UC Irvine setter Brett Sheward guided the No. 5 UC Irvine offense to a pair of sweeps against No. 18 UC San Diego to open Big West play and claim Offensive Player of the Week. The award is a second career honor but first of the offensive variety. Sheward was named Defensive Player of the Week back on Jan. 16, 2023, playing as a member of the Hawai’i team. 

Sheward finished with 34 assists, five digs and a kill in both sides of the home-and-home series against the Tritons. The setter from Newport Beach, Calif., averaged 11.33 set assists, 1.67 digs and 0.50 aces per set on the week.  

In the first meeting against the Tritons, the Anteaters combined to hit .468, the second-best mark of the season. The Anteaters are now on a six-match winning streak, hitting over .460 twice in that span.  

Sheward is currently pacing The Big West with a 10.77 assists per set average, good for second nationally. 

Simon Torwie led the Long Beach State defense in a win over No. 9 Penn State to earn Big West Defensive Player of the Week. Last week’s offensive winner, this is Torwie’s seventh career defensive honor.  

The senior from Artà, Balearic Islands, Spain finished with nine blocks in Friday’s 3-1 win over the Nittany Lions, the lone match of the week for the Beach.  

In addition to his nine-block performance, Torwie hit .429 (3-0-7) with three kills, two aces, and one assist as he helped LBSU limit PSU to a .132 attack percentage in the match. 

Torwie is averaging 1.256 blocks per set on the year, good for second in The Big West and fifth in the country. 

Hawai’i first year player Tread Rosenthal earned a season’s fifth Big West Freshman of the Week award after helping the Rainbow Warriors to a two-match series sweep of Sacred Heart over the weekend.  

The product of Manhattan Beach, Calif., averaged 9.00 assists, 1.00 digs, and 0.83 blocks per set while also serving up five aces in the series. Unter Rosenthal’s direction, the UH offense hit a combined .366 as a team.  

Rosenthal finished with 25 assists, three blocks, two digs and one ace in the series-opening sweep. The setter followed that with 29 assists, four aces, four digs, and two blocks in the rematch. 

Rosenthal leads The Big West in aces per set (0.578), which stands as sixth in National Collegiate men’s volleyball.