By: Tiff Wells
The motto for the participants at the 2023 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship this week is “whatever it takes to survive and advance.” Win and move on, lose and the season is done. For the No. 2 seed Hawai`i, final preparations are underway ahead of their trip East…far East. 4,809 is the distance from Manoa to Fairfax, Virginia, the campus of George Mason who is the host for the week. The Bows fly out on Monday and if you’re on the island, there is a sendoff for the team. Behind SimpliFi Arena at The Stan Sheriff Center, the travelling party will emerge from the security/media entrance to get on the bus around 4:15 p.m.
Making their ninth NCAA appearance, UH is scheduled to arrive on the East Coast ahead of Tuesday’s late Opening Round Match in order to live scout the two possible opponents. On Thursday evening, Hawai`i will either see Penn State (for a second time this season and it was PSU who is responsible for one of the two Hawai`i losses this season) or Ohio State (for the first time since the 2017 National Semifinal, which was a 3-0 win for the Buckeyes). On Sunday, Ohio State (the Automatic Qualifier from the MIVA) begin their national postseason with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 36-34) victory over King University (the Automatic Qualifier from Conference Carolinas).
Tuesday will have two more Opening Round matches and you can see both on ESPN+. Opening Round match 2 (5:00 p.m. ET / 11:00 a.m. HT) features Grand Canyon (20-7, at-large recipient from the MPSF) and Long Beach State (20-4, at-large recipient from the Big West Conference) with the winner to face top seed UCLA (29-2, MPSF Automatic Qualifier). Scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET / 1:30 p.m. HT is Opening Round match 3 between Ohio State (23-9) and Penn State (26-3, EIVA Automatic Qualifier). This will be the third matchup this year between Penn State and Ohio State, each team winning on the others’ home floor.
Hawai`i is into the late National Semifinal on Thursday, scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. ET / 1:30 p.m. HT first serve, but that could change depending on how long the early semifinal goes. Our coverage on ESPN Honolulu (92.7-FM / 1420-AM, espnhonolulu.com and Sideline Hawai`i app) is scheduled to begin 15 minutes prior to first serve). As a reminder to those coming to Fairfax, to wear your green to paint the town green like it was done in Irvine for the Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship.
Ticket sales are moving quite well and if you’re still looking to get yours, my suggestion is to not wait any longer. Head to https://am.ticketmaster.com/gmu/buy?filterType=17&_gl=1*jbiofj*_ga*OTc4MzIyODUuMTY3OTc3MTk0NQ..*_ga_QQ07WCZL0D*MTY4MjkwMTE5My45LjEuMTY4MjkwMjQyNS42MC4wLjA.
Hope to see you there as we enter the final week of #WarriorBall23
#GoBows #WarriorBall23 #HawaiiMVB #NCAAMVB