Thursday, January 12, 2017

Beach Schedule Hunt 2016

Photo Credit: Hawaii Athletics

The Rainbow Wahine Beach Volleyball team are coming off their run to the first NCAA Tournament in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Now they will attempt to get back there for the postseason in a quest for their first National Championship. In order to get back to Alabama, they will have to go through tough 2017 opponents and a competitive Big West conference.

The 2017 roster has been posted listing remaining beach only players from last years roster including four seniors, two juniors, and two sophomores. Also listed are the seven freshman and one junior transfer. Returners crossing over from the indoor to the beach team are Clare-Marie Anderson, Casey Castillo, Gianna Guinasso, Emily Maglio, and Nikki Taylor. New players from the indoor team crossing over are Norene Iosia, Savanah Kahakai, Kirsten Smith, and Emma Smith while Tayler Higgins will return after playing beach her freshman season. However, All-American Taylor's decision to play beach is unsure due to her possibilities of playing overseas and resting her body after the indoor season.

Now the schedule hunt for the beach team has started as schools are releasing their 2016-17 schedules.

This post will be updated with the release of other schools schedules (Check my twitter for updates)

2017 Schedule
  • March 3-4 - Grand Canyon Tournament (Teams: Grand Canyon, Colorado Mesa, LMU)
  • March 3-4 - Arizona Invitational (Teams: Arizona, Arizona State, Jacksonville)
  • March 10-11 - Hawaii Invitational (Teams: Loyola Marymount, Stetson)
  • March 17-18 - Hawaii Tournament (Teams: Arizona, Utah, USC)
  • March 26 - Stanford Tournament (Teams: Stanford, Irvine Valley)
  • March 29 (1:00 PM PT) - at Pepperdine
  • April 1-2 - Big West Challenge (Teams: Cal Poly, CSUN, Long Beach State, Sacramento State)
  • April 7 (TBA) - vs Pepperdine, Cal Poly
  • April 8 (TBA) - vs Pepperdine, Cal Poly
  • April 13-14 - Outrigger Aloha Invitational (Teams: Florida Atlantic, Grand Canyon, Long Beach State, USC)
  • May 5-7 (TBA) - NCAA Tournament - Gulf Shores, Alabama

Friday, October 28, 2016

GAME DAY: Hawaii vs UC Riverside (Wahine)

Photo Credit: (Hawaii Athletics)

Match-Up: Hawaii Rainbow Warriors vs UC Riverside Highlanders
What: Big West Women's Volleyball
When: October 28, 2016 (5 PM HT)
Where: Riverside, CA (SRC Arena)
Last Meeting: October 2, 2016 (3-0 Hawaii)

Coverage
Televised: ESPNU (Paul Sunderland and Laura Bush)
Live Stats: UC Riverside Stats
Radio: ESPN1420 (Tiff Wells)

Hawaii WVB Twitter | Hawaiivolleyball808 Twitter | Hawaii Release | UC Riverside Release

The Rainbow Wahine are on their third of four road trips this season as they travel to Southern California to take on the UC Riverside Highlanders. In their last meeting this season, Hawaii came out with a 3-0 win that went 25-15, 25-6, 25-17. That second set was the lowest set score Hawaii has held their opponent to this season. This is the last time these two teams will face as it is the start of the second half of conference season.

Tonight's game will be televised on ESPNU which is the first of this season for the Big West conference. No stream is available unless your television provider provides ESPNU, then it it is available on ESPN3. Live stats and radio are available in the links above along with the live coverage provided by the Hawaii WVB twitter.

GAME DAY: Hawaii vs UC Irvine (Warriors)


Photo Credit: (Krystle Marcellus)

Match-Up: Hawaii Rainbow Warriors vs UC Irvine Anteaters
What: Men's Volleyball Preseason Exhibition
When: October 28, 2016 (7 PM HT)
Where: Honolulu, HI (Stan Sheriff Center)
Last Meeting: March 26, 2016 (3-2 Hawaii)

Hawaii MVB Twitter | UC Irvine MVB Twitter | Hawaiivolleyball808 Twitter

It does not happen often but the Warrior volleyball team are hosting a preseason exhibition matching featuring the UC Irvine Anteaters. Fans will be able to come watch the team play for the first time this fall of a team that features 15 returning players and seven newcomers. Both teams met earlier this year in Hawaii with UH taking the series 2-0 after back-to-back five set matches. This is the last season these two teams will play in the MPSF as they move to the Big West in 2017-18. Hawaii will play UC Irvine only once this upcoming conference season in Irvine.

UC Irvine returns 14 players while adding six players including the top recruit in the nation in Scott Stadick. They are coming off a 10-20 overall record and 7-15 conference record where they squeezed into the eighth spot of the MPSF Tournament. This is the second exhibition match of the fall season for the Anteaters as they hosted Zhejiang, a Chinese team and were swept.

