By: Tiff Wells, ESPN Honolulu Rainbow Wahine Volleyball play-by-play voice.
1 – Get a Top 25 victory. In 2022, UH went 0-3 against the Top 25. Last Saturday’s win over No. 13 San Diego was UH’s first Top 25 win since 2021. Yes San Diego dropped out of the Top 25 Coaches poll this week, but they should be a boost to UH’s strength of schedule and RPI. Tho not a ranked team, Northwestern did beat San Diego and as a Big Ten member, conference play will provide multiple opportunities for big wins to help UH.
2 – Amber Igiede. 39 kills and 16 blocks over 12 sets. Named to the Hawaiian Airlines Rainbow Wahine Classic All-Tournament Team for a second time in her career, Igiede led the Bows to a 2-1 record and runner-up finish. Enjoy watching her play for the Green and White while you can in this, her senior season.
3 – Fine tune the serve receive game. All coaches will tell you if you can win the serve and pass game, it’s a good chance you’ll come out victorious. UH gave up 15 service aces but there were a lot of times where Setter Kate Lang was playing that second ball from 10-to-15, sometimes 20-feet off the net and UH’s offense was running out-of-system from well off the net.
4 – Mānoa Roofing Company open for business. Of the four teams, a case could be made that UH routinely had the shortest trio of blockers at the net. A team that averaged a little over two blocks per set last year had 30 total blocks over the 12 sets played this past weekend. UH out-blocked both Northwestern (15-10) and San Diego (10-9).
5 – At least one pin hitter should be hitting .200 or better, as should the team. Of the pin hitters (Riley Wagoner, Tali Hakas, Caylen Alexander…Paula Guersching will be added to this group at some point), someone should at least be hitting over .200. Yes there were many attacks that were just kept in play because the offense was out-of-system, but between Wagoner (.082), Hakas (.078) and Alexander (.175), no one was really that efficient. 73 hitting errors for the team has UH hitting just .170 after three matches. Of the three matches, UH hit the highest against San Diego (.220).
6 – Defense…defense…defense. UH held Northwestern to a .100 hitting percentage and San Diego hit only .196. Yes Oregon out-hit Hawaiʻi .252 to .113, but the Ducks had hit over .300 in their first two matches (.341 against San Diego, .421 against Northwestern). Libero Talia Edmonds led the backrow that averaged 14 digs per set this past weekend. Igiede led the blocking department with 16 (1.33 per set average) but a very nice surprise was Redshirt Senior Kennedi Evans (13 blocks, 1.08 per set average).
