About two weeks ago, on Feb. 9, a crowd worthy of the word crowd nearly filled the Stan Sheriff Center.
The nachos are excellent at the Stanley, but that’s not what drew a turnstile attendance of 8,930 to the 10,300-seat facility. The University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team is the school’s most successful sports program in recent years, and the No. 3-ranked Warriors played Stanford that Friday night.
UH ran its record to 10-1 with a sweep, and also beat the Cardinal in four sets two nights prior.
Hawaii — which won back-to-back NCAA championships before finishing second in the country last year — returns to action Thursday against Division II Missouri S&T.
This time it’s not a weekend night, and this time there’s no alumni game like there was before their last match. This time, there’s no big-name opponent, and the Warriors themselves must be the draw (with a little help from those nachos).
The S&T after Missouri stands for science and technology, which partly explains why this institution was never on my radar, and the school’s sports nickname is the Miners.
Missouri S&T is in just its second year of men’s volleyball. The Miners were 12-9 in 2023, and they’re now 8-6 with six matches left on their regular-season schedule. They are part of why men’s volleyball is considered an emerging sport now, with 239 college programs — nearly double the number of six years ago, according to figures from the NCAA.
“The sport is on fire,” USA Volleyball CEO Jamie Davis said in a Sportico article posted Oct. 26, 2023.
On Thursday night men’s volleyball has lower campus to itself, with the match starting at 7. The next night, the UH baseball team starts a four-game series with North Carolina State. The Wolfpack are ranked anywhere from 13th to 22nd in five publications that cover college baseball.
First serve for Friday’s volleyball rematch is at 7, and first pitch at Murakami Stadium is slated for 6:35.
Baseball’s turnstile attendance was 3,667 for Friday’s season opener, 2,596 for Saturday’s doubleheader and 2,724 for Sunday’s single game. UH split the four game series with 2022 national champion Mississippi.
If the attendance numbers for volleyball and last weekend’s baseball season-opening series mean anything, there might be some traffic/parking issues.
But volleyball or basketball/baseball overlap is nothing new at Manoa, and unless the Miners are further along than most second-year programs it’s a good bet the volleyball match will end well ahead of the baseball game.
On Saturday, the UH men’s basketball team hosts Long Beach State, starting at 7, and baseball starts at 6:35 again. Hoops now draws much less than volleyball, so there should be plenty of parking Saturday.
The two-time defending Big West championship women’s basketball team returns Feb. 29 to host UC Davis, hoping to build upon its leap in attendance at Beeman’s Big Bash last Saturday. A turnstile crowd of 4,080 — the largest in coach Laura Beeman’s 12 seasons — saw the Wahine improve to 15-9 and 12-3 in the Big West with a 68-64 win over UC Santa Barbara. The win helped UH position itself for a stretch run at a third consecutive conference championship.
The Wahine are 11-3 at home and the men’s basketball team is 10-6. (And, yes, you can put an asterisk on the men’s record, because of the cupcake preconference slate.)
Add Warriors volleyball to the equation, and the UH court teams now in season are 31-10 at the Sheriff Center.
A .756 winning percentage would be a lot to ask for from the Rainbows at Murakami Stadium this year. But who knows? After that first series — and against a legit opponent — the ’Bows do look like they’re poised for continued improvement with a veteran lineup and pitching depth — coach Rich Hill’s first two UH teams finished 28-24 and 29-20 overall.
Hopefully there’s enough of that pitching left Sunday so the 1 p.m. series finale ends before UH football’s spring game starts at 5.
