It’s the great unknown. And it’s both scary and exciting for No. 5 Hawaii, on the road this week to open its final season in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
The Rainbow Warriors headed off to California on Monday on their first trip of the year as one of two remaining unbeatens in men’s collegiate volleyball. Hawaii feels it’s in good company, joining No. 1 Ohio State at 5-0, the defending national champion having won 28 straight dating back to February.
It’s hard to compare résumés of the two. The Warriors’ lone signature victory of the young season came nine days ago against now-No. 13 Ball State for the championship of the Outrigger Resorts Invitational; their other four wins have been in straight sets, including two last week against Grand Canyon.
| MPSF VOLLEYBALL
Wednesday & Friday, 5 p.m. HST
No. 5 Hawaii (5-0, 0-0) at No. 4 Long Beach State (4-1, 1-1)
Saturday, 5 p.m. HST
No. 5 Hawaii at No. 6 UC Irvine (5-1, 2-1)
Radio/TV: None
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The Buckeyes, also opening at home, had 3-1 wins over unranked USC and No. 2 UCLA. They followed that with two sweeps at No. 10 Stanford.
Ohio State — which is hosting the national championship in May — doesn’t start conference play until Feb. 3 when it travels to MIVA foe Ball State. Conversely, Hawaii plays three MPSF matches in four days, hosted by No. 4 Long Beach on Wednesday and Friday, and No. 6 UC Irvine on Saturday.
It’s an early test for the Warriors and “it will tell us how good we are,” said senior middle blocker Hendrik Mol, one of only four to have played in this week’s venues. “We’re looking forward to this first road trip.
“(Long Beach State) is a very good team that returns almost everyone from last year. But they also just lost to USC. Irvine may not be the same team as last year or the one we played in the preseason. I’m excited. It will be fun.”
That remains to be seen. Wednesday’s match at the Walter Pyramid is the home opener for the 49ers (4-1. 1-1). The Beach features sophomore All-Americans TJ DeFalco, the AVCA’s newcomer of the year as a freshman hitter, and setter Josh Tuaniga, both of whom were high school teammates and clubmates of Hawaii redshirt freshman hitter James Anastassiades.
“TJ and Josh have been playing together for eight years and they have a great setter-hitter connection,” Anastassiades said. “They’ll be hard to defend, but Coach Charlie (Wade) has been preparing us (to defend) that quick set.
“And the Pyramid … a really interesting place to play. When you look up after throwing the ball to serve it’s hard to tell when the ball is near you when it’s coming down. It’s a perception thing and part of our challenge.”
So, too, is Hawaii’s road experience in conference play. Besides Mol, only senior setter Jennings Franciskovic, senior hitter Kupono Fey and sophomore libero Larry “Tui” Tuileta — the latter when a freshman at USC in 2015 — have played in the Pyramid and UCI’s Bren Events Center.
But Mol, Franciskovic and Fey were 3-1 as sophomores the last time the Warriors faced the 49ers and Anteaters in their home arenas and Tuileta was 2-0 with the Trojans in 2015.
“I’m looking forward to going on the road and competing with this group,” said Wade, whose 14-player travel roster includes five freshmen and five sophomores. “We know we have a lot of work to do to get better.
“Win, lose or draw on this trip is not going to define our season. With so many new guys on the team, we’re still learning about ourselves. This trip will help us identify what we like about us and what we need to improve.”
