A tight Big West men’s volleyball race leaves little time for lingering in the recent past or pondering the opportunities ahead.
Coming off an emotional homestand and with the conference tournament now less than a week away, No .4 Hawaii will look to keep its focus on a two-match series with No. 14 UC Irvine to close the regular season.
The Rainbow Warriors (20-5, 5-3 Big West) jumped from fourth to second in the conference standings with last week’s series sweep of UC Santa Barbara at home, positioning themselves for a first-round bye in next week’s Big West tournament at SimpiFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
But leading into the road trip, talk of tournament seeding was secondary to preparing for a UC Irvine lineup featuring two of the Big West’s most productive attackers in matches today and Saturday at the Bren Events Center.
“Irvine’s good, they’ve got some significant wins. They beat Long Beach earlier, so we’ll have our hands full for sure,” UH coach Charlie Wade said. “They probably have the best collection of talent physically, so they’ll have our attention, I believe.”
The Warriors enter the final week of the regular season one game behind first-place and third-ranked Long Beach State (17-4, 6-2) and just ahead of No. 6 UCSB (16-8, 5-4) and No. 9 UC San Diego (13-9, 5-4). With two matches left in the regular season, UH could end the weekend anywhere from first to fifth in the six-team race.
The Warriors overtook UCSB with a five-set victory last Saturday on senior night, rallying from a 2-1 deficit for their first such comeback of the season. After dropping a 26-24 duel in the third set, the Warriors hit .467 with just three errors in 45 attempts in the fourth and fifth sets to power past the visiting Gauchos.
UH got production from the pins, with outside hitter Spyros Chakas and opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias putting away 17 kills each. Guilherme Voss added a career-high 12 in the middle.
“To see really everybody step up their game late in a match, that was a lot of fun,” Wade said, “and a good time of year to be doing that.”
UC Irvine (10-13, 3-5), which knocked off Long Beach State in five sets on March 10, is coming off a sweep of a home-and-home series with Cal State Northridge and aiming to climb the standings entering the Big West tournament.
The Anteaters are led by 6-foot-8 outside hitters Francesco Sani and Hilir Henno, who enter the series third and fifth in the conference in kills per set. Sani hit .389 with 21 kills in 36 attempts in last year’s series with UH, 12 coming in a five-set duel in the series opener, and enters today’s matchup leading UCI with 4.00 kills per set on a team-high 734 attempts.
He was named the Big West Player of the Week after posting 21 kills last Friday and hitting .359 in the series sweep against CSUN.
Hilir has won the Big West’s Freshman of the Week award four times this season and averages 3.49 kills per set.
“(Sani) is an international-level player for sure and he’s one of the best players in the country and when he gets rolling, he’s virtually impossible to stop,” Wade said.
“That collection of pins is as good as anybody in the country. You’re going to have to be able to defend and try to slow them down.”
Big West men’s volleyball
At Bren Events Center; Irvine, Calif.
No. 4 Hawaii (20-5, 5-3 BWC) vs. No. 14 UC Irvine (10-13, 3-5)
>> When: Today and Saturday, 4 p.m.
>> Radio: 1420-AM / 92.7-FM
>> Online: ESPN+
