In a perfect world for Hawaii men’s volleyball coach Charlie Wade, he will get to empty the bench for potentially the last two times this season.
Nonconference matches against Lindenwood (Mo.) tonight and Friday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center present the final time the third-ranked Rainbow Warriors (15-1) could play an unranked team.
After this week, UH will welcome three ranked teams in three days, including No. 5 Southern California, to the islands for the Outrigger Invitational next Friday through Sunday.
Then it is back to conference play where all six Big West teams are ranked with four in the top seven.
That includes Hawaii, which rose one spot to No. 3 in this week’s top 20 after sweeping No. 4 UC Irvine twice in impressive fashion.
Just 72 hours after completing the series sweep against UCI, UH returns to the floor against the Lions (4-9), who will play the Rainbow Warriors for only the second time and first in Honolulu.
“The goal is to obviously continue to play well and win the match, but I think if there is a chance to get some guys deeper down the bench some playing time this year, this weekend is probably it,” Wade said.
He won’t have to look far down the bench to find outside hitter Clay Wieter, who has started eight matches this season and is hitting .373 while averaging 2.12 kills per set.
Wieter played three seasons in Lindenwood near his hometown of St. Louis, and was a second-team All-Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association selection last season after leading the team in kills and aces.
He said he had a quick dessert Monday night with a few of his former teammates and insisted there were no hard feelings when he decided to enter the transfer portal and leave to use his final year of eligibility in Hawaii.
“Obviously I have been waiting for this matchup this whole year,” Wieter said. “It’s exciting to play teams like Long Beach, UCI, the top-ranked teams, but a lot of times people don’t get to play against their former school. I think it’s a really special opportunity.”
Wieter says although he left on good terms, there might be some trash talk on the court.
He briefly appeared in one of the matches against UCI after starting and putting down season-highs of 14 kills, eight digs and six blocks in a start against Catawba College in North Carolina.
It was the first time he saw the court since the Brigham Young series.
“I’m not going to say we played the best out there, not showing our true potential, but having that doubleheader (in North Carolina), having that game in the morning where that entire ‘B’ squad got to go in and play, I really think we got to show how much depth we have on this team,” Wieter said. “Whenever a guy is struggling on one side of the court, we have guys to back him up immediately.”
Hawaii swept all four individual Big West Conference awards on Monday and freshman opposite Kristian Titriyski, who was Big West Player of the Week and Freshman of the Week, earned the AVCA National Player of the Week honor on Tuesday.
Titriyski became the third UH freshman to win the award, joining Sinisa Zarkovic in 2013 and Costas Theocharidis in 2000.
He combined to hit .471 against the Anteaters while averaging 6.0 kills per set. In Sunday’s sweep, Titriyski hit a career-best .571 with 19 kills.
Titriyski, who enters this week ranking sixth in the country in kills per set at 4.20 and seventh in aces per set at 0.54, outplayed the reigning AVCA National Player of the Year in Hilir Henno.
“A little irony that the reigning national player of the year he legitimately outplayed head to head, but stoked for Kristian,” Wade said. “It’s not something that we talk a lot about. Those kind of awards are a byproduct of the team doing well. If he put those numbers up and we lost, he wouldn’t be national player of the week. All of the guys that got recognized this week are well deserving, but we will stay focused on continuing to get better and the more we win, the more those accomplishments will come.”
Rainbow Wahine to host spring match on Kauai
The Hawaii women’s volleyball team will close out its spring exhibition schedule on Kauai with a keiki clinic and a match against Wisconsin on Wednesday, March 26, at Kauai High School.
The match will be played at 1 p.m. at Kauai High’s new 1,600-seat gym in Lihue. Admission is free.
Hawaii will play Wisconsin a day earlier on March 25 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. UH will also host Arizona State next Monday and Tuesday.
The keiki clinic is limited to the first 60 registered participants. For more information, visit HawaiiAthletics.com.
RAINBOW WARRIORS VOLLEYBALL
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
No. 3 Hawaii (15-1) vs. Lindenwood (4-9)
>> When: Today and Friday, 7 p.m.
>> TV: Spectrum Sports (Tonight only)
>> Radio: KKEA 1420 AM / 92.7 FM (Tonight); KHKA 1500 AM (Friday)
