Warrior Schedule Hunt 2016

Photo Credit: Hawaii Athletics

Official Release | 2017 Schedule

Men's volleyball season is coming up soon and schedules of other schools around the country are being posted. So that means parts of the University of Hawaii schedule are being revealed. Hawaii is in its last season with the MPSF as they will enter the Big West for men's volleyball in 2017-18. Based on the schedules posted by other schools, this season all teams from the MPSF will play twice against all but two teams making for 20 conference games for the year. Hawaii will host one tournament, a home two-game non-conference series, and will play its first non-conference road trip since 1996. First time opponents for the Warriors will be Barton College (Erskine), Lindenwood, McKendree and Princeton. The last time Ball State was in the Outrigger Resorts Invitational was in 2011 where they swept UH.

This post will be updated with the arrival of more schedules (Check out my twitter for more updates)

Edit: The official 2017 schedule has been released and there were a few additions along with a change to the opening tournament. Listed on other schools schedules, Barton College was named one of the teams in the Outrigger Invitational. As of now they have been replaced with Conference Carolina team, Erskine. Also noted is that the MPSF has limited the schedule to 18 conference games which means Hawaii will play all but four teams twice (USC, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, Cal Baptist). The second match of the Hawaii-USC series will count towards their non-conference record. Hawaii has also added another two-match series with rising program Grand View. They open the fall season with preseason home games against UC Irvine and Sport Conx. The second game against UCLA will be aired on Pac-12 Networks.

2017 Schedule

Preseason

• October 28 (7:00 PM HT) vs UC Irvine
• November 16 (7:00 PM HT) vs SportConx

Week 1 - Outrigger Resorts Invitational

• January 5 (7:00 PM HT) vs Erskine
• January 6 (7:00 PM HT) vs Princeton
• January 7 (7:00 PM HT) vs Ball State

Week 2

• January 11 (7:00 PM HT) vs Grand Canyon
• January 13 (7:00 PM HT) vs Grand Canyon

Week 3

• January 18 (TBA) @ Long Beach State*
• January 20 (TBA) @ Long Beach State*
• January 21 (TBA) @ UC Irvine*

Week 4

• January 27 (7:00 PM HT) vs Grand View
• January 29 (5:00 PM HT) vs Grand View

Week 5

• February 3 (7:00 PM HT) vs UCSB*
• February 4 (7:00 PM HT) vs UCSB*

Week 6

• February 10 (7:00 PM PT) at UC San Diego*
• February 11 (7:00 PM PT) at Cal Baptist*

Week 7

• February 14 (7:00 PM ET) at McKendree
• February 15 (7:00 PM ET) at Lindenwood

Week 8

• February 24 (7:00 PM HT) vs Pepperdine*
• February 26 (5:00 PM HT) vs Pepperdine*

Week 9

• March 2 (7:00 PM HT) vs USC*
• March 3 (7:00 PM HT) vs USC

Week 10

• March 10 (7:00 PM HT) vs Stanford*
• March 11 (7:00 PM HT) vs Stanford*

Week 11

• March 17 (TBA) @ BYU*
• March 18 (TBA) @ BYU*

Week 12

• March 24 (7:00 PM HT) vs CSUN*
• March 25 (7:00 PM HT) vs CSUN*

Week 13

• April 6 (TBD) at UCLA*
• April 7 (TBD) at UCLA*

Week 14

• April 15 (TBD) at TBD - MPSF Tournament Quarterfinals

Week 15

• April 20 (TBD) at TBD - MPSF Tournament Semifinals
• April 22 (TBD) at TBD - MPSF Tournament Finals

Week 16

• April 28 (TBD) at TBD - NCAA Tournament Play-In Match

Week 17

• May 4 (TBD) at Columbus, Ohio - NCAA Tournament Semifinals
• May 6 (TBD) at Columbus, Ohio - NCAA Tournament Championships

* MPSF Matches

Schools without Hawaii on their schedule: Charleston, Coker, Concordia-Irvine, George Mason, Harvard, IPFW, King, Lees-McRae, Lewis, Loyola-Chicago, North Greenville, Ohio State, Penn State, Pfeiffer, Quincy, Saint Francis, Springfield

