The Hawaii men’s volleyball team matched its ranking to the number of its awards on Monday, with the Rainbow Warriors (15-0) remaining at No. 2 as well as 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 sets-won streak to 45 — both school-record runs.
Worsley, a 6-1 sophomore from Moraga, Calif., had a combined 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 going 24-for-24 against Pepperdine.
Also on Monday, Hawaii remained a unanimous No. 2 in the AVCA Division I-II Men’s Top 15 volleyball poll for a second consecutive week. They stayed 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.
SandBows earn Big West honors
The Hawaii beach volleyball team of Ari Homayun and Julia Scoles was named the Big West pairs team of the week on Monday, the second time for the duo in three weeks.
Homayun-Scoles went 4-0 at last week’s East Meets West Challenge in Manhattan Beach, Calif., the only Rainbow Wahine tandem to go undefeated. All four of their wins came over ranked opponents, including three top-10 teams in No. 4 Florida State, No. 6 LSU, and No. 9 Florida International.
The SandBows’ No. 3 pair scored the clinching point in 3-2 wins over No. 19 TCU and No. 9 FIU. Against FIU, Homayun, a senior from Woodland Hills, Calif., and Scoles, a junior from Mooresville, N.C., held off three match points to rally past the Panthers 21-19 in the third set.
The duo owns a team-best record of 7-1, with its lone loss coming against top-ranked UCLA.
Hawaii, which dropped a spot to No. 5 in Monday’s poll, next hosts Boise State, California and Nebraska in the Heineken Hawaii Invitational on Friday and Saturday at Queen’s Beach.
UH softball holds off SIUE
Hawaii first baseman Callee Heen hit a two-run home run and freshman Mikaela Gandia-Mak delivered two RBI doubles to help the Rainbow Wahine softball team top SIU-Edwardsville 5-3 on Monday at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
UH freshman Izzy Dino struck out six and allowed eight hits while protecting the lead to improve to 6-2.
The Rainbow Wahine (16-6) face Utah today at 6 p.m. at RWSS.
HPU baseball, softball swept
The Hawaii Pacific baseball team lost both games in their doubleheader against visiting Concordia-Irvine.
The first game went 8-3, with the Sharks only scoring in the top of the fifth and eighth.
The Sharks (16-10, 3-7 PacWest) lost the second game 9-8. They gave up an 8-7 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh.
However, the Eagles (9-10, 4-0 PacWest) scored two more with two hit batters and two walks to take the game.
>> The Hawaii Pacific softball team lost both of its games in La Mirada, Calif., on Monday against Biola.
In the first game, Biola scored all of its runs in the bottom of the first of a 4-0 win.
The Sharks (17-13, 11-5 PacWest) lost the second game 6-2, with their only runs coming in the top of the second from Tiana Kawelo-Cantero’s two-run homer.
Chaminade softball splits doubleheader
The Chaminade softball team split with Holy Names, winning the opener 2-0 and losing the second game 4-1, Monday at Central Oahu Regional Park.
Madelyn Stockslager threw a four-hit, shutout for the ’Swords in the first game.
The second-game loss snapped the ’Swords’ (8-7, 5-3 PacWest) five-game winning streak.
HPU women’s hoops in quarterfinals
The Hawaii Pacific women’s basketball team will play on Friday at 9 a.m. in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Championship against No. 8 Alaska Anchorage.
The game will be at the RIMAC Arena in San Diego.
The winner will go on to play in the semifinals against the winner between Northwest Nazarene and Humboldt State.