The Hawaii men’s volleyball team enters the NCAA men’s volleyball tournament with the best player in the land.

Senior All-America setter Jakob Thelle was named the 2023 American Volleyball Coaches Association Player of the year on Wednesday. The native of Tonsburg, Norway, became the fifth player in Rainbow Warrior program history to receive the nation's top individual award, after Yuval Katz (1996), Costas Theocharidis (2001, 2003) and Rado Parapunov (2021).

He is the only member of that group to do it at the setter position. Among all schools, Thelle is the first setter to receive the award since Long Beach State's Josh Tuaniga in 2018.

Thelle picked up a second straight Big West Player of the Year last month, though last year’s AVCA Player of the Year went to former Long Beach State standout Alex Nikolov.

With Thelle on the roster, UH has reached the national semifinals in the last four NCAA tournaments, including three straight with him at the controls of the offense. The Rainbow Warriors are going for a third straight national championship in Fairfax, Va., this week.

This season, he averaged 10.73 assists per set running the second-most-efficient offense nationally at .373. He is tied for the program record for career aces at 121.

Second-seeded UH (28-2) faces Penn State (27-3) at George Mason’s 10,000-seat EagleBank Arena at 1:30 p.m. Hawaii time on Thursday for a spot in Saturday’s national final.

PSU beat UH in four sets in the Outrigger Invitational, a field that also included top-seeded UCLA, on March 10. UH beat UCLA in four the next day.

“The Outrigger really turned out to (have) a Final Four feel to it,” UH coach Charlie Wade said this week. “It was at the time and will be again. We love playing against the best teams and it should be an exciting week for sure.”

On Tuesday, assistant coach Milan Zarkovic was named the AVCA Assistant Coach of the Year for the second time.

Zarkovic also won the award in 2020.

Zarkovic has been essential in UH’s overseas recruiting.

"It is rewarding to have one more person from our program be recognized for our team's success," Wade said in a UH release. "I have been blessed with having a great staff for several years and this year is no different. Milan is very deserving of this award as he has worked hard to become a better coach during his time at UH."

UCLA’s John Speraw was named AVCA Coach of the Year.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.