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What 2 Watch 4
As first serve across the country nears, Big West teams scatter across the West Coast to open the 2023 campaign.
Five teams - Cal State Bakersfield, Hawai’i, Long Beach State, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara - open the year at home with some heavy-hitters coming to Big West campuses.
The Beach start with the nation’s best team in defending champion Texas on Friday at 6 p.m. on ESPN+. Along with their No. 1 national ranking to start the year, UT was picked as Big 12 preseason favorites for the 13th-straight season. The Longhorns meet up with LMU Saturday afternoon, followed by the Beach against the Lions to round out the event.
Hawai’i also welcomes ranked foes to O’ahu for the four-team Hawaiian Airlines Rainbow Wahine Classic. The defending Big West champion ‘Bows open against Northwestern on Friday before tussling with WCC champion No. 13 San Diego on Saturday. The Toreros are fresh off an NCAA Final Four campaign where the team went unbeaten in conference play in 2022. Then, UH takes on Pac-12 runners-up and eighth-ranked Oregon on Sunday to round out the first weekend of action.
UC Santa Barbara welcomes in New Mexico State, Denver and North Florida for the Thunderdome Classic while Cal State Bakersfield opens the year hosting the Roadrunner Classic against Eastern Washington, Providence and Southern Utah. Finally, UC Irvine takes on Seton Hall, San Francisco and New Mexico in the adidas/UC Irvine Invitational at the Bren Events Center.
CSUN and Cal Poly both compete in Bay Area events with the final four squads heading out of stats. UC San Diego plays three at the Bulldog Brawl hosted by Butler in Indianapolis, and UC Davis travels to Arizona for the Cactus Classic. Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside both head to the Pacific Northwest with the Titans at Portland State’s Rose City Showdown and the Highlanders competing in the Vandal Volleyball Invitational hosted by Idaho.
Including a select number of away matches, 20 contests are set to air on ESPN+ during the season-opening weekend. Check listings for specific match information.
Preseason Prognostications
The Hawai’i Rainbow Wahine have been selected to go for four in a row to repeat as Big West champions in the 2023 Big West Women’s Volleyball Preseason Coaches’ Poll, according to a vote of the league’s 11 head coaches.
Conference victors in five of the last seven contested seasons, Hawai’i (22-7, 19-1 BW) topped the polling with a maximum 100 points and 10 first-place votes.
The 2022 Big West runners-up UC Santa Barbara (20-10, 16-4 BW) are again slotted in second, compiling 83 total points in the voting. The Gauchos hold the slimmest of margins over third pick Long Beach State (19-9, 14-6 BW) and fourth-place vote-getter Cal Poly (17-13, 14-6 BW) with one point separating each place. The Beach received the other first-place vote from the coaches, tallying 82 points.
With 61 points, UC Davis took fifth and is followed in the polling by UC Irvine (54 points). Should the preseason prognostications ring true, the Anteaters will claim the sixth and final spot in the inaugural 2023 Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship, set for Nov. 22-25 from Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid.
An eight-player Preseason All-Big West Team was also named with four of the league’s major award winners from 2022 dotting the list.
The group includes the Hawai’i trio of third-team All-American Amber Igiede (Player of the Year), Kate Lang (Setter of the Year), and Caylen Alexander (Freshman of the Year). UC Santa Barbara boasts Macall Peed (Libero of the Year) and Michelle Ohwobete to the team. Zayna Meyer (Long Beach State), Tommi Stockham (Cal Poly), and Olivia Utterback (UC Davis) round out the preseason team.
Poll Position
Starting just on the outside of the AVCA/Teraflex Division I Coaches’ Poll, Hawai’i earned 49 points in the first ballot of the 2023 season. That places the Rainbow Wahine in 31st nationally. Defending national champion Texas landed in first in the polling with 44 first-place votes, followed by Wisconsin and Stanford.
Made for TV
The Big West will be part of the robust women’s volleyball linear broadcasting coverage on the ESPN family networks on Friday, Sept. 29 as Long Beach State women’s volleyball hosts defending champion Hawai’i at Walter Pyramid.
First serve for the ESPNU telecast between the Beach and Rainbow Wahine is slated for 7 p.m. PT. Last season, Hawai’i took wins in both meetings and currently sport a streak of 11 straight victories in the regular season series.
As part of ESPN’s industry-leading coverage of women’s sports, more than 2,500 women’s volleyball matches are set for ESPN platforms this fall – the most in ESPN history. Additionally, over 125 women’s volleyball broadcasts across The Big West landscape will also be available to fans through ESPN+. Read more >>>
Debut Postseason Prompts Schedule Shuffle
The upcoming Big West women’s volleyball season will feature a new unbalanced schedule of 18 matches to accommodate the addition of the 2023 Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship. The 2021 and 2022 women’s volleyball slates were both full 20-match double-round robins. However, this fall, all 11 matchups in Week 5 between Tuesday-Saturday, Oct. 17-21, will mark the lone meetings of the season between those squads to get the schedule to 18 conference dates.
2022 Postseason Rewind
Despite a strong start, The Big West champion and No. 8 seed Hawai’i fell to LSU, 3-1, in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship, halting a 12-match winning streak for the Rainbow Wahine.
This marked a milestone 40th appearance in the NCAA postseason for Hawai’i, and 29th in a row without taking into consideration the 2020 edition when The Big West did not compete in fall sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rainbow Wahine are now 82-37 (.689) in NCAA Championship matches, with three national titles in 1982, 1983 and 1987, all under the legendary Dave Shoji, the predecessor to reigning Big West Coach of the Year Robyn Ah Mow. Those three crowns rank tied for fifth all-time with USC and fellow Big West member Long Beach State.
Only three programs have qualified for more NCAA Division I tournaments than the Rainbow Wahine, with seven-time national champion Penn State a perfect 42-for-42 in all-time selections, 2021 runner-up and five-time champion Nebraska earning its 41st successive berth since missing the inaugural one, and record nine-time champ Stanford also a 41-time entrant with its only miss in 2020.
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