Hawaii 2023

[raian13]

Did Jakob already break the program record for aces?

[kahusancali]

May 4, 2023 1:48:44 GMT -5 raian13 said:

Did Jakob already break the program record for aces?

Negative.

[kahusancali]

[raian13]

May 4, 2023 1:51:09 GMT -5 kahusancali said:

May 4, 2023 1:48:44 GMT -5 raian13 said:

Did Jakob already break the program record for aces?

Negative.

He just needs one lol.

[ManapuaSurprise]

May 4, 2023 1:48:44 GMT -5 raian13 said:

Did Jakob already break the program record for aces?

Tied for 1st. Need one more

[Cubicle No More ...]

Hawaii men's volleyball setter Jakob Thelle named 2023 AVCA Player of Year

By Brian McInnis
May 03, 2023, Spectrum News


Jakob Thelle won the AVCA Player of the Year, the second UH player in the last three years to take home the top individual national award. (Spectrum News/Brian McInnis)


Excerpts:

The Hawaii men’s volleyball team enters the NCAA men’s volleyball tournament with the best player in the land.

Senior All-America setter Jakob Thelle was named the 2023 American Volleyball Coaches Association Player of the year on Wednesday. The native of Tonsburg, Norway, became the fifth player in Rainbow Warrior program history to receive the nation's top individual award, after Yuval Katz (1996), Costas Theocharidis (2001, 2003) and Rado Parapunov (2021).

He is the only member of that group to do it at the setter position. Among all schools, Thelle is the first setter to receive the award since Long Beach State's Josh Tuaniga in 2018.

...

Second-seeded UH (28-2) faces Penn State (27-3) at George Mason’s 10,000-seat EagleBank Arena at 1:30 p.m. Hawaii time on Thursday for a spot in Saturday’s national final.

PSU beat UH in four sets in the Outrigger Invitational, a field that also included top-seeded UCLA, on March 10. UH beat UCLA in four the next day.

“The Outrigger really turned out to (have) a Final Four feel to it,” UH coach Charlie Wade said this week. “It was at the time and will be again. We love playing against the best teams and it should be an exciting week for sure.”

Full story: spectrumlocalnews.com/hi/hawaii/sports/2023/05/04/hawaii-setter-jakob-thelle-named-2023-avca-player-of-year?cid=app_share

[Cubicle No More ...]

Clip of Thelle receiving the POY award ...

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Crz5FFLop7H

[kahusancali]

12 hours to go! Super excited here. 130 am and just woke up and now hard to go back to sleep 🤣

[kahusancali]

[Cubicle No More ...]

‘Unicorn’ UH setter Jakob Thelle named the National Player of the Year

By Jason Kaneshiro
5/4/23, Honolulu Star-Advertiser


JASON KANESHIRO / [e-mail]
Jakob Thelle flashes a shaka after a practice.


JASON KANESHIRO / [e-mail]
Jakob Thelle set the ball during a practice at EagleBank Arena on the George Mason University campus in Fairfax, Va., on Wednesday.



FAIRFAX, Va. >> Each move sets up the next.

Whether surveying a volleyball court or a chess board, Jakob Thelle’s objective is to stay a step ahead of his opponent.

So those moments when it appears the University of Hawaii setter is playing a different game than everyone else on the court could be attributable to the quiet contemplation of shifting pieces into advantageous positions.

“That’s why I play chess, because there’s so much tactics,” Thelle said of the relationship between volleyball and chess on a recent afternoon on campus.

“You have to think in a chess game. It’s not just about setting whatever you feel like. It’s got to come from somewhere and it’s got to come from a tactic and a game plan.

“I got better at playing chess and I got better at setting.”

Over his five years in the UH program, Thelle refined a multi-faceted skill set while expanding his strategic vision in helping the Warriors capture two national championships and two Big West Tournament titles.

A two-time Big West Player of the Year and AVCA first-team All-American, Thelle added to his already extensive list of accolades when he was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association National Player of the Year on Wednesday.

Thelle was presented the award on the eve of the semifinal round of the National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship, becoming the fourth Rainbow Warrior — and first UH setter — to earn the National Player of the Year award since its inception in 1991. He joins Yuval Katz (1996), Costas Theocharidis (2001, ’03) and Rado Parapunov (2021) as UH’s recipients of the top honor in collegiate men’s volleyball.

