Hawaii men’s volleyball hosts Big West Tournament with NCAA bid up for grabs

The No. 5 University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team will host the Big West Tournament at the Stan Sheriff Center, which begins on Thursday and ends on Saturday.

At 22-6 overall and 5-5 in Big West play, Hawaii will enter as the No. 3 seed in the tournament, taking on unranked but dangerous UC Santa Barbara, the sixth and final seed in the conference tournament.

All the latest sports news from Hawaii’s sports station

First serve between the Rainbow Warriors and Gauchos is set for 7 p.m. on Thursday.

UCSB returns to the islands after losing a pair of matches to UH in Manoa at the end of March, which included an eventful win for the ‘Bows on senior night in which Hawaii was penalized for a yellow card and a red card in the fifth set.

Hawaii enters the Big West tournament ranked fifth nationally in the AVCA/NVA National Collegiate MVB Poll. Were UH to win on Thursday, it would face national No. 3 and Big West 2 seed UC Irvine, which has an RPI of 4. Hawaii is 2-1 against the Anteaters in 2024. Another win on Friday may not be enough propel the Rainbow Warriors into the NCAA Tournament, which only has two at-large bids available, after the ‘Bows were swept at unranked UC San Diego to end their road trip on Saturday.

There’s only one way the Rainbow Warriors can assure themselves an NCAA Tournament bid: Winning the Big West Tournament. The winner, regardless of who it is, receives the conference’s automatic bid.

Hawaii head coach Charlie Wade tried his best to remain optimistic when the Rainbow Warriors lost star player Spyros Chakas in March due to a knee injury. The ‘Bows have been 5-5 since then.

“For us, there will be a match to qualify for the NCAA Tournament in the Stan Sheriff Center in late April,” Wade said prophetically in March.

“We need to be in that match, and we need to win it.”