Hawaii clinches the top seed in the Big West tournament
The second-ranked Hawaii men’s volleyball team can celebrate senior night tonight already knowing when it will play next. The Rainbow Warriors clinched the No. 1 seed in the Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship with a 25-20, 25-16, 25-16 sweep of No.
18 Cal State Northridge on Friday night at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. A crowd of 6,765 saw Hawaii (25-4, 8-1 Big West) earn at least a share of a Big West regular-season championship for the third time in program history and first since 2023. UH can win the title outright with another victory tonight against CSUN (12-13, 0-9) or a loss by Long Beach State against UC Irvine.
“You win the Big West regular season, you are absolutely in the running to win a national championship,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “That is certainly our goal every year, and winning league championships in this league is hard to do. ” After tonight’s regular-season finale against CSUN, Hawaii will play Friday in the first Big West semifinal against the winner between UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego at 2 p.
m. Kainoa Wade put down 10 kills in his first start since UH’s final nonconference match in the Outrigger Invitational against Lewis and Adrien Roure added nine to lead Hawaii offensively. Sophomore middle Ofeck Hazan set a career high with seven blocks for Hawaii, which finished the match with 12.
5 blocks. Jalen Phillips had 10 kills to lead the Matadors. Wade hit .