{"id":140756,"date":"2021-05-05T13:27:48","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T23:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=140756"},"modified":"2021-05-05T13:28:28","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T23:28:28","slug":"national-player-of-the-year-parapunov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/05\/05\/national-player-of-the-year-parapunov\/","title":{"rendered":"National player of the year for <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M\u0101noa volleyball\u2019s Rado Parapunov"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/manoa-athletics-volleyball-rado-parapunov.jpg\" alt=\"person looking at camera and holding a volleyball\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-140757\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/manoa-athletics-volleyball-rado-parapunov.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/manoa-athletics-volleyball-rado-parapunov-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/manoa-athletics-volleyball-rado-parapunov-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M\u0101noa <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiiathletics.com\/sports\/mens-volleyball\">men\u2019s volleyball<\/a> opposite <strong>Rado Parapunov<\/strong> is the 2021 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avca.org\/\">American Volleyball Coaches Association<\/a> (<abbr>AVCA<\/abbr>) Player of the Year (<abbr>POTY<\/abbr>). The senior from Bulgaria joins <strong>Yuval Katz<\/strong> (co-<abbr>POTY<\/abbr> in 1996) and <strong>Costas Theocharidis<\/strong> (2001 and 2003) as the only players in the program\u2019s history to win <abbr>AVCA<\/abbr> Player of the Year honors.<\/p>\n<p>Parapunov ranks <abbr title=\"Number\">No<\/abbr>. 3 nationally in kills per set (4.41) and points per set (5.24). He is averaging a career-best 1.56 digs per set, 0.90 blocking average and .340 hitting percentage. Parapunov also leads the team with 19 service aces and cracked the program&#8217;s top 10 in career kills and aces earlier this season.<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, he earned his third first team All-American honor, second Big West Player of the Year award and third all-Big West first team selection. Parapunov also won Off the Block&#8217;s Nicolas Szerszen Award for the third consecutive year and the Bryan Ivie Award for the second time. The Szerszen Award recognizes the nation&#8217;s best non-U.S.-born player and the Ivie Award is presented to the nation&#8217;s best opposite.<\/p>\n<p>Parapunov and <abbr>No<\/abbr>. 1 seed <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> will face <abbr title=\"University of California\">UC<\/abbr> Santa Barbara in the national semifinals in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday, May 6 at 11 a.m. <abbr title=\"Hawaii Standard Time\">HST<\/abbr>. If the Rainbow Warriors win, they will face the winner of the other semifinal between <abbr>No<\/abbr>. 2 <abbr title=\"Brigham Young University\">BYU<\/abbr> and Lewis on Saturday, May 8 at 2 p.m. <abbr>HST<\/abbr> for a national championship.<\/p>\n<p>For more on the other Rainbow Warrior All-American selections, see this <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> News story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Parapunov is the third Rainbow Warrior in program history to take home <abbr>AVCA<\/abbr> Player of the Year honors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1362],"tags":[58,660,714,9,550,80],"class_list":["post-140756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-athletics","tag-student-recognition","tag-student-athlete","tag-uh-manoa","tag-manoa-athletics","tag-volleyball","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140756"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140793,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140756\/revisions\/140793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}