MVB: Thelle named first-team Academic All-America, Warriors pick up OCC setter

https://hawaiiathletics.com/news/2022/6/14/mens-volleyball-thelle-named-to-academic-all-america-first-team.aspx

Congrats to Hawai’i junior setter Jakob Thelle, today named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America team.

He is the fifth Warrior in program history to be honored by CoSIDA and the fourth to be named to the first team, joining Dejan Miladinovic (2002), Costas Theocharidis (2003), and Jonas Umlauft (2011).

Last month, the Tonsberg, Norway native was named to the Academic All-District 8 team. He graduated last month with his bachelor’s degree in Global Environmental Sciences, attaining a 3.74 GPA. He is the only men’s volleyball player among the 15 members of the first team and was one of three players representing District 8 along with Stanford’s Axel Geller (tennis) and Arizona State’s Grant House (swimming).

He was named to the AVCA All-America first team and was the Big West’s Player of the Year. (Should have been AVCA National POY, IMHO). Thelle will return for 2023 as a graduate student as the Warriors go for a three-peat.

A total of 47 student-athletes were named to the Division I first-, second-, and third-teams.

+++++++

Full disclosure, I do pick up items from son @tifferspxp on occasion (OK, numerous occasions).

I’m not big on Instagram but according to ESPN Honolulu’s Tiff Wells’ Twitter, joining the Warriors next season is setter Joshua Friedman from Orange Coast College. The 6-3 incoming sophomore captained the Pirates to the California Community College Athletic Association State Championships title, finishing 20-1. He was named first-team all-state and all-conference (Orange Empire).

Sixteen of the 20 wins were in straight sets, including the last four. Friedman’s bio below. He played at Corona Del Mar (Calif).

https://www.occpirateathletics.com/sports/mvball/2021-22/bios/friedman_josh_vpzc?view=profile

 

3 Comments

  1. Posting here because this is the most recent thread, but Demirtas is confirmed to FIU. So last year’s freshman class of De Goede, Johnson, Demirtas, Ikenaga and Leoniak is down to De Goede and Ikenaga. I think some of this has to do with Ljungqvist leaving, at least with the foreign players. Based on existing reporting on next year’s schedule, I will be surprised if UH is above .500 by the time conference season starts. I am not seeing anything in the next couple of years that indicates the program is on an upward trajectory–big losses and not really reloading.

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