HONOLULU — If the Hawaii men’s volleyball team is to claim its fourth all-time Big West championship and gain the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament, it will have done so at the expense of some old friends.
Third-seeded UH (22-6) opens the Big West tournament against sixth-seeded UC Santa Barbara (9-17) in the first round Thursday night at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
The tournament begins with a match between No. 4 UC San Diego and No. 5 Cal State Northridge at 4:30 p.m.; UH’s match will begin at 7 p.m. or after the first match if it goes long.
The winner of UH and UCSB takes on second-seeded UC Irvine (18-9) in Friday’s nightcap. Both UCSB and UCI feature starting setters that began their careers at UH and were on the roster for the Rainbow Warriors’ national championships in 2021 and 2022.
The Gauchos’ Jack Walmer redshirted at UH in 2021 and was a sub who served the match-winning point against Long Beach State in the 2022 national championship. Walmer subsequently transferred within the Big West.
The Anteaters’ Brett Sheward was the starting libero on both UH title teams. Sheward, who earned All-Big West first-team honors this season, transferred to UCI for his sixth and final season of eligibility to get a starting opportunity at his natural position of setter. The player still affectionately known in UH circles as “Shewie” leads the Big West in assists per game at 10.64.
UH freshman setter Tread Rosenthal also picked up BWC first-team honors.
UH coach Charlie Wade said the tournament is wide open.
“No one team has had everybody play well every night,” he told local media this week. “That’s why you see like last week, everybody split.”
The ‘Bows are coming off a sweep loss at UCSD last Saturday.
“This time of year, whoever’s going to win not only this tournament but the NCAA Tournament, somebody’s going to be able to put together three good nights in a row,” Wade said.
Since All-America hitter and team leader Spyros Chakas went down with a career-ending knee injury just prior to conference play, UH has been unable to string together much more than one good match.
“I think it’s been a challenge ever since we lost Spyros, because that was the core group we’ve gone through in practice throughout the year,” sixth-year opposite Alaka‘i Todd said. “Having this time to figure it out with the new lineup, it’s not been a challenge but it’s been kind of like homework. Every game we’re learning and getting better and better with being consistent with that group. I think by the time Thursday, Friday and Saturday we’re going to be on our game and playing our best volleyball we have all this entire year.”
Todd said slowing down UCSB’s Geste Bianchi will be key in the opener. Bianchi leads the league in points per set at 5.56. By comparison, Todd is UH’s leader in points per set at 3.84.
Over the course of conference play, Wade has mixed and matched lineups featuring outside hitters Louis Sakanoko, Keoni Thiim and Chaz Galloway. It has often been anyone’s best guess which will be effective on a given night.
“It has been a little bit by committee,” Wade acknowledged. “You roll some guys out there and see how they’re doing. We haven’t ended with the same group we’ve started too many times over the last month or so.”
Fifth-ranked UH more than likely needs to win out in order to receive an NCAA Tournament berth. There are only two at-large berths to the NCAAs.
UH has won three of the five Big West tournaments to date (2019, 2022, 2023). Two of those have come at home; last year UH did it with a road win over UC Irvine.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.