He’s helped the Warriors (28-2) earn a shot at a third straight NCAA title as second-seeded UH prepares for today’s semifinal match against Penn State at EagleBank Arena.

Thelle sat out seven matches early in the season to rest his knees and has played every set over the past 17 matches. He enters the NCAA Tournament leading the nation in assists per set (10.73) while directing a UH attack that ranks second in hitting percentage at .373 entering today’s match with Penn State at EagleBank Arena.

The 6-foot-6 senior from Norway also has 28 service aces this season and is tied for the program’s career record with 121. The left-hander’s reputation for scoring on a second touch forces the opposing block to account for him in the front row, often opening seams for the middles or pin hitters.

“I’ve said for a couple years now that once he started really getting comfortable being the full-time leader he became a bit of a unicorn in the sense of I couldn’t come up with a comp. Where was there another collegiate setter that was doing the number of things on the court?” UH coach Charlie Wade said during Wednesday’s NCAA tournament press conference. “He impacts the game in so many ways throughout a match that it’s really hard to find a comparison.”

As a sophomore, Thelle’s connection with Parapunov helped UH claim the 2021 national title. Following the departure of that season’s dynamic senior class, Thelle spent that summer playing with Norway’s senior national team, expanding his game while building confidence evident when he returned to Manoa the following fall.

Thelle’s trust in himself and his teammates has fed a penchant for the spectacular over the past two seasons, all with the aim of putting the Warriors hitters, whether on the pins or in the middle, in positions to score.

“That’s always the goal. I want to isolate all my hitters as much as possible and make it the best situation possible to get a kill,” he said before UH’s trip to Virginia.

Thelle was named the Big West Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player for the second straight year in a performance in Irvine, Calif., that included a bump set over his head to Dimitrios Mouchlias for a back-row kill while running toward the opposite sideline.

“Some of those are risks that I’ll take in a game. It’s part of being a setter, it’s taking those risks and then just becoming better at decision-making.”

He’s also honed his thought process in his regular chess games with UH middle blocker Kurt Nusterer.

“Part of it is chess and part of it is he’s one of my best friends and he’s just always been there for me and we’ve always been supportive of each other,” Thelle said.

As the Warriors have racked up conference and national awards over the past three weeks, they’ve held fast to a mantra of focusing on the collective goals over individual honors. The next step in that quest comes today when the Warriors face Penn State in a rematch of UH’s first loss of the season.

“Now we’re in championship mode, so you never know when you’re playing your last game and you have to give it everything you’ve got every night,” Thelle said on Wednesday before the team’s first practice in EagleBank Arena. “Just being able to play our best, that’s always the mindset going into these kinds of games and and being able to perform at our highest level.”

[Cubicle No More ...]

George Mason, site of the NCAA tourney, has a heart-breaking connection to Hawaii

By Cindy Luis
5/4/23, Special to the Star-Advertiser


CINDY LUIS / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
The No. 8 jersey of Uvaldo Acosta hangs in the George Mason University Recreation Athletic Complex Gym. The jersey is a tribute to the Patriots’ three-time All-American who was an apparent drowning victim during a team outing at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.



FAIRFAX, Va. >> The connection between Hawaii and George Mason men’s volleyball goes beyond the Warriors being at the Patriots’ on-campus arena this week for the National Collegiate Volleyball Championship.

Less than a half-mile away — a short walk around picturesque Mason Pond, where Canadian geese, Hawaiian nenes’ hanai cousins, are in abundance — is a link to a tragic day off the waters of Kaneohe Bay.

In the Recreation Athletic Complex Gym hangs a reminder of Feb. 12, 1998, the day that Mason lost its dynamic second-year coach Uvaldo Acosta. The No. 8 jersey is the lone one displayed on the wall below the American flag, a tribute to the Patriots’ three-time All-American who was an apparent drowning victim during a team outing at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

He was 32.

