Two days after posting the highest kill total in the Big West this season, Dimitrios Mouchlias was rewarded with the conference’s final Offensive Player of the Week award.
The University of Hawaii opposite closed the regular season by putting away a 31 kills on 49 attacks, both career highs, to lead the Rainbow Warriors to a five-set victory at UC Irvine on Saturday. On Monday, he picked up the second Big West weekly honor of his sophomore season.
With the Rainbow Warriors down 2-1 in Saturday’s match at the Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif., Mouchlias hammered 10 kills in the fourth set to help UH extend the match and finished with the lone 30-kill performance in the Big West this season. He was also in on five blocks and had four digs and two aces to finish with a career-high 35.5 total points.
Mouchlias opened the series with a team-high 13 kills in a UH sweep last Friday. He finished the weekend averaging 5.50 kills per set on .486 hitting (44 kills, eight errors, 74 attempts).
Mouchlias has posted double-digit kills in each of the Warriors’ last four matches and leads UH with 3.47 kills per set entering this week’s Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
UH (22-5, 7-3 BWC) is the second seed and has a bye in Thursday’s quarterfinal round. The Warriors will face the winner of Thursday’s match between UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge in a semifinal match at 7 p.m. Friday. The title match is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
UH remained fourth in this week’s NVA/AVCA Division I-II Coaches Poll and No. 6 in the NCAA RPI. The field for the NCAA Championship will be announced at 7 a.m. Sunday on NCAA.com.
Lopez earns BWC pitching award
Hawaii freshman Brianna Lopez was named the Big West softball Pitcher of the Week on Monday after two sparkling hometown performances last weekend.
The graduate of Ramona High School in Riverside, Calif., earned two complete-game victories in UH’s series win at UC Riverside. The left-hander fired a two-hitter in UH’s 2-0 win in the opener last Friday and limited the Highlanders to five hits in a 7-1 win in the series finale on Saturday.
Lopez held UCR to a .140 batting average over 14 innings and finished with eight strikeouts and seven walks in the series.
Lopez (9-6, 2.13 earned-run average) is the fifth Rainbow Wahine named the Big West Pitcher of the Week since 2013 and the first since Brittany Hitchcock earned the honor on May, 5, 2019.
The Rainbow Wahine (15-15, 9-6 BWC) return home to face CSU Bakersfield (8-25, 3-12) in a three-game series starting Friday at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
>> When: Thursday to Saturday
>> TV: Spectrum Sports
>> Radio: UH matches on 1420-AM / 92.7-FM
Schedule
>> Thursday — No. 4 UC San Diego vs. No. 5 UC Irvine, 4:30 p.m.; No. 3 UC Santa Barbara vs. No. 6 Cal State Northridge, 7 p.m.
>> Friday — No. 1 Long Beach State vs. UCSD/UC Irvine winner, 4:30 p.m.; No. 2 Hawaii vs. UCSB/CSUN winner, 7 p.m.
>> Saturday — Championship, 7:30 p.m.
