-doubles (assists-kills-digs), ranking fourth nationally, with 15 double-doubles (assists-kills or assists-digs). Iosia was second on the team in kills (201), assists (463), digs (286) and blocks (54), and third in aces (26).
It was the second first-team selection for Granato, who became the 20th Wahine to reach the 1,000-kill career mark this month. Her 1,044 kills ranks her No. 19 in the program’s record book. The Punahou School product had double-digit kills in 18 matches and 11 double-doubles (kills-digs).
Granato leads the Wahine in kills (313) and aces (37). On Sunday, she was named the team’s top offensive player.
Akiu, who transferred home after three seasons at Texas Tech, had double-digit digs in all but one match, finishing with 431 during the regular season. The Kamehameha graduate had six matches of 20-plus digs, including three with 26, her UH-career best.
It was the third recognition in as many days for Akiu. On Sunday, she was named the team’s top defensive player and on Monday the Big West’s defensive player of the week, the third time for that honor this season.
It was the first conference honor for Burns, named the team’s best blocker on Sunday. She had a 88 blocks during the regular season, 14 solo and 74 block assists. The Canadian national also had 177 kills and hit .311. the latter seventh-best in the conference.
Hawaii will learn whether its season will continue on Sunday. The NCAA selection show will be aired on ESPNU at 3:30 p.m.
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