Mason was in Hawaii for a two-match series against the then-No. 4 Rainbow Warriors, a Wednesday-Friday schedule that meant the Patriots had a day off in between to enjoy some sight-seeing. After falling to Hawai’i 13-15, 15-3, 15-7, 15-12 the first night at the Stan Sheriff Center, Mason had a light practice at the arena that Thursday morning before heading across the Pali.

“I went into the arena that morning just to talk story with him a little,” said Charlie Wade, the current Warriors head coach who was then the associate coach for the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team.

“I was doing TV (KFVE color analyst) in those days and I was flying to Vegas for a (girls club) tournament, so I just wanted to say hi before I left. When I landed, I saw the news … Wow, I had literally just talked to him. It was really devastating. Just such a good guy, an amazing player and a good coach. He had the aloha spirit.”

Acosta left a legacy that continues today. The EIVA Player of the Year award has been renamed in his honor, and he was inducted posthumously into the EIVA Hall of Honor in 2012. The last four Uvaldo Acosta Memorial EIVA POYs have come from Penn State, the Warriors’ semifinal opponent today at EagleBank Arena.

Both outside hitter Brett Wildman, who won in 2020 and ’22, and setter Cole Bogner, the 2021 and ’23 winner, know who Acosta was and what he represents.

“We had this conversation when we were here last year (for an EIVA regular-season match),” Bogner said during Wednesday’s press conference. “(Coach Mark Pavlik) expressed how great of an athlete (Acosta) was, how he doesn’t compare to what we see in today’s game.”

Added Wildman: “(Pavlik) talked about his spirit, on and off the court. And what he did for the collegiate game.”

Acosta came out of El Paso, Texas, hardly a hotbed of boys volleyball, and found a home with the emerging Mason program. In his three seasons with the Patriots, he become the program’s first three-time All-American and still holds the NCAA Tournament record for most digs (27) in the 1988 third-place match, a four-set loss to Ball State.

Acosta remains sprinkled across his alma mater’s record book, both single-season and career in kills and digs. He had 41 kills in the conference tournament championship against Penn State that sent Mason into the 1988 national tournament for the third time in program history.

“He was one of those players who could probably play in any era of our game,” said Pavlik, head coach at his alma mater since 1995. “He was such a phenomenal athlete and competitor. He loved playing the game.

“The Mason-Penn State rivalry is a good one, and he’s one of the best who ever competed in that rivalry. I was devastated when I heard. No team should have to go through what the Patriots had to go through that year, especially losing someone who was such a great ambassador for men’s volleyball.”

“He represents a time where midwest and East Coast volleyball was on the rise,” Stanford coach John Kosty, a member of this week’s tournament committee, said. “And he was a part of that. His impact from a player to a coach left an indelible mark on this part of the country in men’s volleyball.”

In the trophy case at the RAC, there is another Acosta jersey with a plaque that lists his accomplishments. It includes being with the U.S. national team (1989-92), where he roomed with former Warriors All-American Carlos Briceno during the World League. Briceno made the 1992 Olympic Team, while Acosta was the last player cut.

Acosta eventually returned to his alma mater, was an assistant coach (1994-96) while he finished his sociology degree and played clarinet in the GMU band. He took over in 1997, a part-time position at a program that had barely survived the athletic department cuts the year before.

Acosta had the Patriots again on the rise. GMU was 11-13 his first year, 3-3 in the EIVA; the Patriots were 4-1 when they came to Honolulu and were thrilled to take Set 1 off of Hawai’i.

They couldn’t wait for Friday’s rematch, a rematch that didn’t happen. While in the waters off North Beach, Acosta apparently got caught in the undertow of the surf line. He was reported missing at about 1 p.m. that Thursday; two hours later, his body was retrieved some 200 yards off shore by a Honolulu Fire Department rescue boat.

Although the players and coaches from both teams wanted to play, both schools’ administrations agreed to cancel. The Patriots returned the following year, swept twice by then-No. 5 Hawai’i.

Mason hasn’t been back to Honolulu since.

Current coach Jay Hosack said he had hoped to schedule the Warriors this season as a 25th anniversary commemoration. It didn’t work out but may happen next year.

Still, Hawaii did make it here to Acosta’s alma mater, seeking its third consecutive national title just a short walk across campus from where “Mr. Patriot Volleyball” is honored.

[Cubicle No More ...]

