MVB national championship: Saturday links for Hawai’i v UCLA; team sendoff at hotel

May 6, 2023 Cindy Luis Cindy Luis, College, Men's, Tiff Wells, University of Hawai‘i, Volleyball 6

After the Warriors had their serve-and-pass Friday they went up to D.C. to take in some of the historical sites. Decision was not to do much walking around so they were on a bus. Longest stop was at the Lincoln Memorial I was actually up there with friends over at the Smithsonian but we did walk over to the memorial as well as the Viet Nam Memorial. Guess we just missed the team.

Some great photos on their Twitter page

https://twitter.com/HawaiiMensVB

If you’d like to watch all of the pre-match press conferences from Friday, go to OffTheBlock for videos and other stories, including one about the Hawai’i-UCLA rivalry

https://www.offtheblockblog.com/
NCAA Men’s Collegiate Volleyball Championship

Saturday, 11 a.m. HST
UCLA (30-2).  vs. Hawai’i (29-2)
Radio: 1420-AM.92.7-FM (pregame 10:45 a.m.)

https://player.listenlive.co/27971
TV: ESPN2
Live stream: https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/634e11a4-6679-4995-8090-6cdb5998e230

Live stats: https://www.ncaa.com/game/6147339

  • Series UCLA leads, 64-31.

Both teams have won 12 in a row.

Notes from UH

  • Hawai’i, the two-time defending national champions, is seeking its third consecutive title and fourth in program history. UCLA is trying to extend its record number of titles to 20.
  • UH is the first school to appear in four consecutive NCAA title matches since UCLA made six straight appearances from 1993-98.
  • The last school to win three straight NCAA titles was UCLA, who won four straight from 1981-84.
  • UH’s 29 wins this season are the most in program history.
  • UH has a seven-match NCAA Tournament win streak dating back to 2021.
  • UH and UCLA met on the final day of the OUTRIGGER Invitational in March in Honolulu. The Warriors won in four sets, 29-27, 21-25, 25-22, 28-26 in front of a sold-out crowd of 10,300 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
  • UH has a current 12-match win streak while UCLA has won 11 straight since its loss to Hawai’i in March.
  • UCLA leads the all-time series 64-31.
  • The only time the schools met in the NCAA Tournament was in the 1996 final at Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins won in five sets, 15-12 in the fifth.
  • UCLA has the most NCAA titles (19) and will be seeking its first since 2006.
  • Head coach Charlie Wade has guided UH to the NCAA Tournament six times in the last eight seasons. Wade’s NCAA Tournament record is 8-3.
  • Setter Jakob Thelle needs one service ace to set a new all-time program career mark. Currently he is tied for the lead with Costas Theocharidis and Pedro Azenha with 121 aces.
  • Twenty of UH’s 29 wins this season have come in straight sets.
  • UH is 28-1 when winning the first set this season and 77-3 over the last 3+ seasons.
  • UH has won its last 21 neutral site matches dating back to 2015.

6 Comments

  1. Sorry Cindy, don’t want to ruin the moment of an exciting 2023 season and Title match finish…. But have a real off the wall and potentially sensitive question given the sensitive nature of the issue. But going back to 2002, is there a possibility to reinstate the vacated title? With rules changing recently (i.e. NIL) and Costas, at the time not accepting money (also to his credibility, the AVCA did not even find issue with maintaining Costas’ NPOY awards), can this be reversed?

  2. By the way, seeing Costas on TV with the team recently just got me thinking about this…. (which is why the all of a sudden question.)

    • it would be nice if UH would pursue it. I think the change in rules would lead to the title being reinstated. The banner is still in Rich Sheriff’s office. Had a nice chat with Costas Saturday. He’ll be coming out to run the marathon in December. We hope to spend more time then.

      • My gosh would that be awesome and huge for the mens program if they were to get it reinstated. Would imagine now would be the time to actually pursue it (due to the recent success and prominence of the mens volleyball team in the State; can imagine obtaining the necessary support).

        Even though Hawaii has two “official” titles under its belt (versus zero), the importance of having the original 2002 one title would be just as great IMO. Would also be good for that original 2002 team, to have the “official” validation as national Champions.

        Fingers crossed the program and administration actually pursues this.

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