HONOLULU — All-America honors meant little to an already-decorated group with one last job on its mind.
The Hawaii men’s volleyball team had a record number of players — six — receive AVCA All-America honors Monday morning. In the afternoon, the Rainbow Warriors left Honolulu for Fairfax, Va., site of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
Big West champion and second-seeded UH (28-2) is attempting to become the first program to win three straight men’s volleyball titles since UCLA won four in a row in the 1980s. It will play either Penn State or Ohio State in a national semifinal on Thursday.
“We haven’t accomplished anything yet that is significant to us,” hitter Spyros Chakas said. “Individual awards will come and go, but we only have one goal as a team.”
Setter Jakob Thelle, opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias and middle Guilherme Voss were UH’s players named to the 12-player first team. Only top-seeded UCLA had more first-teamers, with four.
Chakas was named to the second team, and hitter Chaz Galloway and libero Brett Sheward were honorable mentions.
The previous UH best for total players named to the All-America team was five. The ‘Bows have had at least four for seven straight years.
Thelle is a repeat first-teamer, Voss moved up from the second team last year and Mouchlias — UH’s top offensive option this season — jumped all the way from honorable mention.
Said Mouchlias, who is No. 8 nationally at 3.96 kills per set, “To be honest I don’t really care because we have seen so many examples of people who got first-team All-American and then just disappear from the map. And the opposite — guys that deserve to be first team not getting it. So it doesn’t really matter to me.”
Chakas repeated on the second team while Galloway and Sheward received their first AVCA honors of any kind.
The UH band, cheerleaders and a few dozen fans sent the team off with some fanfare as the ‘Bows boarded the team bus behind the Sheriff.
Coach Charlie Wade said managing expectations is not a problem for his group.
“From the pressure part of it, nobody puts more pressure on us than ourselves,” Wade said. “This doesn’t mean more to anyone than us. So, we’re looking forward to getting out and competing. We think we’re good enough to win — we just gotta go out and prove it.”
The AVCA Coach of the Year will be announced Tuesday and Player of the Year on Wednesday.
A few more shots from UH's sendoff:
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.