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Pair of Hawaii men’s volleyball players receive Big West weekly honors

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM

Hawaii libero Gage Worsley was named the Big West’s defensive player of the week and opposite Rado Parapunov repeated as the player of the week.

The Hawaii men’s volleyball team matched its ranking with the number of awards today with the Rainbow Warriors (15-0) remaining at No. 2 while picking up two honors from the Big West.

Junior opposite Rado Parapunov repeated as the player of the week and sophomore libero Gage Worsley was named the defensive player of the week. Parapunov was named the Most Outstanding Player and Worsley joined him on the all-tournament after helping Hawaii to its ninth Outrigger Hotels & Resorts Invitational championship on Saturday.

It was the fourth honor of Parapunov’s career. The 6-foot-9 Bulgarian national had a tournament-high 38 kills, averaged 4.75 kills per set and hit .554 as Hawaii extended its season-opening win streak to 15 and set-won streak to 45 — both school record runs.

Worsley, a 6-1 sophomore, had 34 digs in the three sweeps of King, No. 15 Ball State and No. 6 Pepperdine. He had a career-high 15 against the Waves and did not have an error in 58 service receptions, including 24 for 24 against Pepperdine.

Also today, Hawaii remained a unanimous No. 2 in the AVCA Division I-II Men’s Top 15 volleyball poll for a second consecutive week.

The Rainbow Warriors (15-0) remained behind unanimous No. 1 Long Beach State (17-0), the defending national champion receiving all 16 first-place votes.

UC Irvine’s split last week at Brigham Young had the Anteaters (14-5) dropping to No. 5 and had UC Santa Barbara (15-3) and UCLA (16-4) moving up a spot, the Gauchos to No. 3 and the Bruins to No. 4.

Hawaii’s next opponent, Cal State Northridge (10-8), stayed at No. 12. The Warriors and Matadors meet in 7 p.m. matches Friday and Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

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