Hawaii volleyball team's first match will be Friday in BWC tourney
Apr. 19—After completing a perfect regular season for the first time in program history, the next step for No. 1 Hawaii comes Friday when the Rainbow Warriors face UC San Diego or Cal State Northridge in the semifinals of the Big West men's volleyball championship at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
The tournament bracket was finalized with the close of the regular season on Saturday. UH (15-0, 10-0 Big West ) clinched the top seed and a bye into the tournament semifinals a week earlier when the Warriors swept a series at CSUN. They capped the program's first undefeated conference season since 1996 with home wins over UC Irvine on Friday and Saturday.
UC Santa Barbara (13-4, 7-3 ) earned the second seed and the other first-round bye. The Gauchos will face the winner of Thursday's 4 :30 p.m. tournament opener between third-seeded Long Beach State (6-4, 6-4 ) and sixth-seeded UC Irvine (2-13, 2-8 ). Fourth-seeded UC San Diego (3-12, 3-7 ) and CSUN (2-8, 2-8 ) meet in the second match of Thursday's doubleheader at 7 p.m.
UH will play in the 7 p.m. semifinal on Friday. The championship match, which carries an automatic berth into the NCAA championships, is set for 7 p.m. Saturday. The NCAA bracket will be released on April 25. The national championship is set for May 6-8 in Columbus, Ohio.
