The drive to a Big West championship continued with this morning’s drive to San Diego. The top-ranked Hawaii men’s volleyball team brought along its streaks of 21 straight wins and NCAA-best 63 consecutive sets-won to its practice at UC San Diego’s RIMAC Arena, looking to add to both when taking on the host Tritons Friday and Saturday in a return to conference play.
“Two league matches on the road at someone else’s home,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “There’s always a concern.”
The Rainbow Warriors (21-0, 4-0) have been all business so far on this trip, with three straight-set victories at last week’s Brigham Young Invite and Tuesday’s sweep at Concordia-Irvine (7-13, 0-4 MPSF). They took a break Wednesday by — what else — watching more volleyball when taking in the match at Orange Coast College against Fullerton in Costa Mesa.
The Tritons also have been on break with winter finals — UCSD is on the quarter system — and haven’t played since March 12. UCSD swept Lindenwood 28-26, 25-23, 27-25, snapping a four-match skid and giving coach Kevin Ring his 100th career win.
In the victory over the Lions, sophomore hitter Wyatt Harrison — son of former Warrior Todd — finished with 14 kills. Middle Logan Clark had seven kills and hit .462 en route to being named the Big West freshman of the week on March 19.
Hawaii has won the last 11 meetings with UCSD, including six straight at RIMAC dating to 2011. The Warriors are 54-4 all-time against the Tritons, the 54 wins tied for the most against a single opponent (the other is Cal State Northridge).
Against Concordia on Tuesday, Hawaii wasn’t as sharp as it had been. The Warriors came into the week still as the national leader in hitting percentage (.481); against the Eagles, they dropped to .449.
Still, the NCAA record is .375, set by Long Beach State last season during the 49ers’ championship run. Hawaii has hit under .400 just twice this year: .364 the first match against Stanford and .382 last week vs. Princeton.
The Warriors also lead the country in four other categories: kills (14.95 per set), assists (13.95), blocks (2.80) and opponent hitting (.185). Only two teams have hit above .300 against Hawaii: Pepperdine (.355) and Ball State (.316).
Individually, former Pacific Rim Academy clubmates Joe Worsley and Patrick Gasman continue to lead the nation; the pair were rewarded Monday with conference weekly honors. Worsley, a senior setter, is No. 1 in assists (11.82 per set) and Gasman is No. 1 in blocks (1.577).
On Tuesday, senior hitter Brett Rosenmeier had his second start of the season, replacing junior Colton Cowell on the outside. Wade said he wanted to give Rosenmeier some more playing time.
BIG WEST MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
At La Jolla, Calif.
>> Friday & Saturday, 4 p.m. Hawaii time
>> No. 1 Hawaii (21-0, 4-0) at UC San Diego (7-13, 0-4)
>> TV: None
>> Online stream: ESPN3.com
>> Live stats: ucsdtritons.com
>> Series: Hawaii leads, 54-4
