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Undefeated Hawaii men’s volleyball retains No. 1 spot; Voss receives freshman recognition

Hawaii middle blocker Guilherme Voss today was named Big West Freshman of the Week in men’s volleyball for the second consecutive week, and third of his career.

The Brazilian national helped the top-ranked Rainbow Warriors (14-0) remain undefeated with two sweeps on the road last week at then-No. 11 Stanford. Voss had five kills in each of the matches with a combined two errors and .471 hitting percentage. He also had team-highs of four blocks Friday and five on Saturday.

Earlier today, Hawaii remained atop the American Volleyball Coaches Association Men’s Division I-II Top 15. The Warriors received 12 of the first-place votes — one more than last week — with No. 2 Brigham Young (13-0) receiving the other four.

Hawaii and BYU are the only unbeaten teams left in the country. The two meet for a pair of nonconference matches at the Stan Sheriff Center on March 5 and 6.

UC Santa Barbara (8-2) and Long Beach State (7-1) stayed at Nos. 3 and 4, respectively. Lewis (9-4) moved up a spot to No. 6 while Pepperdine (6-3), No. 7 last week, is tied with UC Irvine (7-5) at No. 6. The Anteaters dropped from No. 5 following their five-set conference loss to UC San Diego last week.

It was the first Big West win for the Tritons (11-3), up three spots to No. 10, since the creation of the conference in 2018. It also snapped a 27-match conference losing streak dating to 2017 when UCSD was in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

The Big West has five of the top 10 teams in the poll. Only Cal State Northridge (3-9) is unranked.

The Warriors are on a bye week and return to play when hosting two exhibition matches against Nittaidai of Japan, Feb. 26 and 28.

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