Former Bows Land Coaching Jobs

Duquesne Release | North Carolina Release | Dartmouth Bio

Former Rainbow Wahine middle blocker Amber Kaufman (2006-09), outside hitter or libero Tara Hittle (2005-08) and Warrior outside hitter Scott Hartley (2011-15) each landed coaching positions at different universities. Kaufman who spent the spring season as a volunteer assistant at the University of Pittsburgh will move on to be an Assistant Coach at Duquesne University. Hittle has done coaching at the prep level back in her home state of Colorado and has now landed an Assistant Coach spot at Dartmouth. Hartley is coming off a season playing professional volleyball and will be a Volunteer Assistant Coach at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. All are Division I programs with UNC having a Top 25 ranked team.

In the beginning of spring, the Pittsburgh Athletic Department announced that Kaufman will be the new volunteer assistant coach for their volleyball program. Recently she took a higher position not to far from her new school in Duquesne. Before Pittsburgh, Kaufman continued her volleyball career playing professionally in Finland. During that time she earned a spot to the league All-Star team. At the University of Hawaii she was a five-time All-American in track and field for the high jump event while being an all-WAC performer for the volleyball team. She was part of the 2009 Wahine team that made a run to the NCAA Final Four and earned AVCA All-American Honorable Mention after ranking second in the nation in hitting percentage.

Tara Hittle | Photo Credit: Dartmouth Athletics

Hittle has spent past years in Colorado coaching for a top club in Colorado Juniors. She coached at Valor Christian along with Doherty HS which is where she was the Colorado Coach of the Year. Also at Doherty HS she coached the Top Ranked recruit according to PrepVolleyball in the class of 2013 in Haleigh Washington who is now an AVCA First Team All-American at Penn State. Her most recent playing times were her professional season in Switzerland in 2011. At Hawaii she was a four time letter winner for the volleyball while also playing on the basketball team. She holds the third highest dig count in the record books as she spent her last season as a libero after sharing time as an outside hitter the seasons before.

Hartley returns to the United States as he spent one season playing in Greece along with playing in the Annual Asian Pacific Cup. He recently came home to California where he spent the 2016 spring helping Santa Margarita Catholic HS and 949 Athletic Club as a coach. Previous coaching experience has had is in Hawaii with Spike and Serve. During his career at Hawaii he was inserted as a reserve for over half his career but excelled when he was given opportunities. Making impacts his freshman season off the bench and earned a starting spot the last half of his senior year. He was a member of the team that was second in the MPSF and made it to the NCAAs Tournament.

Santa Barbara Transfer to Hawaii

Photo Credit: The Channels (Ryan Collum)

The Warrior Volleyball team picked up another player for the program in the upcoming season. This one coming as a transfer in Jackson Wopat (Goleta, CA). He is recently coming from Santa Barbara City College where he graduated and played as an opposite at 6'5".

In his single season with the Vaqueros, Wopat played mostly as an opposite but played occasionally at outside hitter. For the season he was second on the team in blocks and aces and third in kills. He had a career high 12 kills twice and a career high of six blocks in a four set loss to Santa Monica. Overall the team went 9-10 and went 4-8 in conference.

Before coming to Santa Barbra CC, Wopat played his freshman season at UC San Diego where he signed as a middle blocker. He had limited playing time as he appeared in three sets in three matches all season where his only two kills came against Hawaii (1/24/14). That year the team went 2-26 with wins over Grand Canyon and Holy Names.

During his prep career, he was a middle blocker at Dos Pueblos HS where he also played basketball. In 2013, he was named All-CIF DII First Team as well as a All-Channel League First Team member. He averaged over 10 kills a game for a team that went to the CIF DII Southern Section Quarterfinals. In the club scene, he played for multiple teams but his most recent being with Santa Barbara Volleyball Club which is the same club that beach player Katie Spieler played on. Lastly he played with the USA High Performance team that competes in Des Moines, Iowa.

His last name may sound familiar as his older sister Carly was an All-American middle blocker for Stanford and played against Hawaii in Stan Sheriff Center during her senior season (2013). Their younger brother Eli has recently signed with Stanford and will attend this fall. The Wopat's have spent time in the state of Hawaii as they have family in the outer islands.

