HONOLULU — Charlie Wade doesn’t have to squint to see a storm on the horizon.

Even as the Hawaii men’s volleyball program leader accepted his third career Big West Coach of the Year honor on Tuesday — a little more than a week out from his second-ranked, second-seeded team’s NCAA Tournament opener in Ohio — he was keen to weigh in on a destabilizing event in the sport.

Grand Canyon University, a Division I member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in men’s volleyball, announced on its Instagram account on Monday that its 17-year program was being converted from a varsity sport to a club sport.

“It’s unfortunate, obviously, for men’s volleyball, but I think it’s what I’ve said all along,” Wade told Spectrum News at a meet-and-greet event for the Braddahhood Grindz NIL collective at Giovanni Pastrami in Waikiki. “Men’s Olympic sports are going to be the first ones on the chopping block.”

The GCU announcement — with comments on the post turned off — came as universities are grappling with how to fund sports with increased scholarship allotments and the ability to directly pay student-athletes with the pending House v. NCAA settlement.

GCU posted: “In a rapidly evolving college athletics landscape, GCU is constantly evaluating how it can best position itself as a Division I athletic department and a university. The move will allow GCU to focus on supporting its remaining 20 athletics programs at the highest levels in their respective conferences.”

The Antelopes won the MPSF in 2024.

The Phoenix school, a former member of the PacWest Conference, said it will continue to honor athletics scholarships to impacted student-athletes who wish to finish their academic careers there, but would also help those looking to transfer.

The announcement coincided with the start of the spring window of the NCAA men’s volleyball transfer portal. A feeding frenzy ensued.

“I think all the coaches thought, who can they get? Which good players are going to be in the market?” Wade said. “And look, I talked to one of the (GCU) coaches there today, and I think we all empathize with them, but … it wasn’t if, it’s when. It’s going to be more of this coming. This is just the beginning. I will be shocked if over the next two, three years, we don’t see more (schools) cut men’s volleyball.”

Grand Canyon, like UH, is set to become a full member of the Mountain West Conference in 2026. UH is to remain an affiliate member of the Big West in men’s volleyball, a sport that had 27 Division I institutions at the time of GCU’s decision.

Wade pointed out that it’s not just men’s volleyball at risk — Cal Poly cut its men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs in March — as schools begin to invest more heavily in a smaller number of sports.

“I’d say it’s the state of collegiate athletics in 2025,” he said. “Grand Canyon has money. You got to be judicious on which sports you’re going to support. And reality is, you’re going to see athletic departments become smaller because the cost of doing business keeps going up. So you can’t have 20-something, even some of the departments with 30-something sports — I think you’re going to see those come down.”

Wade’s conference coach of the year honor was his third in the last four years.

He became UH’s career program wins leader at last week’s Big West tournament at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Rainbow Warriors (26-5) won both of their matches for the title; the semifinal win over UC Irvine broke Wade’s tie with Mike Wilton and gave him his 317^th victory.

Long Beach State setter Moni Nikolov was named the Big West’s Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year. LBSU was given the No. 1 seed to the NCAA Tournament as an at-large selection.

“Individual (awards) goes towards guys are on successful teams, whether you’re the player, the coach, whatever,” Wade said. “When your team’s being successful, those are the guys are in line to get individual awards. So that happens to be the case right now, and I think we’d all trade any of the individual awards for the trophy that’s being handed out (May 12) in Columbus.”

UH opens the Ohio State-hosted tournament May 8 against the play-in winner of Penn State and Daemen.

4 UH players picked to U.S. junior national team

USA Volleyball on Tuesday selected four Hawaii players to its 2025 U21 Men’s National Team that will compete in the Pan American Cup and FIVB Championship this summer.

Setter Tread Rosenthal, pin hitters Finn Kearney and Kainoa Wade and middle Justin Todd were named to the 24-player roster. All had some degree of prior experience with the national team.

In addition, Punahou alumnus Kahale Clini of UCLA was named to the team. UCLA coach John Hawks will lead the group.

The U21 Pan Am Cup takes place in Calgary, Canada, from Aug. 3-11. Training for it will happen July 27-Aug. 2 in Colorado Springs, Colo. The U21 FIVB tournament takes place right afterward, with training Aug. 7-17 in Colorado Springs and the competition in Jiangmen, China, Aug. 19-Sept. 1.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.

University of Hawaiʻi Athletics announced that head beach volleyball coach Evan Silberstein would not be retained Wednesday morning. Silberstein was the head coach of the program for four seasons where he led the Rainbow Wahine to three straight NCAA Tournament berths before going 14-21 in 2025 for a career record of 89-59. 

“We have decided to move in a different direction with our beach volleyball program,” acting athletic director Lois Manin said. “We appreciate everything Evan has given to this program as both an assistant and head coach and we wish him well.”

 Silberstein has been a part of the beach volleyball staff for 11 seasons, spending his previous seven years as an assistant to former head coach Jeff Hall where the team saw national success and back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament semi-finals. 

Rainbow Wahine assistant coach Nick Castello will serve as interim head coach for the beach volleyball team until a new coach is named.

LONG BEACH, Calif. — In their third season as the top pair for Long Beach State, Taylor Hagenah and Malia Gementera were named First Team All-America by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. This is the second year in a row the pair has earned the top honor.  

The duo has added to their impressive resume this season as they have collected 33 more wins. Gementera and Hagenah have taken down top talent from Stanford, LMU and Cal Poly among others. With their record this season, they are the winningest individuals in program history. They sit at 95 wins with another season yet to play. 

