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Taylor is Big West player of the week
Hawaii freshman Nikki Taylor earned her first Big West volleyball player of the week honor Monday after helping the Rainbow Wahine to a pair of sweeps.
The 6-foot-3 opposite hit .444 in wins over UC Davis and Cal State Northridge, collecting 26 kills. The Kaiser High graduate delivered a match-high 15 kills against the Matadors — who beat UH in their first meeting — and hit .565.
Hawaii (22-4, 11-3 BWC) has won its past six going into the final week of the Big West season. It remained 12th in the AVCA Coaches Top 25 Monday, but dropped a spot to 11th in the NCAA Ratings Percentage Index.
The RPI is used to seed teams and determine the 16 hosts for the NCAA tournament’s first and second rounds. Hawaii last hosted a subregional in 2011.
The Wahine play at UC Riverside on Friday and Cal State Fullerton on Saturday. The 64 NCAA tournament teams — 31 conference automatic qualifiers and 33 at-large teams — will be announced Sunday.
UC Santa Barbara leads the Big West at 12-2. If the Gauchos win one of their remaining matches — against Long Beach State and UC Irvine — they get the conference’s automatic qualifier. UCSB holds the tiebreakers over Hawaii and Northridge (12-3) if the teams end up tied.