Higher ratings, 2 BWC honors for Wahine

Two big wins led to two weekly conference awards as well as a two-spot jump in the national poll for the Hawaii women’s volleyball team.

On Monday, the now-No. 19 Rainbow Wahine also moved up six places to 11 in the Ratings Percentage Index that rates a team’s strength of schedule. The RPI is used by the NCAA to seed the postseason tournament and award hosting duties for the first rounds; teams with an RPI of 16 or better traditionally have hosted the first and second rounds.

Monday saw Hawaii (20-3, 10-2 Big West) have two players earn conference honors in the same week for the first time this season in freshman hitter Hanna Hellvig and redshirt junior libero Rika Okino.

Hellvig was named Freshman of the Week for the fourth time after leading the team in kills against both UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly. The 6-foot-2 Swedish national had a combined 32 kills and 36.5 points, including a career-high 19 kills in Friday’s five-set win over the Gauchos, and 13 kills in four sets against the Mustangs on Sunday.

Okino, who is graduating in May, was named the Defensive Player of the Week, the first conference honor of her career. She had a combined 35 digs last week, including a career-high 25 against UCSB, which accounted for a third of the Wahine’s 75 digs.

The Kalani High product had 18 digs in the final two sets against the Gauchos, 12 coming in Set 4. Her 10 digs against the Mustangs were her seventh double-digit-dig match this season.

Hellvig also was nominated for Player of the Week, the honor going to Cal Poly junior hitter Maia Dvoracek. Dvoracek, who leads the conference kills and aces, had 29 kills and 13 digs in the loss to Hawaii, and 20 kills and three aces in the sweep of Cal State Northridge earlier in the week.

The newest American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25 had the top six remaining the same, led by No. 1 Texas (16-2, 47 first-place votes). Pitt (23-1, 14 votes) was at No. 2, followed by Baylor (19-1, one vote), Wisconsin (16-4, one vote), Stanford (16-4, one vote) and Minnesota (17-2).

Hawaii is the only Big West team ranked. UCSB received 10 points, putting the Gauchos outside the Top 25 at 31.

Against ranked opponents, the Wahine lost to Baylor and have wins over No. 14 Washington and No. 23 UCLA. Hawaii also has wins over San Diego and Missouri, which were ranked when facing the Wahine. In Monday’s poll, the Toreros are outside the Top 25 at 26th and the Tigers at 30th.

Last week’s two wins moved the Wahine into first place in the conference standings, a half-game ahead of UC Santa Barbara (19-3, 9-2) and Cal Poly (16-7, 9-2).

The Mustangs host the Gauchos on Saturday.

Should Hawaii win its final four regular-season matches, the Wahine would earn at least a share of the conference title. Hawaii then would also receive the Big West’s automatic berth in the NCAA tournament based on tiebreakers.

The Wahine play at UC Davis (13-11, 5-6) on Friday and UC Riverside (5-17, 1-10) on Sunday, then host Cal State Northridge (10-13, 5-6) on Nov. 21 and Long Beach State (8-15, 5-6) on Nov. 22 to close their regular season.

What will hurt Hawaii’s RPI heading into Selection Sunday on Dec. 1 is the rating of its final four opponents: UC Davis (137), UC Riverside (257), CSUN (180) and Long Beach (167). The Wahine last hosted the first two rounds in 2013.

Teams rated in the top 16 traditionally have been the host sites for the subregionals. The highest rated team remaining in each of the four regions hosts the third and fourth rounds.

This year’s final four is hosted by Pitt.