NCAA’s 3rd-seeded UH volleyball team ranked No. 1 in poll

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Hawaii enters the final stage of the NCAA men’s volleyball season back where the Rainbow Warriors began the year — at No. 1 in the nation.

After capping a chaotic week across the country by capturing the Big West Tournament title, the Warriors returned to the top spot in the NVA/AVCA Men’s Division I-II Coaches Poll on Monday.

The defending national champions will carry the No. 1 designation, as well as a six-match winning streak, into next week’s Men’s National Collegiate Volleyball Championship in Los Angeles. The Warriors (24-5), effectively the third seed in the NCAA bracket, will face North Greenville (20-5) or Princeton (15-12) in an opening-round match on May 3 at Pauley Pavilion.

UH was voted No. 1 in the AVCA preseason poll, fell to No. 3 in the Feb. 7 poll after dropping two matches at Ball State, and spent the past seven weeks at No. 4. The Warriors jumped to No. 1 after becoming the only team among last week’s top four to win their conference tournament.

UCLA held the No. 1 spot for nine weeks but lost to Stanford in the semifinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament last Thursday. No. 2 Penn State dropped a five-set match to Princeton in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association semifinals.

The Warriors then swept Long Beach State 27-25, 28-26, 25-23 in the Big West final on Saturday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. Led by setter and tournament MVP Jakob Thelle, UH swept through the weekend in six sets while hitting .377 as a team to a combined .222 for UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State.

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Long Beach State (20-5), the Big West regular-season champion, was awarded the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and is ranked second in this week’s AVCA poll, followed by UCLA (21-4), Ball State (23-3) and Pepperdine (19-9). UH received 11 first-place votes among the coaches, with four each going to Long Beach State and UCLA.

Ball State is the second seed in the NCAA tournament and will face the winner of the Hawaii-North Greenville/Princeton match in the semifinals on May 5. The final is on May 7.