The most important match is the next one. Always.
For No. 3 Hawaii, that means Thursday, when the Rainbow Warriors make their first road appearance in two months traveling to No. 10 Cal State Northridge.
Hawaii has been in Manoa since Jan. 15, following its trek to Tennessee for the Grow The Game Challenge. The Warriors completed their longest homestead since 1996 at 9-3.
The losses have come against teams that were ranked in the top five when they played Hawaii and that remain in this week’s top five: No. 2 Brigham Young, No. 4 UCLA and No. 5 UC Irvine.
| Big West volleyball
Thursday and Friday, 4 p.m.
>> No. 3 Hawaii (13-3, 1-1) at No. 10 Cal State Northridge (10-7, 0-2)
>> Series: Hawaii leads 52-19
NONCONFERENCE VOLLEYBALL
Sunday, 2 p.m.
>> No. 3 Hawaii at No. 7 Pepperdine (10-6, 4-3 MPSF)
>> Series: Pepperdine leads 43-34
>> Radio/TV: None
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The memory of last Saturday’s four-set loss to the Cougars for the Outrigger Resorts Invitational championship was still fresh when the Warriors left for Los Angeles on Tuesday. The lesson plan for today’s practice at the Matadome was to learn from the defeat, to fix one of the things the Cougars’ sizzling serving had exposed: Hawaii’s shakiness on serve-receive.
It was uncharacteristic but proved to be a fatal flaw. The Warriors gave up a season-high 11 aces; they had come into the match having given up a combined 45 in their previous 15 contests.
“Losing to BYU pushes us to get better,” Warriors senior libero Tui Tuileta said. “Every team that comes to the ‘Stan’ (Stan Sheriff Center) plays their best game, and you have to expect that. We were good, but they were better at crunch time.
“We have the guys who can put pressure on with their serves. It will be more important to do it on the road. This is a good test for us.”
This is the first of just two road trips for conference matches for the Warriors this inaugural Big West season. Both Hawaii and CSUN have played only two BWC matches, with the Warriors splitting the series with UC Irvine and the Matadors being swept twice by No. 1 Long Beach State in a span of three days.
Besides contending with the funkiness of the dark, 2,000-seat Matadome, Hawaii will see one of the top serving teams in the country in CSUN, ranked No. 3 (1.86 aps) after leading the country the previous four weeks. Also on the Blacktop will be two of the top servers: Dimitar Kalchev (ninth, 27 aces), who is No. 3 on the program’s career ace list, and Arvis Greene Jr. (12th, 22).
Greene, a senior opposite, is the reigning conference player of the week. He had a combined 26 kills in last week’s home sweeps of George Mason and Harvard.
The 6-foot-7 Greene is one of “their guys who can score at will,” Warriors coach Charlie Wade said of the Matadors. “We played them in November (fall matches at CSUN) and they have a lot of good arms. Talent-wise, they are as good as anyone in the country.
“We’ve been at home a long time, been able to get a lot of practice time in our gym. Now it’s time to take it on the road. We’re excited.”
Besides Greene (4.55 kps), the Matadors have junior hitter Kalchev (3.35 kps) and first-year Polish nationals Ksavery Tomsia (2.00 kps) and Maciej Ptaszynski (1.63 kps) all ranked in the top 20 in the conference in kills.
Notes
CSUN coach Jeff Campbell, in his 21st season, is one win away from notching his 300th career victory (299-292). … The Matadors are 0-5 against ranked teams this season. … Hawaii’s Austin Matautia was named Off the Block/Molten national outside attacker of the week and VolleyMob national player of the week. The sophomore hitter had a career-high five aces against BYU, finishing with 12 in the Outrigger, one off the tournament record.
