Just as Hawaii has swept its past seven opponents, the Rainbow Wahine got out the broom when it came to weekly Big West volleyball honors on Monday.
Senior opposite Nikki Taylor was named player of the week; junior middle Emily Maglio the defensive player of the week, and setter Norene Iosia freshman of the week. It is the first time Hawaii has taken all three awards in a single week. The trio helped the Wahine (20-5, 13-1 Big West) to straight-set victories at UC Irvine and UC Davis, running their streak to 22 consecutive sets won as well as 15 sets in a row holding opponents under 20 points.
“What is says is we had a good weekend and that those individuals were recognized for the week we had,” Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. “It’s nice to see that.”
Shoji is one victory away from becoming the second Division I women’s coach to win 1,200 matches. The other is current Penn State coach Russ Rose (1,208).
Hawaii, which remained No. 14 in Monday’s AVCA Coaches Top 25, hosts its final two home matches of the regular season this week, against third-place Cal Poly (17-8, 10-4) on Thursday and fourth-place UC Santa Barbara (17-10, 8-6) on Saturday. Although the Wahine rose two spots to 36 in the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Ratings Percentage Index on Monday, that is still too low for Hawaii to have any chance of hosting in the postseason.
Taylor will be one of Hawaii’s four seniors who will be honored on Saturday, along with setter Tayler Higgins, hitter Annie Mitchem and defensive specialist Katiana Ponce. Monday’s weekly honor was the third this season and the 10th career for Taylor, the reigning Big West Player of the Year.
In last week’s matches, the Kaiser High graduate had a combined 27 kills with just five errors in 50 attempts, hitting .440, and became the 12th Wahine to reach the 1,300-kill mark.
It was the second weekly honor for Maglio this year. The conference block leader had a combined 12 stuffs, tying her career high with nine block assists against the Anteaters.
Recording consecutive double-doubles last week helped Iosia earn her second weekly honor. She had 28 assists and 11 digs against UCI, and 33 assists and 12 digs against UC Davis, her ninth and 10th double-doubles.
In Monday’s poll, defending national champion Nebraska (24-1) again was the unanimous choice for No. 1, receiving all 64 first-place votes. The next three remained the same, with Minnesota (21-4) at No. 2 followed by Wisconsin (22-3) and Kansas (23-2).
The biggest drops were Penn State (19-8), down five spots to No. 15 after a five-set loss at then-unranked Ohio State, and San Diego (22-4), down four places to No. 11 following a five-set home loss to unranked Portland.
Moving into the top 10 were two teams that defeated Hawaii in nonconference play: Washington from No. 11 to No. 8, and UCLA from No. 13 to No. 9.
In the RPI — which is used by the NCAA to select and seed the 64-team tournament field — Texas (19-4) moved to No. 1.
Hawaii has the best RPI in the Big West. The RPIs of the other Big West teams are 56 (Cal Poly), 61 (Long Beach State), 86 (UC Santa Barbara), 144 (Cal State Northridge), 151 (UC Davis), 178 (UC Irvine), 265 (UC Riverside) and 287 (Cal State Fullerton).
