Taylor gets fifth Big West honor; Wahine at No. 8

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DARRELL MIHO / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
Hawaii’s Nikki Taylor powered a kill against UC Santa Barbara on Saturday. The Wahine swept the Gauchos.

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Nikki Taylor finished the conference regular season the same way she began it: as the Big West’s player of the week in volleyball.

On Monday, the 6-foot-4 junior opposite out of Kaiser High became the third Rainbow Wahine to earn five weekly honors in a single season, the first time from the Big West. All-Americans Angelica Ljungquist (1996) and Kanani Danielson (2009) were five-time winners in the Western Athletic Conference.

“It’s really humbling,” Taylor said. “It feels good to be put into that cul de sac, the pool of great (Wahine) players, because they were such great leaders on and off the court. To think I could be grouped with them is a huge honor.

“It means a lot to me and gives me a great confidence boost. It feels good to accomplish something I’ve worked hard to do. But we still have more games to play and a lot more things to do.”

In last week’s three road sweeps, Taylor had a combined 46 kills, 13 digs, nine blocks and four service aces at UC Irvine, Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara. She hit .276 with just 19 errors in 98 attempts as Hawaii improved to 26-1 overall, extending its winning streak to 21 straight and finishing Big West play at 16-0.

Taylor opened the week with 20 kills against UC Irvine, the seventh time she had 20 kills or more, and hit .405 as the Rainbow Wahine clinched the conference title outright and the Big West’s automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.

Hawaii, which has a bye week, will learn its postseason fate Sunday when the NCAA bracket is announced. The Wahine will do so ranked No. 8 in the AVCA Coaches Division I Top 25 poll and 26 in the Ratings Percentage Index.

The RPI is used by the NCAA selection committee to seed the top 16 teams and award hosting duties for the first and second rounds, which will be held next week.

USC (29-1, 17-1 Pac-12) stayed in the top spot, receiving 55 first-place votes, and Washington (26-2, 16-2 Pac-12) remained at No. 2 with the other nine votes. The next five shuffled places, with Texas (24-2, 14-1 Big 12) jumping two spots to No. 3, Minnesota (24-4, 16-12 Big Ten) down a place to No. 4; and Nebraska (24-4, 15-3 Big Ten) up a spot to No. 5. Stanford (20-6, 14-4 Pac-12) moved up one place to No. 6, while defending national champion Penn State (25-4, 14-4 Big Ten) fell three places to No. 7.

The rest of the top 10 remained the same, with Kansas (24-2, 14-2 Big 12) staying at No. 9 and Wisconsin (20-6, 14-4 Big Ten) at No. 10. UCLA (22-6, 13-5 Pac-12), the only team to defeat Hawaii this season, slipped two spots to No. 13.

Big West runner-up Long Beach State (23-6, 13-3 Big West) received 24 points, putting the 49ers outside the Top 25 at 38th.