There is no guarantees of any live coverage for this game as we know OC Sports does not cover exhibition games at UH. But there may be live twitter updates from the UH Men's VB account. Possibly look out for a live stats link, that will be posted on my twitter account if it is found.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

2017 Warrior Roster





The Hawaii Men's Volleyball roster was released today (October 26th) and the information recently posted around the internet were confirmed. After coming off a 16-12 overall season and placing seventh in the MPSF, the Warriors return 15 letter-winners while gaining seven and a hopeful eighth. Here are the details.

Last season the team graduated three seniors, All-Americans Sinisa Zarkovic (Belgrade, Serbia) and Kolby Kanatake (Honolulu, HI), and reserve Brandon Hiehle (Redondo Beach, CA). Zarkovic was the starting outside hitter for the team all four years of his career, Kanatake played sparingly his freshman season then become one of the top liberos in UH history, while Hiehle played sparingly his senior year. This class accumulated for 30% of the kills,  17% of the aces, 43% of the digs, and 18% of the blocks. Zarkovic finished his career in the 1000+ kills club while Kanatake is in the Top 5 in digs at UH.

Steven Duhoux
Photo Credit: (Hawaii Athletics)
Luke Owens
Photo Credit: (Hawaii Athletics)
There were also two members of last seasons team that have not returned with those being Luke Owens (Kailua, HI) and Steven Duhoux (Newport Beach, CA). Both members did not see any playing time in 2016 but served as major parts in the depth of their position. Owens was a middle blocker and played two seasons with the team at middle blocker while redshirting his first year. At his time at Kalaheo HS, he was recruited by top 15 schools. Duhoux transferred in last season after playing two years at Orange Coast College. He redshirted in 2016 as a back-up setter behind Joe Worlsey and Jennings Franciskovic.

New additions to this team include seven freshman, three who have signed letters of intent in high school. The three who have signed are middle blocker Jack Reese (Pittsburgh, PA), middle blocker and opposite Everett Schuett (Westlake Village, CA), and outside hitter Austin Matautia (Ewa Beach, HI). The earliest commit Schuett will add depth to both positions he plays as will Reese. Matautia who is coming off a summer with the U.S. Junior National Team will look to compete for a starting role with the departure on the outside from Zarkovic.

The four other freshman are Evan LaRochelle (Hilo, HI),  Rado Parapunov (Sofia, Bulgaria), Jackson Van Eekeren (Naperville, IL), and Matt Larson (San Jose, CA). Parapunov continues the tradition of international players on this team as he is one of four players outside of the United States and will compete for a starting spot as a lefty opposite. Van Eekeren will play behind Worsley and Franciskovic at setter and will most likely redshirt. LaRochelle is a 2013 graduate from Waiakea HS and has come to UH to tryout as a libero after coming from playing with a team from Air Force. Larson is a 2014 graduate and is coming off a year of his mission trip making him a freshman this season and will compete for an outside hitter spot.

Lastly is the hopeful player that many fans hope to make the roster in the upcoming 2017 season. That player being Larry "Tui" Tuileta (Honolulu, HI). It is known that Tuileta has left USC after the fall and returned home with the intention of transferring to UH. But due to lack of credits transferring over, it forced him to sit out the 2016 season and attend a community college. Based on what sources have said, he is on track to join the team for the spring season and compete as a Warrior.

There are three players listed in my commitment list that are not listed on this roster and those being Isaac Liva (Mililani, HI), Jackson Wopat (Goleta, CA), and Robert Gulvin (Goleta, CA). Liva is currently with the Warrior Football team and was first committed to UH for volleyball so my assumption is that he will be added once football season is over. Wopat and Gulvin have both transferred from Santa Barbara CC after playing with each other at Dos Pueblos HS. Both are currently at UH as students but there commitments were not fully identified by other sources. Gulvin has been seen with the other men's volleyball team members while Wopat was confirmed a student through his sister Carly's social media and his younger brother Eli's Stanford bio. There are usually players in past years who have come to UH and train with the team in the fall but leave the team before season starts.

First game of the 2016-17 school year is a preseason game this Friday (October 28th) against UC Irvine in Honolulu while they play their second game in November against Team SportConx.

Edit: (Oct. 27) A few of the players positions were changed since last checking. There is no guarantee if they are 100% correct as sometimes there are mistakes or just small changes by whoever is in charge of updating the roster. But here are some notes. Nainoa Frank is now listed as an outside hitter after starting at middle blocker the last half of the season, Iain McKellar is listed back as only an opposite, Hendrik Mol is listed only as a middle blocker, Colton Cowell is listed as a libero, Everett Schuett is only listed as a middle blocker.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

2016-17 Local Players

Photo Credit: (Exploration Hawaii)

2016-17 Local Players

Hey everybody, I have compiled a list of Hawaii kids playing all around the country for the 2016-17 season along with future committed. I definitely did not get all the players down as there so many out there but I listed who I could find. There are some unusual schools that these players go to but they go to play the sport they love and represent the state well. Feel free to contribute names if there are any missing or any corrections. It is harder to find the men's and beach player's names on official rosters until it is released which is not usually until December or beyond. Despite me not posting much on this blog, thank you to all who stop by to read and check up on it.