Congrats to Mouchlias, BWC Player of Week; Warriors No. 1 in AVCA, No. 2 in OTB polls

March 14, 2023 Cindy Luis Cindy Luis, College, Men's, University of Hawai‘i, Volleyball 4

Hawai’i junior opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Outrigger Invitational on Saturday en route to picking up a fourth career Big West Offensive Player of the Week award.

  • He 5.36 points, 4.73 kills, 1.45 digs and 0.73 blocks per set while serving three aces and hitting .392 (52-14-97) in three tournament matches as No. 1 Hawai’i (17-1) went 2-1, suffering its first loss of 2023 to No. 3 Penn State before knocking off No. 2 UCLA in front of a sold-out crowd on Saturday night.
  • Mouchlias led all players in points and kills in all three contests, capped by a season-high 22 kills at a .390 (22-6-41) clip in the four-set triumph over the Bruins. Mouchlias also tallied 14 kills (.462) and a match-best, career-high-tying five blocks in Thursday’s sweep over (RV) Purdue Fort Wayne, and 16 kills (.333) in Friday’s loss to the Nittany Lions.
  • This is a second weekly honor for Mouchlias in this 2023 season, with an initial one on Feb. 13. The native of Soufli, Greece, was previously the offensive recipient on Feb. 7 and April 18 of 2022, adding AVCA National Player of the Week distinction following the latter one.
  • Long Beach’s Simon Torwie, who leads the nation in blocks per set, was named the Defensive Player of the Week. Hawai’i didn’t nominate anyone.
  • Freshman of the week went to UC Irvine’s Maxim Grigoriev. UH didn’t nominate anyone. A little surprised that they didn’t at least put in Nusterer.
  • National POW went to Loyola Setter Dan Mangun
  • https://www.avca.org/polls/dii-men/2023/03-13-2023.html
  • In Monday’s AVCA Coaches Top 15, Hawai’i remained No. 1 but it wasn’t unanimous
  • Hawai’i received 14 first-place votes, Penn State 8.
  • https://www.offtheblockblog.com/2023/03/off-the-block-releases-new-college-mens-volleyball-national-media-poll-61/#more-41791
  • In Tuesday’s OffTheBlock Media Top 10, the Warriors slipped to No. 2 with Penn State jumping two spots to No. 1. It was not unanimous either.
  • Penn State (17-2) received 9 first-place votes, Hawai’i (17-1) 4 votes and UCLA (19-2) 1 vote.
  • It was a tough choice for me. If I could have split the No. 1 vote, I would have had both the Warriors and Nittany Lions in the top spot. I thought a win by Penn State on the road AT Hawai’i was huge and UCLA downing Penn State at a neutral site in five wasn’t as huge.
  • At the end, went with Hawai’i at No. 1 based on one loss as opposed to Penn State and UCLA having 2. Guess the deciding factor was how the Warriors were able to rally in both Sets 1 and 4, especially Set 1 when down 23-20. In the Warriors’ loss to Penn State, just felt Hawai’i was off as a team, so many unforced errors, and a lot of it had nothing to do with how great the Nittany Lions were playing.
    How I voted.

    1. Hawai’i. 2. Penn State. 3 UCLA. 4. Long Beach State. 5 Grand Canyon. 6. Loyola. 7. UC Irvine. 8. Pepperdine. 9 Charleston. 10. CSUN.

4 Comments

    • Perhaps. but he didn’t have a great game against Penn State. Agree that it was a pretty week selection but at least there is recognition and they’re spreading it around.

  2. Do you know if the NCAA has decided to expand the mvb tournament next year? Some people on social media are talking like it’s a done deal.

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