Rainbow Warriors top men’s volleyball RPI

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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM

Hawaii opposite Rado Parapunov, shown in a match against King on March 7, owns a .533 hitting percentage and leads the Rainbow Warriors with 4.30 kills per set in 17 matches.

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There were several firsts for the Hawaii men’s volleyball team on Monday.

The Rainbow Warriors (17-0), who have been a unanimous No. 2 in the AVCA Coaches Top 15, received two first-place votes in the poll; had the top Ratings Percentage Index number in the first NCAA RPI released this season; and had a player win weekly Big West honors for a third consecutive week.

Junior opposite Rado Parapunov three-peated after helping lead Hawaii to sweeps of No. 12 Cal State Northridge last week. He hit .733 against the Matadors on Friday and .520 on Saturday with a combined 29 kills, eight digs and four blocks.

In the poll, defending national champion Long Beach State (19-0) had been a unanimous No. 1 beginning with the preseason poll. Two of the 16 coaches — King’s Ryan Booher and Grand Canyon’s Matthew Werle — changed their vote from the 49ers to the Warriors.

As for the relevance of the RPI, all Hawaii fans have to remember is that the Warriors had a better RPI at the end of last season than UC Irvine, which was given the NCAA tournament at-large berth.

Hawaii coach Charlie Wade called it “fool’s gold.”

“It has no real value for us,” Wade said as the team prepared to leave tonight for a six-matches-in-10-days road trip. “It doesn’t appear to have that much weight. The (selection committee) didn’t use it last year.

“All it says is we’ve had a good schedule and we’ve done well with it. Leading the country sounds good, but it doesn’t mean anything.”

The RPI is a computer-generated ranking that evaluates a team’s strength of schedule, the factors include a team’s winning percentage, its combined opponents’ success and its opponents’ strength of schedule. The Warriors, who had the top strength of schedule at the end of last season, are at No. 11 this year.

Behind Hawaii in the RPI are Long Beach State (19-0), Pepperdine (15-6), UC Santa Barbara (15-5) and UCLA (16-6).

The Warriors are headed first to the BYU Invitational. Hawaii opens Thursday with McKendree (9-8), followed by matches with Princeton (10-9) on Friday and the host Cougars (11-6) on Saturday.

Hawaii (4-0 Big West) also is at Concordia-Irvine (10-14) on March 26, and at UC San Diego (7-13, 0-4) for two Big West matches on March 29 and 30.