Wopat joins Austin Matautia (Ewa Beach, HI), Everett Schuett (Thousand Oaks, CA), Jack Reese (Pittsburgh, PA), Jackson Van Eekeren (Lisle, IL), Isaac Liva (Mililani, HI), and transfer Larry "Tui" Tuileta (Honolulu, HI) for the 2016-17 season. It is not known what position he is playing for the program, but look for it be either as an opposite or middle blocker. Also not known is what year of eligibility he is due to his Santa Barbara CC profile listing him as a freshman this past season.

Big congrats to both of my brothers! Jackson just graduated from SBCC and is transferring to the University of Hawaii to play volleyball and study global environmental sciences. Eli is graduating from Dos Pueblos High School and will play volleyball and study at Stanford University. Can't wait to visit both of them! #triplethreat #nosmiling #polaroid

A photo posted by Carly Anelalani Wopat (@carlywopat) on May 14, 2016 at 6:39pm PDT

Machado Added to Warrior Roster

Photo Credit: ScoringLive

In the last few weeks of the Hawaii Warrior volleyball season, the team added a new player in Kahiau Machado (Kaneohe, HI). He graduated from Kamehameha-Kapalama this past year and has recently joined the team. In the recent matches, he has been the player sitting in the upper stands tracking the speed of the serves. At 6'2" he will play as a libero but will redshirt this season.

 Photo Credit: Hawaii Athletics

Machado comes to the University of Hawaii where he will continue to be a Warrior. He led his high school team in kills his senior season as an outside hitter and made it to the quarterfinals of the HHSAA State Tournament. In his final match of the season he had 23 kills and hit .409 while collecting 21 digs in a five set match against third seeded Moanalua which features Warrior signee Austin Matautia. Accolades for the year include ILH All-Stars First Team and a Star Advertiser Fab 15 honoree at No. 8 in the rankings.

In the club scene Kahiau played for Ka Ulukoa Volleyball Club where he played an age group up. His team traveled to Reno, Nevada where they competed in the 2013 Boys Junior National Championships placing first in the 17 Open division. He was teammates with USC transfer Larry "Tui" Tuileta and many others who went to play college volleyball.

Local ILH/OIA All-Star Joins 2017 Warriors

Photo Credit: ScoringLive

Recruit Profile

The Warrior Volleyball team picked up a walk-on in the past few weeks with a commitment from Isaac Liva (Mililani, HI). He is a 6'5" opposite who played his last season of his high school career at Mililani HS and his club with Ku'ikahi Volleyball Club.

With his one year as a Trojan, Liva led his team to the HHSAA State Tournament with a fourth place finish earning him a spot on the State All-Tournament Team. They were undefeated in the OIA West with a 10-0 record which progressed to Liva becoming the OIA West Player of the Year. His talent and statistics will most likely earn him another spot on the Hawaii State Fab 15.

Before his senior year at Mililani, he was a two-time Division II State Champion with Hawaii Baptist Academy. As an Eagle he was one of two go-to players which earned the team a Division II ILH title in 2015 and a runner-up spot in 2014. He was named ILH First Team All-Stars both seasons and the Most Outstanding Player spot in the State Tournament in 2015.

Liva's club career with Ku'ikahi Volleyball Club began in 2013 as his has played with them since. The first two years his team has qualified for the Open Division at the Boys Junior National Championships. His team will head to Dallas, Texas this summer for the BJNC in the Club Division. His club coach is his former HBA head coach Teoni Obrey.

During his high school career he played four years of basketball where he was a 2015 All-Hawaii Second Team and an ILH First Team at HBA and a 2016 OIA Western Division Second Team All-Star. He also was an one year football career in his senior year and was an All-Hawaii Division I Honorable Mention as a Defensive Linesman.

Isaac's older sister is former Mililani basketball and volleyball standout Sarah Liva who played two seasons at Portland State for volleyball but has transferred home to Hawaii Pacific University where she will play basketball.

He joins OIA rival Austin Matautia (Ewa Beach, CA), Everett Schuett (Thousand Oaks, CA), Jack Reese (Pittsburgh, PA), Jackson Van Eekeren (Lisle, IL), and USC transfer Larry "Tui" Tuileta (Honolulu, HI) for the 2017 Warrior team.