Top-ranked Hawaii men’s volleyball team captures Big West regular-season title
The top-ranked Hawaii men’s volleyball team captured the outright Big West regular-season title with a 25-20, 25-20, 25-21 sweep of Cal State Northridge today at the Matadome in Northridge, Calif.
UH senior Rado Parapunov hammered a match-high 15 kills while hitting .407 and middle blocker Guilherme Voss added nine kills on 12 attempts and the Rainbow Warriors improved to 13-0 overall and 8-0 in conference play.
Hawaii secured at least a tie for the title with a four-set victory in Friday’s series opener with the Matadors and claimed the crown outright with today’s sweep.
Griffin Walters and Cole Chea led CSUN (1-7, 1-7) with nine kills each.
The Warriors return home to close the regular season with a two-match series against UC Irvine starting Friday at SimpliFi Arena. UH will be the top seed for the Big West tournament set for April 22-24 in Manoa.
Hawaii pulled away late in today’s first set with Parapunov putting down three consecutive kills to give the Warriors a 24-20 lead and a CSUN hitting error ending the set.
Colton Cowell had back-to-back aces and Akana provided three kills off the bench in the second set. The Warriors put together a 5-0 run to break an 18-18 tie in the third set and finished off the match with a kill by setter Jakob Thelle.