Rainbow Warriors stay at No. 2 | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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Two victories kept Hawaii at No. 2 in Monday’s AVCA Division I-II Men’s Volleyball Top 15.

The Rainbow Warriors (11-2) remained behind unanimous No. 1 Long Beach State (16-0). Hawaii hosts the 24th Outrigger Resorts Invitational, a field that has three other top 15 teams, all with new rankings this week.

BYU (14-4), UH’s opponent on Saturday, moved up a spot to No. 4 after victories over then-No. 3 UCLA and then-No. 8 Pepperdine. The Warriors open the tournament on Thursday with Lewis (13-5), which dropped a spot to No. 8, and on Friday play Penn State (10-4), which also dropped one place to No. 11.

SandBows drop to No. 3

A bye week had the Hawaii beach volleyball team saying goodbye to its No. 2 ranking. The SandBows (3-1) fell one spot to No. 3 in Monday’s AVCA Collegiate Beach Volleyball Coaches Top 20.

Pepperdine (5-2) leapfrogged four spaces into the top spot after going 3-1 last week with two wins over then-No. 1 USC and a split of two matches with then-No. 3 UCLA. The Women of Troy (5-3) slipped to No. 2 and the Bruins (5-3) to No. 4.

Hawaii travels for the first time this season and is at UCLA on Thursday to play the Bruins and No. 17 Loyola Marymount (4-2). The SandBows also will compete in the East versus West Invitational at Manhattan Beach, Calif., and will take on No. 20 TCU (3-4) and No. 5 Florida State (8-0) on Saturday, and No. 9 LSU (5-3) and No. 13 Florida International (6-1) on Sunday.

Albert, Hitchcock named Big West scholar athletes

University of Hawaii men’s tennis player Felix Albert and softball pitcher Brittany Hitchcock have been selected as the school’s recipients of the Big West Scholar Athlete of the Year award. One male and one female student-athlete from each of the conference’s nine schools receive the honor.

Albert, an All-Big West first-team selection last year, earned the scholar-athlete award for the second consecutive year. He was the first UH tennis player to receive Academic All-America honors.

Hitchcock was a first-team all-conference pick last year and was named to the NFCA All-West Region third team. She graduated in three years with a degree in Family Resources and is completing her masters in Educational Psychology.