HONOLULU — The Hawaii men’s volleyball team has its starting opposite operating in full swing ahead of the Big West tournament at SimpliFi Arena.

Sophomore Dimitrios Mouchlias was named the AVCA National Player of the Week on Tuesday after his dominant 31-kill performance carried the fourth-ranked Rainbow Warriors to a five-set win at No. 14 UC Irvine at the Bren Events Center on Saturday.

Mouchlias, of Greece, surpassed his previous best in kills by 10 while hitting an efficient .510. He also got in on a career-high five blocks.

Thirty-one kills is the most by a Big West player this season. Mouchlias was named Big West Player of the Week on Monday.

“It’s always nice to get these awards, but I believe it’s most important that we won these two games against Irvine and we are going into the Big West tournament with confidence,” Mouchlias said Tuesday.

UH (22-5, 7-3) locked up the No. 2 seed for the conference tournament with its straight-sets win over Irvine on Friday. Third-ranked Long Beach State earned the regular-season championship at No. 1 seed. Play begins on Thursday at SimpliFi with two first-round matchups.

The Rainbow Warriors get a bye into Friday’s semifinals and will face the winner of No. 3 UC Santa Barbara and No. 6 Cal State Northridge.

UH is hosting the tournament for the third straight time since 2019, a streak interrupted by the COVID-canceled season of 2020.

Mouchlias is the second UH player this season to receive the AVCA’s weekly award; setter Jakob Thelle was so named in the first week of the season in January.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.