Almost inevitable that these 4 teams would be in NCAA semis

By Jason Kaneshiro
5/4/23, Honolulu Star-Advertiser


FAIRFAX, Va. >> Over two weekends in Manoa, all signs pointed to Virginia.

When Hawaii hosted UCLA and Penn State in the Outrigger Volleyball Invitational in early March, then opened Big West play against Long Beach State a week later, there was a sense of inevitability that those four teams would eventually reconvene at EagleBank Arena.

Two months later, the quartet have indeed found their way to Fairfax, and the experiences of those evenings in SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center serve as preparation and prelude to today’s semifinals in the National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship.

“It was a great tournament,” UCLA coach John Speraw said of playing in the Outrigger. “You set up those schedules a year in advance you don’t really know exactly how it’s all going to shake out, and for those teams to all be there in one weekend was exciting and great for the fans, and the environment, of course, was fantastic.

“The pressure that you’re under when you play UH in Hawaii with a crowd like that where it’s 1 versus 2 is very, obviously, simulative of what you might have here.”

The NCAA semifinalists have spent the entire season in the top four of the AVCA coaches poll, with two-time defending champion UH atop the ranking for 16 of 17 weeks.

Each of the final four participants have faced each other at varying points in the season, so familiarity and quests for redemption will be themes in both of today’s matches.

“We got to play on the court, we got to see them multiple times — any time you can do something like that to raise your level of familiarity is an advantage,” UH coach Charlie Wade said. “And I’m sure they feel the same way.”

In the opener, top-seeded UCLA will look to avenge last year’s loss to Long Beach State in the NCAA semifinals in Pauley Pavilion. On the other side of the net, the Beach are looking to reverse the outcomes of two losses to the Bruins in February.

“(In the second match) We played a little more the way we wanted to play and the brand of volleyball we have been striving to play the entire season,” LBSU libero Mason Briggs said. “And we’ve been able to grow and hopefully we’ll be able to squeeze out a few more points down the stretch.”

While second-seeded Hawaii enters the NCAA tournament as the two-time defending national champion, the Rainbow Warriors will face a Penn State team responsible for snapping their 29-match home winning streak when the Nittany Lions pulled out a four-set victory on March 10 on the second night of the Outrigger.

Penn State, which was awarded the Outrigger title in a three-team tiebreaker, is back in the final four a year after a stunning loss in its conference tournament locked it out of the NCAA tournament.

“I think with the Outrigger and structure of it, the day-to-day competition we faced there, that was great prep for this, as was the First Point Challenge in Texas (with Pepperdine and Stanford),” Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said.

“This team has been through probably the toughest schedule of any of the teams I’ve coached have been through. They seem to have embraced the competition that’s been thrown at them.”

Today’s rematch is reminiscent of the scenario UH faced in last year’s final four, when the Warriors rallied past a Ball State team that had knocked them off earlier in the season. This time they’ll get another chance to face Penn State a bit less than two months after posting their lowest hitting percentage of the season at .250 while the Nittany Lions hit .302 with seven aces in their 21-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-23 victory.

“It’s pretty similar,” UH libero Brett Sheward said in recalling last year’s set-up. “But we’re just focused on the now and trying to stay in the moment … it doesn’t really matter what’s happened before.”

The Warriors bounced back to defeat UCLA the next night and traded sweeps in their Big West series with Long Beach State the following weekend. They carry an 11-match winning streak into today’s match and have had two weeks to recharge after claiming their second straight Big West Tournament title.

Following is a look at today’s matchups, which will be streamed on ncaa.com. The winners meet for the national championship on Saturday at 11 a.m. on ESPN2.


NATIONAL COLLEGIATE MEN’S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SEMIFINALS

At EagleBank Arena, Fairfax, Va.


UCLA (29-2) vs. Long BEach State (21-4), 11 a.m.

