As much as Hawaii middle blocker Kurt Nusterer emphasized these two matches against No. 5 Brigham Young are not about one player, even he had to admit it could get chippy on the court inside of Smith Fieldhouse.
The fourth-ranked Rainbow Warriors left late Tuesday night for Provo, Utah, to continue a longstanding rivalry with No. 5 Brigham Young as the teams will play for the first time since UH swept the Cougars to win the first of back-to-back national championships in 2021.
An already well-established rivalry is amped up to another level this week with UH playing a Cougars team that includes former UH outside hitter Keoni Thiim, who entered the transfer portal after last season and committed to the Cougars just 15 days after starting for Hawaii in a loss to UC Irvine in the Big West semifinals that ended UH’s season.
Thiim, who was one of five Rainbow Warriors to appear in every match last season, made 14 starts and hit .303. averaging 1.57 kills per set while finishing second in aces behind setter Tread Rosenthal with 40.
In eight matches with the Cougars (6-2), who are coming off back-to-back losses to No. 2 UC Irvine, Thiim is averaging 3.91 kills per set and is third in the country with 18 aces.
“As much as I love that kid and as much as he was a great person and a great leader in the community, this game is about Hawaii versus BYU, not Hawaii versus Keoni Thiim,” said Nusterer, who played with Thiim for three seasons. “I’m worried that if we make it about that, as a team, there are five other players on that team that can do a lot of damage. We’ve got to be focused on everyone.”
Coach Charlie Wade pointed out that more than half of Hawaii’s starting lineup and 11 of the 19 players on the roster are new and never played with Thiim at UH.
They also have shown they aren’t afraid to get into it with the opposing team at the net, which fits right into Thiim’s personality as an intense player himself.
“We’ve got a very chirpy, energetic, young group,” Nusterer said. “They’ve never played in an arena with these many fans cheering against them and that’s very, very different. I’m excited to see how they enjoy playing in that environment and who steps up.”
Wade was asked twice about Thiim during Tuesday’s media session and chose to focus on the matchup itself between two teams who haven’t played a lot in recent years.
BYU is 25-4 all-time against UH at home, but lost the last meeting in 2019, when UH snapped a 15-match losing streak in Smith Fieldhouse with a sweep to win the BYU Invitational.
Hawaii has won three of the past four matches in the series, including a reverse sweep in 2020 when BYU was undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country. It ended up being the last match of the season for both teams as the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Hawaii and BYU have a long rivalry together in a lot of different sports, and I think everyone embraces that opportunity to go up there and compete in a fun environment,” Wade said. “Obviously Keoni has got a big serve and we’ve seen a lot of that here. They’ve got some pretty volatile arms that can kind of wreck the game if they get going and get hot from the service line.”
Thiim is the grandson of former UH men’s coach Mike Wilton, who is the winningest coach in program history, with 316 wins.
Wade, now in his 16th season, is closing in on that mark, needing two wins to reach 300 in his tenure at UH.
Hawaii is 6-0 to start the season for the sixth time in the past eight seasons.
Wade said freshman middle blocker Ofeck Hazan, who started the first three matches of the season before a finger injury kept him out of the past three, was a full go in practice earlier this week and should be available to start tonight’s match.
Both matches begin at 4 p.m. and will be broadcast on BYUtv, which is available on both Spectrum (Ch. 409) and Hawaiian Telcom (Ch. 68).
