After winning the Outrigger Invitational with three wins over Top 15 opponents in four days, the Hawaii men’s volleyball team earned the No. 1 ranking in the AVCA /NVA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Poll released Monday.
The Rainbow Warriors (17-1), who have won 16 straight matches, earned their first No. 1 ranking of the season and received 15 of 23 first-place votes to move ahead of previous No. 1 Grand Canyon and No. 2 Long Beach State.
Hawaii will begin Big West Conference play Friday and Saturday with matches against the 49ers at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif.
The Rainbow Warriors will likely be without senior outside hitter Spyros Chakas, who was injured on match point in Sunday’s win over No. 5 UC Irvine.
Chakas, a two-time, second-team All-American, went up for a swing with UH ahead 14-11 in the fifth set and came down awkwardly on his left leg. He crumpled to the ground holding his left knee and had to be carried off the court by his teammates.
No official word on his status was released by the school. Hawaii head coach Charlie Wade will meet with the media this afternoon.
Chakas entered the week fifth in the country averaging 4.15 kills per set and third in hitting percentage at.417.
Sophomore middle blocker Kurt Nusterer was named the Big West Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, while setter Tread Rosenthal earned his sixth BWC Freshman of the Week award.
Nusterer had 18 blocks in three wins in the Outrigger tournament, with nine coming in Sunday’s win over the Anteaters.
He’s tied for second in the Big West averaging 1.0 blocks per set.
Rosenthal averaged 9.64 assists and 1.09 blocks per set while serving up four aces in the Outrigger tournament.
Hawaii earned the top spot in the poll for the 76th time in program history, matching Brigham Young for the second-most all-time.
This is the sixth consecutive season Hawaii has been ranked No. 1 at least once, which no other school has ever accomplished.
The Rainbow Warriors, who opened the season ranked third, have been in the Top 4 of every poll for 90 consecutive weeks dating back to the end of the 2018 season.
Grand Canyon (16-2) , which went 1-2 in the Outrigger tournament, dropped to No. 4 behind No. 3 UCLA. UC Irvine remained at No. 5 after losing two of three matches in the tournament, and Lewis stayed at No. 14.
UH is 4-0 against Top 10 opponents this season, with its only loss coming in five sets to No. 12 Loyola-Chicago.
Hawaii enters the week leading the country in service aces at 2.59 per set. Princeton (2.05) is the only other team averaging more than two aces per set.
UH also leads the nation in hitting percentage at.397, 30 points higher than defending national champion UCLA.