>> Conferences: UCLA: Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, Long Beach State: Big West

>> NCAA RPI: UCLA: 1, LBSU: 4

>> Coaches: UCLA: John Speraw (11th), Long Beach State: Alan Knipe (20th year)

AVCA All-Americans

>> UCLA: OH Ethan Champlin (first), Opp Ido David (first), MB Merrick McHenry (first), S Andrew Rowan, OH Alex Knight (second), MB Guy Genis (HM), L Troy Gooch (HM)

>> Long Beach State: L Mason Briggs (first team), Opp Clarke Godbold (second), OH Spencer Olivier (second), OH Sotiris Siapanis (second), MB Simon Torwie (second), MB Shane Holdaway (HM), S Aidan Knipe (HM)

Matchup

It was 364 days ago that UCLA was one set away from playing in an NCAA final on its home court before Long Beach State pulled off a reverse sweep, taking the fifth set 16-14. The memory fueled the Bruins throughout the season and into today’s semifinal rematch with the Beach.

“In our locker room we have a picture of all of our reactions after that final ball dropped, and that’s motivation for this season,” outside hitter Ethan Champlin said.

LBSU also has redemption in mind, having dropped both ends a home-and-home series with UCLA on Feb. 9 and 10.

Of the matchups across the net, the duel in the middle may be the most intriguing. Long Beach State’s Simon Torwie, the nation’s leader with 1.61 blocks per set, was in on eight of the Beach’s 10.5 blocks in Tuesday’s four-set win over Grand Canyon and scored on 10 of his 11 swings. UCLA’s Merrick McHenry is the nation’s most efficient attacker at .537 and has been close to unstoppable over the Bruins’ past three matches, going 34-for-42 without an error.

“(McHenry’s) a very talented player and looking statistically at what he was able to do in the MPSF Tournament he’s doing some really special things offensively,” LBSU coach Alan Knipe said. “We pride ourselves in some things with our blocking and what Simon can do and I’m sure it’ll be interesting when that matchup ends up being those two.”


Hawaii (28-2) vs. Penn State (26-3), 1:30 p.m.

>> Conferences: Hawaii: Big West, Penn State: Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association

>> NCAA RPI: Hawaii: 3, Penn State: 2

>> Coaches: Hawaii: Charlie Wade (14th year), Penn State: Mark Pavlik (29th year)

AVCA All-Americans

>> Hawaii: Opp Dimitrios Mouchlias (first), S Jakob Thelle (first), MB Guilherme Voss (first), OH Spyros Chakas (second), OH Chaz Galloway (HM), L Brett Sheward (HM).

>> Penn State: S Cole Bogner (first), MB Toby Ezeonu (first), RS Cal Fisher (second), OH Michal Kowal (HM), L Ryan Merk (HM), MB Owen Rose, OH Brett Wildman (HM).

Matchup

Coaches will routinely point to the serve-and-pass game as the key to any match. Those elements figure to be amplified in a meeting of two of the nation’s strongest serving teams. Penn State ranks second in the nation with 2.00 aces per set, with Hawaii sixth at 1.72. The Nittany Lions had seven aces in their four-set win over UH on March 10 and drilled 10 in their NCAA quarterfinal win against Ohio State on Thursday. Cal Fisher (.671 aps) and Brett Wildman (.500) lead off Penn State’s serving rotation, and UH faced a comparable duo in UC Irvine’s Hilir Henno and Francesco Sani.

“Pretty similar,” UH coach Charlie Wade said. “They’ve got two of the best servers in the country right in a row, and one’s a lefty (Fisher), and they both bring big-time heat. So it’ll be a good challenge for sure.”

UH counters with a serving lineup led by Jakob Thelle (121 career aces) and Spryos Chakas (team-high 26 this season). Dimitrios Mouchlias has 34 aces and serving sub Keoni Thiim has fired 20 in his one turn per set.

On the other end, both teams feature honorable mention All-America liberos in UH’s Brett Sheward and Penn State’s Ryan Merk, and their work in keeping their offenses in system figures to be a key.

“Everybody has big boys who hit the ball hard,” Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said. “The serving part of the game is becoming more and more important. It magnifies when you’re at this stage of the season with this caliber of teams.”

[aznsun90]

Wow big Hawaii crowd!

[kahusancali]

May 4, 2023 18:15:55 GMT -5 aznsun90 said:

Wow big Hawaii crowd!

Band and cheerleaders made it to Fairfax

[808empath]

May 4, 2023 18:15:55 GMT -5 aznsun90 said:

Wow big Hawaii crowd!

Are you there?