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These numbers don’t seem to add up.
Hawaii has topped the men’s volleyball coaches and media polls for most of the season and completed the program’s first undefeated run through the regular season last weekend.
Yet, when this week’s NCAA’s Rating Percentage Index was posted, the Rainbow Warriors (15-0, 10-0 Big West) had dipped to fourth in the ranking. Lewis (18-2) supplanted UH at No. 1, followed by BYU (17-3) and Daemen (10-0), an independent and the only other undefeated team in the country.
“I’ve gone back and forth between the RPI and Ouija Board, historically, to see which one was more reliable,” UH coach Charlie Wade said on Tuesday. “I’ve not seen (No. 5) D’Youville play this year, but at 0-2 they’ve got an impressive RPI. That metric is escaping me. I think I picked the Ouija Board on this one.”
The mathematical oddities of an unusual season aside, the Warriors enter this week’s Big West tournament in Manoa aiming to add the postseason title to their regular-season crown and claim the conference’s automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.
“We’ve definitely talked about that in the past, of not letting there be any doubt,” UH senior middle blocker Patrick Gasman told reporters. “We’re definitely gonna talk about that today at practice. Don’t let anyone else make the decision for us. We’re gonna make this decision for ourselves.”
The tournament opens on Thursday with two first-round matches at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Third-seeded Long Beach State meets sixth-seeded UC Irvine in the opener, followed by a match between fourth seed UC San Diego and fifth seed Cal State Northridge.
Second-seeded UC Santa Barbara awaits the LBSU-UC Irvine winner in the first match of Friday’s semifinal doubleheader. Top-seeded UH will face UC San Diego or CSUN. The championship match is set for 7 p.m. on Saturday.
UH completed its first undefeated conference season since 1996 last weekend and dropped a total of eight sets in Big West play. But a five-set duel with UC Irvine (2-13) last Friday served as a reminder of the quality of competition throughout the league as teams look to play their way into the NCAA tournament and a trip to Columbus, Ohio, with a run this week.
“There are a lot of good teams in our league, a lot of good teams in the nation. Everybody’s beatable right now, and we’ve got to play to our best ability every single night,” Gasman said.
Following is a look at the Big West field entering the tournament.
BIG WEST MEN’S VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
>> When: Thursday-Saturday
>> TV: All matches on Spectrum Sports
>> Radio: Hawaii matches on 1420-AM/92.7-FM
>> Thursday: Long Beach St. vs. UC Irvine, 4:30 p.m. UC San Diego vs. CSU Northridge, 7 p.m.
>> Friday: UC Santa Barbara vs. LBSU/UCI winner, 4:30 p.m. Hawaii vs. UCSD/CSUN winner, 7 p.m.
>> Saturday: Championship, 7 p.m.
BIG WEST TOURNAMENT CAPSULES
1. Hawaii (15-0, 10-0)
Coach: Charlie Wade (12th year)
AVCA Rank: 1
Stat Leaders: Rado Parapunov (4.52 kills per set), Patrick Gasman (1.35 block per set), Gage Worsley (2.30 digs per set), Jakob Thelle (10.63 assists per set)
Outlook: Parapunov earned his second straight AVCA Men’s DI-II National Player of the Week award on Tuesday, his third this season and fifth of his career, after averaging 4.75 kills per set while hitting .423 in the series against UC Irvine. The left-hander remains the leading producer for the nation’s most efficient attack with UH hitting .373 as a team. Gasman tops the nation in hitting percentage (.497) and ranks third in blocks per set. Senior Colton Cowell ranks second on the team with 3.12 kills per set and is key to triggering the attack in serve receive.
Wade: “There’s only six teams in the league and they’re all good and everybody’s got really good players and if you get hot, everybody can play at a really high level. For us it’s always just being efficient. If we keep the errors low, closer to five than 10, then we’ve got a really good chance of winning every night.”
2. UC Santa Barbara (13-4, 7-3)
Coach: Rick McLaughlin (12th year)
AVCA Rank: 3
Stat Leaders: Randy DeWeese (4.07 kps); Donovan Todorov, MB, (1.15 bps), Casey McGarry (2.25 dps, 11.07 aps), Ryan Wilcox (0.49 aces per set).
