Van Tilburg’s enthusiasm for Hawaii shows on and off the court

In a word? “Schitterend.”

Translated from Dutch, it means having great beauty and splendor, simply wondrous.

For Stijn van Tilburg, it only begins to describe his new home. The freshman opposite from Amsterdam likens Hawaii — the state and the state of volleyball — to a diamond’s brilliance, also another definition of “schitterend.”

“There is nothing that I don’t like,” said van Tilburg as the No. 6 Rainbow Warriors prepared for this week’s series with Grand Canyon. “I enjoy every day here. It’s insane.

“When I was sending my parents pictures (last semester) it was hard to describe to them. But when they came (two weeks ago), they understood. They were, ‘Wow.’”

It was the perfect word for how van Tilburg played in the 22nd Outrigger Resorts Invitational, where he had 14 kills with no errors in 15 attacks in his collegiate debut against King. He finished with 47 en route to Most Outstanding Player honors as Hawaii won its own invitational for the first time since 2010.

As good as the performance was for someone not used to playing on back-to-back nights, van Tilburg showed even more when helping Hawaii rebound on the second night last Saturday at then-No. 12 Pepperdine. In Friday’s sweep, he had 12 kills but eight errors and “I was reminded of what Josh (assistant coach Walker) said about the position before the season,” van Tilburg said.

“For every 10 balls you hit, only allow one error. I had to adjust to the big block and I was disappointed in my amount of errors (Friday) even though I scored a lot of points. I think I did a good job Saturday.”

Van Tilburg had just one error with 15 kills, raising his hitting average to .436 heading into tonight’s match with the Lopes (5-0). It was the response that the Hawaii coaching staff had hoped for early in the season, especially considering that van Tilburg is still learning to be an opposite after playing left-side during his time playing for the Dutch youth and junior national teams and in the Dutch Eredivisie League.

Walker can relate, having done the same conversion when earning second team All-American honors during his Hawaii career.

“When you go to the right, you want to hit the ball all the time,” Walker said. “It’s see the ball, hit the ball. Most of the time, you’re going to get more sets with the lefts splitting time getting sets.

“Mentally, it’s easier because you know you’re get- ting a lot of sets. Execution- wise, the job is a little harder.”

The key has been the connection on and off the court with junior setter Jennings Franciskovic.

“The first thing you learn about Stijn is how much he loves volleyball,” Franciskovic said. “He came here to play and always wants to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He could be making a lot of money right now but this is where he wanted to be.

“In the fall, our connection was a little iffy. But I told him that once the lights are on (during season) that it will be perfect. He is an easy person to set, gives me a lot of feedback, which sometimes hitters don’t. He’s a really smart player, just like Siki (senior hitter Zarkovic). You can see he’s been around volleyball for a long time.”

Van Tilburg’s goals were to play in America and become a better volleyball player. Hawaii was the first school to contact him after a friend of Warrior coach Charlie Wade alerted him to van Tilburg.

“I saw videos on him and jumped on a plane,” Wade said. “I’d say better than advertised.

“He was a left-side, six-rotation player but one of the positions we were auditioning in fall was opposite. Siki and Kupono (junior left-side hitter Fey) are so good at receiving serves that Stijn wasn’t going to get into the lineup that way.”

Van Tilburg agreed, noting his serve-receive was not his strength.

“I’ve always been an attacker but never a good passer,” the 19-year-old said. “Moving to the right wasn’t a big change.”

Moving 7,200 miles away from the Netherlands wasn’t difficult either. Van Tilburg had moved away from home when he was 16 to attend Beekdal Lyceum in Arnhem.

“This is nothing new, it’s a similar combination of school and volleyball,” the economics major said. “Why I wanted to come to Hawaii was for how the people care about the sport of volleyball. I was looking for a challenge and in my view I didn’t find it in the Netherlands.

“It’s been a lot of fun. People recognize you, follow the game, know how we’ve done, say you did a great job. I enjoy every single day. It’s even better than I expected.

“It’s like a diamond shining. It’s schitterend.”