The duo will look to add to their first flight dominance at the NCAA Tournament. 

BVB4/30/2025 2:08 PM | By: Cal Athletics

Bears Face Seventh-Seeded Texas On Friday

The No. 10 California beach volleyball team (27-9) is set for its fourth straight NCAA Championship in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The Golden Bears face seventh-seeded Texas (27-9) in the first round Friday at 11 a.m. PT.
 
The tournament will follow a single-elimination format. The first two days of competition will be aired on ESPN2 with the final day being broadcast on ESPN. Live streams of all five courts can be found on ESPN+.
 
The Bears and Longhorns split the regular season series 1-1 with each team winning a dual that came down to the final court. Cal handed Texas its first home loss of the season on March 21 and was one of just two teams to accomplish the feat.
 
Cal won its first-round matchup in each of the last two years, defeating Long Beach State twice. Texas will be making its NCAA Championship debut. The winner will go on to face the victor between No. 2 TCU and No. 15 Georgia State on Saturday at 10 a.m. PT.
 
NCAA CHAMPIONSHP (May 2-4)
Gulf Shores, AL
Tournament Central
 
Wednesday
Game 1: #7 Texas | 11:00 a.m. PT | ESPN2/ESPN+
 
SHERMAN, DONLEY NAMED AVCA FIRST TEAM ALL-AMERICANS
Junior Portia Sherman and sophomore Emma Donley became the first Bears in program history to be named AVCA First Team All-Americans on Wednesday.
 
Cal’s court-one pair has enjoyed a successful season in the top spot of the lineup, boasting a 27-7 overall record. The two Bears have won 17 of their last 20 matches, 11 of which have come against ranked opponents. They have 16 total ranked wins on the year, including a dual-clinching win over reigning national champion USC.
 
On April 13, the duo broke the program record for most wins on court one by a single pair with their 22^nd and did so in its first season together.
 
A DOZEN DUBS
On April 18, the Bears broke the program’s all-time win streak record with their 12th straight victory. A 5-0 win over No. 19 Washington broke a record set back in 2018. The streak featured eight ranked wins and spanned from March 21- April 18.
 
DREIBHOLZ MAKES HISTORY
Senior Ella Dreibholz became the program’s all-time wins leader with her 84th career victory on March 1. Playing alongside fellow senior Ella Sears as the 4s pair, the two Ellas defeated the Sacramento State pairing of Victoria Marthaler and Mia Guevara 21-13, 21-14. Dreibholz collected 28 wins as a freshman, 25 as a sophomore, 25 more as a junior, and boasts a 26-7 record this year. On April 18 she became the first Bear to reach 100 wins and now sits at 104.
 
INAUGURAL MPSF SEASON
After spending the last nine years in the Pac-12, the Golden Bears are officially in their MPSF era. Many familiar faces make up the new conference, including Oregon, USC, Stanford, UCLA, and Washington. Grand Canyon joins the mix this year and a quartet of top-tier teams in Florida State, LSU, South Carolina, and Texas will join in 2026.

THE STAFF

Meagan Owusu is in her ninth season in charge of the program in 2025. Under her leadership, the Bears have moved into the national conversation of NCAA beach volleyball, finishing last season as the seventh-ranked program, which is a school record. Cal has now finished in the top 12 for seven consecutive years. Joseph Mayer is in his fourth season overall with the team. He became the program’s associate head coach in July 2023 while former volunteer coach Dancer Styles was promoted to assistant coach. The coaching trio helped bring Cal to new heights with its second consecutive NCAA Championship win in its third straight appearance last year.

STAY POSTED

For further coverage of Cal beach volleyball, follow the Bears on Instagram (@calbeachvb) and Twitter (@calbeachvb).

 

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Volleyball has named Grant Lamoureux and Cole Hartke to U.S. National Teams for the 2025 season, recognizing them as two of the top young athletes in the country.
 
“We are thrilled for Grant and Cole to get the opportunity to compete with the USA group this summer,” said head coach Jonathan Winder. “It will be fun to watch both of them play alongside other top players in the U.S. and compete against some of the best in the world in their age groups.”
                                                                                               
Lamoureux was selected as one of 28 athletes invited to join the 2025 U.S. Boys U19 National Team. He will participate in a training block held June 1–7 at the National Team Training Center in Anaheim, where the roster will compete for spots on the travel roster for upcoming international events. At the end of training, 12 athletes will be selected to compete at the 2025 NORCECA Boys U19 Pan American Cup, and another 12 will be selected to compete at the 2025 FIVB Boys U19 World Championship.
 
Hartke earned a roster spot on the 2025 U.S. Men’s U21 National Team. The squad will prepare for two major international competitions this summer: the NORCECA Men’s U21 Pan American Cup and the FIVB Men’s U21 World Championship. Hartke played on the NORCECA U21 Continental Championship team that won gold in 2024. The gold medal qualified the team for this year’s World Championship.

Joining Hartke to represent USA Volleyball is Waves’ associate head coach, Matthew Pollock. Pollock will be an assistant coach for both the Pan Am and the World Championship.

 

USA Volleyball’s National Team Development Program (NTDP) supports the growth of high-potential athletes through training and competition at the highest level. More information about the 2025 U19 and U21 teams, as well as the summer competition schedules, can be found at usavolleyball.org.

 

For the latest news on the Pepperdine men’s volleyball program, follow its social media accounts:

X | @PeppVolleyball & INSTAGRAM | @peppmvb.