University of Hawaii volleyball team No. 1 in poll, no doubt about it

May 11—Two days after winning the national championship, Hawaii naturally topped the final NVA /AVCA Division I-II Men's Coaches Poll of the season on Monday, marking the second time in program history the Rainbow Warriors finished at No. 1 in the ranking.

UH (17-1 ) last topped the final coaches poll in 2002 after the Warriors defeated Pepperdine in the NCAA title match at Penn State. The national title was later vacated by the NCAA due to an ineligible player.

UH held the No. 1 spot in the poll for the last 10 weeks and received all 16 first-place votes for the first time in the final poll. The Warriors had drawn 15 first-place votes for eight weeks and received 10 in the April 26 poll following their loss in the semifinals of the Big West tournament.

UH was awarded the top seed in the NCAA tournament and swept No. 3 UC Santa Barbara (16-5 ) in the semifinals last Thursday and No. 2 BYU (20-4 ) in the title match on Saturday at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio.

"We swept both of the teams we played (in the NCAA tournament ). That's kind of crazy, " UH libero Gage Worsley said after Saturday's match. "It's nice to be undisputed champions. It isn't how we did it that mattered, as long as we won. That was the big thing and we took care of business."

Lewis, which lost to BYU in four sets in the national semifinals, finished the season at No. 4, with Pepperdine at No. 5.