There’s DNA. Then there’s VBA.

Volleyball Acumen is part genetics, part desire, part percipience. Just because one’s double helix is entwined with the sport doesn’t mean one has the want to excel. Or the capability. Or the understanding.

Joe Worsley has VBA. The skill set, the mind-set, the high volleyball IQ required for a setter, the vision that is not 20-20 but 60-30 (the dimensions of a volleyball court).

It’s not just that Worsley was born to play the game. After all, father Roger, co-founder and co-director of Pacific Rim Volleyball Academy, coached volleyball long before his oldest son was born.

It’s more than that. More like Joe Worsley was born to play for Hawaii, where some of his earliest volleyball memories are of being in the Stan Sheriff Center as a 3-year-old watching the Rainbow Wahine play while his dad was the team’s technical assistant in 2000.

“I had that connection,” the reserve freshman setter said as the Rainbow Warriors prepared to take on top-ranked Long Beach State tonight. “Then when I came on my official visit (while at Campolindo High in California), I really liked the atmosphere, how the boosters and everyone supported the program.”

It helped that Worsley had visited Oahu — where his father was born and his grandparents lived — a number of times.

It also helped that Hawaii was one of the few schools that was looking at Worsley strictly as a setter. Although that is the position he has played almost exclusively since age 9, a position where he led his high school to four sectional and three regional titles, and his club team to two junior national championships, most of his college suitors saw Worsley — all 6 feet of him, according to his doctor — as a libero.

“I like him a lot, I like just about everything about him,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said, alluding to Worsley’s height, or lack thereof. “He’s your classic coach’s son, been around volleyball his whole life. He makes some difficult plays look routine, has a knack of finding the ball and making good things happen with it. You can’t have too many guys like that in your program.

“Watching him as a junior in high school and at (club junior nationals), you noticed how good his location was. He’s one of the best players in the country, won back-to-back national championships. He’s proven he can win at a high level and that usually correlates to winning at the next level.”

Worsley got that chance at the next national level when he was selected to the U.S. Boys Youth National Team that competed at last summer’s FIVB U19 World Championship in Argentina. More impressive is that he made the team as a libero “after hopping in there when the coaches said they wanted to look at me there,” Worsley said of the tryout. “What helped was that my dad always stressed defense and passing — that was a huge part of our teams — so playing defense wasn’t new to me.”

But international play was so daunting Worsley called one of the best liberos in the world for advice: U.S. national team member Erik Shoji. The son of Wahine coach Dave Shoji likely will be the starting libero at this summer’s Olympics.

“It was about understanding the position,” Worsley said. “We talked a lot about the serving at the international level. I got a different perspective.”

“The libero component was always in him,” said Roger Worsley, also the technical adviser for the Warriors in 2001 and Stanford during its 2010 NCAA title campaign. “From an early age, he had a strong court vision, of seeing the game. It has been ingrained in him to be a solid defender.

“We supported his decision to go there, in part because Hawaii wanted him as a setter where other places wanted him as a libero. He spent all of his career setting, so the feeling was that he’d be doing an injustice to himself to not give it a shot.”

Wade never hesitated using the freshman in key serving situations where Worsley saw limited action in the first 12 matches. In the 13th — Night 2 at Stanford — Worsley took over for junior Jennings Franciskovic in Set 2.

Worsley’s connection with his middles helped the Warriors take their only set off the Cardinal in two matches. Although Hawaii went on to lose in four, it was enough to earn the freshman his first start against USC two nights later.

“I didn’t find out until right before warmups,” the psychology major said. “I wasn’t too nervous and we got off to a great start (winning Set 1 25-15).”

Hawaii hung on to win in five on Feb. 15 but couldn’t pull off the repeat the next night, losing in five. Worsley played all five sets Tuesday as a serving sub — the Warriors had match point in Set 5 at 14-11 but lost 17-15.

Hawaii has dropped four of its last five, “but I don’t think we’re down,” Worsley said. “We understand our potential and we are continuing to grow into the team we want to be.”

“I know we will turn it around.”