Good things may come in threes, but they also came in twos for Hawaii volleyball on Monday.
Both the Rainbow Warriors men’s indoor and Rainbow Wahine beach squads moved up to No. 2 in their respective AVCA polls. The Warriors also earned two of the three weekly awards from the Big West.
For the Warriors, junior hitter Stijn van Tilburg was named the conference player of the week and senior libero Tui Tuileta the defensive player of the week.
Van Tilburg had a combined 48 kills in two matches against UC Irvine, including tying his career high with 27 in a four-set loss to the Anteaters on Sunday. He hit .418 for the two contests with a combined 12 digs and three blocks. Van Tilburg, who has seven 20-plus-kill matches this season, ranks No. 3 nationally in kill average (4.52 kps).
Tuileta had a season-high 14 digs in Friday’s four-set victory over UCI and added 11 in Sunday’s defeat. The Punahou graduate leads the team in digs (2.15 dps), ranking him third in the Big West.
Thanks to then-No. 2 UCLA losing twice last week, the Warriors (9-2) jumped over the Bruins (14-4) in the poll. Long Beach State (14-0) remained the unanimous No. 1, while UC Irvine (12-4), helped by its split with Hawaii, moved up a spot to No. 4.
In the beach poll, the SandBows leapfrogged three spots from No. 5 after going 3-1 in their Rainbow Wahine Classic, including a 5-0 sweep of UCLA (3-1). Hawaii also lost to the Bruins 3-2 and defeated new No. 16 Stanford (0-4) twice.
Defending national champion USC (4-0) remained at No. 1, UCLA stayed at No. 3 and Florida State again was No. 4. Former No. 2 Pepperdine (2-1) replaced Hawaii at No. 5.
The Warriors next host new Mountain Pacific Sports Federation member No. 13 Concordia of Irvine on Friday at 7 p.m. and on Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The SandBows next play UCLA and No. 20 Loyola Marymount on March 8 at UCLA.