When Dimitrios Mouchlias returned to the court, he quickly realized there was still more work to be done.

After playing in 13 matches as a Hawaii freshman in 2020, Mouchlias spent the 2021 season back home in Greece rehabbing an injury during the Rainbow Warriors’ run to the NCAA men’s volleyball championship.

While he regained enough strength to get back into the starting lineup with Greece’s national team last summer, the matches tested his progress as well as his conditioning.

“In my mind I was confident, but when I started playing again things got really hard, especially with the national team this summer,” Mouchlias said. “It was a rough period for me, but I managed to get through it and stay positive.”

UH coach Charlie Wade could also tell Mouchlias needed time to find his form upon his arrival in Manoa for the fall semester.

“He was kind of gassed when he got here and he struggled for quite awhile,” Wade said. “But he continued to work hard. He really embraced the rest of the fall getting himself physically back in shape.”

Mouchlias worked his way into a starting spot to open the season and demonstrated his ability to carry a heavier load in the Warriors’ attack last week.

The Warriors opposite put away a career-high 21 kills in 39 error-free attempts in a five-set loss at Ball State on Jan. 31, then averaged 4.63 kills per set on .469 hitting to lead UH to three wins at the First Point Volleyball Foundation Collegiate Challenge in Austin, Texas, over the weekend. Along the way he had a run of 65 attempts over three matches without a hitting error and closed the week with a match-high 18 kills and five blocks in a four-set win over No. 14 Stanford.

Mouchlias was rewarded with his first Big West Offensive Player of the Week award on Monday, while fellow sophomore Guilherme Voss was named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Week.

Mouchlias was also named the National Opposite of the Week by Off the Block.

“I’ve been practicing with these guys for five months now, and every day it gets better,” Mouchlias said. “So I feel more comfortable every day,”

Mouchlias moved into the team lead with 3.79 kills per set entering this week’s series with Long Island University playing the spot previously held by Rado Parapunov, last year’s AVCA National Player of the Year.

“They have such different styles, different skill sets, we were never going to try to get him to be Rado,” Wade said. “They’re two completely different players. Fortunately, right now we have a setter (Jakob Thelle) who can really isolate his skill set and really allow him to play how he likes to play, which is fast.”

After missing UH’s series at Ball State due to health and safety protocols, Thelle and Voss rejoined the Warriors in Texas and helped UH pick up the pace following their first two losses of the season.

Voss was in on 14 blocks during the Warriors’ 3-0 run in Austin, including a season-high six against Queens University on Friday, to earn the second Big West honor of his career.

The Warriors (7-2) returned from Texas on Sunday and have a quick turnaround to face Long Island for three matches starting today at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

LIU (3-7) is the third first-year opponent on the Warriors’ schedule this season. The Sharks are led by Shawn Patchell, who previously coached at Concordia-Irvine for the past eight years and led BYU from 2006 to 2010.

“They’ll be organized, they’ll be very coherent and consistent in what they’re trying to do,” Wade said. “He’s been doing this a long time at a pretty high level and I think he’ll have them well prepared.”

UH fell out of the top spot in the NVA/AVCA Division I-II Coaches poll for the first time this season, slipping to No. 3 in Monday’s poll. Long Beach State rose to No. 1 with 12 first-place votes, followed by UCLA (five first-place votes) and UH (two).