Hawaii volleyball retains No. 1 spot; 2 players earn Big West honors
HONOLULU — Undefeated Hawaii, remaiining No. 1 in today’s national poll, also had two players honored by the Big West.
Senior opposite Rado Parapunov earned his ninth Player of the Week award of his career—a conference record—after helping the Rainbow Warriors (12-0) win last week’s Outrigger Hotels &Resorts Invitational. Parapunov put down a match-high 17 kills, hitting.560, in the sweep of then-No. 14 Concordia and had 14 kills in the sweep of then-No. 4 UC Irvine.
Middle blocker Guilherme Voss earned his second Freshman of the Week award, finishing with a combined 16 kills and 10 blocks in the wins over the Eagles and Anteaters.
The Defensive Player of the Week went to UC Irvine’s Scott Stadick. The 7-foot senior middle had a combined 26 blocks as the Anteaters finished second in last week’s Outrigger Invitational, including a career-high 11 block assists in Saturday’s loss to the Warriors.
Also on Monday, the Warriors received 11 of 16 first-place votes in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Men’s Division I-II Top 15. For a second week in a row, BYU (12-0) picked up the remaining five votes in staying at No. 2.
UC Santa Barbara (8-2) stayed at No. 3 while Long Beach State (7-1) and UC Irvine (7-4) traded places at Nos. 4 and 5.
UC San Diego moved back into the poll at No. 15, giving the Big West five ranked teams for the second time in three weeks. The only conference member not ranked is Cal State Northridge (2-9).
Hawaii makes its second road trip of the season later this week, playing at No. 12 Stanford (5-5) on Friday and Saturday.