Outlook: The Gauchos enter the tournament riding an eight-match winning streak to secure the second seed and a bye in the first round and looking to position themselves for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament if they fall short of the conference title. Similarly to UH, UCSB is led by a core of four All-Big West seniors of DeWeese, McGarry, middle blocker Keenan Sanders and outside hitter Roy McFarland (2.81 kps, .322). But McFarland’s status is uncertain after missing the last two matches with a knee injury. Wilcox, a Punahou graduate, leads the conference in aces per set.
McLaughin: “(The bye is) important given the situation (that) anybody can beat anybody. You get by a round without having to play is a big thing, and getting to scout those two teams one more time, and giving our guy one more day to hopefully get healthy. All of that is is really big.”
3. Long Beach State (6-4, 6-4)
Coach: Alan Knipe (17th year)
AVCA Rank: 7
Stat Leaders: Spencer Olivier (3.83 kps), Simon Andersen (1.45 bps), Mason Briggs (2.50 dps), Aidan Knipe (7.46 aps).
Knipe downplayed the controversy that arose after a spike in the piped-in crowd noise during the Beach’s five-set loss to UH on April 3. The Beach, which won the last two national titles, has the potential to make noise in the tournament with an attack led by Olivier, a sophomore, and freshman Clarke Godbold (2.53 kps). Setter Aidan Knipe and freshman opposite Simon Torwie had been slowed by injuries but are back in the rotation. Andersen leads the conference in blocks per set.
Knipe: “It’s a real quick season for us, of course, so it has a lot of the feeling like you’re still in the fall training mode. You feel like you got a lot of things you still want to work on, but proud of our guys … I think they’ve done a tremendous job of committing to the process of trying to get better at the same time playing as hard as they could.”
4. UC San Diego (3-12, 3-7)
Coach: Kevin Ring (15th year)
AVCA Rank: 14
Stat Leaders: Kyle McCauley (3.60 kps), Shane Benetz (0.82 bps), Matt Palma (2.11 dps), Blake Crisp (8.81 aps).
Outlook: The Tritons, who went 0-4 against UH this season, lost their last five matches of the regular season after sweeping a series against CSUN on April 2 and 3, winning the second meeting 24-20, 12-25, 25-23, 35-37, 15-10. The Tritons’s season was hampered by the loss of senior Wyatt Harrison to a high ankle sprain during warmups prior to their second match of the season against UH. McCauley earned All-Big West honors and sophomore Ryan Ka emerged as a weapon at 2.96 kps.
Ring: “I think we’re competing really hard, I think that’s that’s been good to see and we’re putting ourselves in positions to win. We’ve got to find ways to close out some sets. … So that’s an area we want to continue to strive for.”
5. Cal State Northridge (2-8, 2-8)
Coach: Jeff Campbell (23rd year)
AVCA Rank: RV
Stat Leaders: Kyle Hobus (2.56 kps), Daniel Wetter (0.65 bps), Sean Mitchell (2.09 dps), Kyle Merchen (8.84 aps).
Campbell: At 6-foot-5, Wetter isn’t the tallest middle blocker in the league, but is among the most productive at the net. Campbell said Wetter figures to see even more sets from Merchen, a freshman, with Hobus out of the lineup due to injury. Outside hitter Maciej Ptaszynski averages 2.19 kills per set and is second in the conference in aces with 24. The Matadors knocked off Long Beach State in their penultimate match of the regular season.
Campbell: “We were just so behind in terms of our training compared to the rest of the teams in the conference. We’re getting better but we had some losses under our belt and it was easy for our guys to get discouraged. But they’ve fought and got better and to put it all together against a very good Long Beach team.
6. UC Irvine (2-13, 2-8)
Coach: David Kniffin (eighth year)
AVCA Rank: RV
Stat Leaders: Joel Schneidmiller (3.73 kps), Scott Stadick (0.90 bps), Akhil Tangutur (1.50 dps), Dylan Zhai (8.20 aps).
Outlook: The Anteaters are in the midst of an extended stay on Oahu after closing the regular season against UH last weekend. They forced a fifth set last Friday after dropping the first two, demonstrating the potential of a lineup led by Schneidmiller is a three-time All-Big West first-team pick, and the 7-foot Stadick. UCI placed four players on the conference’s All-Freshman team, including outside hitter Francsco Sani, who hit .389 while putting down 21 kills in two matches against UH.
Kniffin: “Hope is a beautiful thing, because it doesn’t matter how bad things get, you know hope’s an easy thing to hang on to. … (The 2-13 record) is the objective reality, it’s not necessarily the complete narrative. I think we see ourselves as a team that has all the potential to go through and win this whole thing is, which is why we’re here.”
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