There were no complaints from the Hawaii men’s volleyball team after learning it was seeded second in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
Despite beating Long Beach State twice, including Saturday night in four sets in the final of the Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship, the Rainbow Warriors were seeded behind the Beach and will open the NCAA Tournament in the quarterfinals on May 8 in Columbus, Ohio, against the winner of a play-in game between Penn State and Daemen University.
Hawaii (26-5) returns to the Covelli Center on the campus of Ohio State University, where it won its first national championship in 2021 with sweeps of UC Santa Barbara and Brigham Young.
With the tournament expanding to nine teams since, UH will need to win three times in five days to claim its third national championship in five years.
“Kind of where I thought we would be,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said Sunday. “Reading the ti leaves, it looked like a predictable spot for us to be in.”
UH is on the opposite side of the bracket as Long Beach State (27-3), which suffered its only losses of the season against Hawaii and UC Irvine.
Two-time defending national champion UCLA, which was upset in the semifinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament, earned the other at-large bid and is the No. 3 seed.
The Bruins will open with No. 6 seed Belmont Abbey while MPSF champion Pepperdine earned the No. 5 seed and will open with No. 4 seed Loyola Chicago.
“Anytime you’re getting into the semis, there is only four teams left,” Wade said. “We will be focused on that Penn State game and winner and if we’re fortunate enough to advance we’re going to prepare for what is a really, really good team.”
Hawaii had reached four consecutive NCAA finals before failing to reach the tournament last season.
Sophomore setter Tread Rosenthal, one of three Rainbows to make the All-Big West first team, enjoyed this selection Sunday a lot more than his first year.
“It’s just a big relief off of our shoulders,” Rosenthal said. “I think me, Kurt (Nusterer), ‘Eleu (Choy), just all of the returners from last year, we just kind of had a letdown like personal, and as a team, so it’s good to come in this year and have a great season and end it off right.”
Rosenthal guided Hawaii’’s offense to a .411 hitting percentage in Saturday’s win over the Beach. It was its highest hitting percentage against a Big West team this season.
“The team we beat (Saturday) night is the team that anyone is going to have to beat to win the national championship,” Rosenthal said. “We feel confident going in.”
Wade, who surpassed Mike Wilton as Hawaii’s all-time winningest head coach with 317 victories on Saturday, retooled the roster in the offseason with 11 newcomers.
UH started three freshmen and two sophomores on Saturday and won despite missing injured freshman opposite Kristian Titriyski, who leads the team in kills and aces per set.
“We just needed to get back and put the work in required to win. I think we kind of got off of that a little bit last year,” Wade said. “Winning is hard. It takes a lot of work for a long time to get in position to win. Anybody can fire up and win a match on any given weekend against a good team, but to be the best team night in and night out, that is a whole another process that takes a long time. These guys have bought in to what we are selling and here we are at the end playing our best and we have a shot to win.”
This will mark Hawaii’s 10th appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Next Thursday’s quarterfinal match will begin at 7:30 a.m. Hawaii time and be broadcast on ESPN+. The semifinals will be held on Saturday, May 10, with the final on Monday, May 12.
