IRVINE, Calif. — Everything was guaranteed to the second-ranked Hawaii men’s volleyball season until now.
No matter how the first 30 matches went this year, the Rainbow Warriors knew they had a spot in the Outrigger Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship, featuring all six conference teams, which began Thursday at Bren Events Center.
Hawaii has played its way into the No. 1 seed and done what it needed to do to virtually assure itself a spot in the 12-team NCAA Tournament starting next week, regardless of the outcome of the BWC tournament.
That’s not the mentality that Hawaii coach Charlie Wade wants his team to have entering tonight’s semifinal against No. 5 seed UC San Diego at 2 p.m.
The goal has always been winning the Big West championship first and then holding the NCAA title in May at Pauley Pavilion.
To do that, every match from here on out needs to feel like it’s win or go home.
“We don’t make a huge deal about it. You stick to the routine as much as you can,” Wade said after UH practiced Thursday morning. “I’ve addressed the fact that you’re facing your own mortality every time you step on the floor. It’s literally single (elimination). We have two tournaments that we’re able to participate in. One is guaranteed, the other is not. Win this one and then it is guaranteed to play in the second one, and then every time you step on the floor it is win and go home.”
Hawaii left the team hotel early — at 6 a.m. Hawaii time — for its first practice in the main gym, which hosted both first-round matches on Thursday night.
The ’Bows practiced for an hour and then were met by a travel party put together by Non-Stop Travel, which sells packages for every road game.
The team met with the group after practice to hang out and talk story while they ate their post-practice meals outside of the arena.
“It just speaks to the level of support that we get from the community,” Wade said. “We’re going to continue to do everything we can to make them proud and bring home championships.”
The balance UH is searching for is to match the seriousness of each match that lies ahead with the same basic routines that have got them to this point.
Hawaii (26-4) has lost just once on the road this season and enters the tournament ranked No. 2 in the country in the AVCA poll and No. 1 in RPI rankings.
UH is the defending conference champion after winning the tournament last year in Hawaii. The ’Bows also won the last Big West tournament held on the mainland at UC Irvine in 2022.
Role players Alex Parks and Kai Taylor are the only two players on this roster who were on the team back then. Nonetheless, winning high-level road matches isn’t anything new for this crew.
“We can make something big (happen) right here and everybody knows that,” junior outside hitter and first-team All-BWC selection Louis Sakanoko said. “We have all of the weapons to do it. We still very comfortable here. We’re locked in to what we have to do and we want to make everyone back home proud.”
Hawaii has lost just four times on the road over the past two seasons.
Wade said the team had a healthy amount of energy for a practice that sometimes can be rough so early in the day.
After leaving the facility just before noon, UH returned to watch the first match of the tournament between the Tritons and Gauchos
Once they saw UCSD pull off a surprising sweep, the plan was to have a quick film session at the hotel, eat dinner and then get to sleep early.