After getting a taste of playing on the road in the fall, No. 1 Hawaii is prepping for a hefty serving on its first trip of the regular season.
A few days in Southern California in November offered the Rainbow Warrior volleyball team a chance to bond, face quality competition and get a feel for dealing with travel.
The scale and the stakes of the Warriors’ first road trip of 2022 increase significantly entering a 12-day trip featuring five matches with stops in Indiana and Texas.
“It’s why we do it,” UH coach Charlie Wade said of scheduling a trip during fall practice, “to get everybody in that mode and for the new guys to see what the protocol looks like and how we go about doing things. It definitely is an asset when we are able to travel in the fall.”
The top-ranked Warriors (4-0) departed Honolulu on Wednesday and face No. 15 Ball State (3-0) on Saturday and Monday at Worthen Arena in Muncie, Ind. The matchup of the NCAA’s top two hitting teams will be the Warriors’ only true road matches before the Big West season.
The trip will continue on to Austin, Texas, next week for the First Point Collegiate Challenge, with matches scheduled against Kentucky State and Queens on Feb. 4 and No. 13 Stanford on Feb. 5.
“It is really important, especially for the younger guys,” UH outside hitter Chaz Galloway said. “Because it is a completely different energy, it’s a completely different game on the road.
“You have to deal with stuff you normally wouldn’t have to deal with at home — weather, other crowds, people talking to you and just the whole different environment. So it’s really important for these guys to feel what that’s like before we get into conference play.”
Galloway leads the Warriors with 3.11 kills per set and enters the series with “fresh legs” coming out of a bye week and after the UH starters saw limited action in two sweeps of Edward Waters two weeks ago.
Most of UH’s starting group played two of the six sets in the series with Edward Waters and got in for one in last Friday’s alumni match. In the meantime, the Warriors rely on their energy in practice to stay game-ready.
“We’re fortunate that the level of play in our practice gym is pretty high,” Wade said. “We’ve got a lot of good players, so we’re able to keep competing at a pretty high level throughout the week.”
Wade praised the Warriors’ efficiency through their first two series. UH is hitting .459 as a team while holding Loyola Chicago and Edward Waters to a .140 clip. They’ve also served up 39 aces while giving up four. UH middle blocker Guilherme Voss has connected with setter Jakob Thelle for a .710 hitting percentage, with 23 kills and one error in 31 attempts.
Ball State has won all nine sets in sweeps of Maryville, Tusculum and George Mason and entered the NVA/AVCA Division I-II Coaches Poll this week.
The Cardinals were voted fourth in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association’s preseason poll and setter Quinn Isaacson is running an attack that leads the nation with a .461 hitting percentage and is led by outside hitter Kaleb Jenness’ 4.33 kills per set.
Ball State added firepower with the transfer of opposite Angelos Mandilaris, a three-time Conference Carolinas Player of the Year at Barton. Mandilaris was named the MIVA Offensive Player of the Week after recording 16 kills on .538 hitting and three aces in a sweep of George Mason last week. Outside attacker Nick Martinski took the defensive honor with nine blocks and four digs.
“It’s huge,” Wade said of the weekend’s assignment. “Not a lot of nonconference opportunities for us on the road and these are true road games against a top-15 team.
“They’re serving inbounds at 88% with a big aces-per-set number (3.3). So they’re doing a lot of nice things on the floor and this is going to be a huge challenge for us.”
The Cardinals aces average leads the nation so far with UH second at 3.00.
UH men’s volleyball
At Muncie, Ind.
No. 1 Hawaii (4-0) vs. No. 15 Ball State (3-0)
>> When: Saturday and Monday, 2 p.m.
>> TV: None
>> Radio: 1420-AM
>> Online: ESPN+
