By: Tiff Wells
1 – A win for the Group of 5. An unseeded team out of a mid-major conference, the Automatic Qualifying Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine out of the Big West Conference stifled the Big XII Freshman of the Year Nayeli Gonzalez and the seventh-seeded Iowa State Cyclones. A 7-2 start to the match for the Bows turned into a 25-16 set loss and a 1-0 match deficit. While Iowa State committed just three errors and hit .480 in that opening set, UH held the Cyclones to a .135 hitting percentage over the final three sets for the upset victory. The Rainbow Wahine also held settled down on serve receive as they gave up just one service ace over the final two sets, after giving up seven in the first two sets. Hitting .234 on the season with an average of 3.33 kills per set, the 6’2” Gonzalez hit .026 (12-11-38) against the Bows. The much shorter Rainbow Wahine also outblocked the Cyclones 13 to five en route to the four set upset win to advance into the second round.
2 – Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride. A microcosm of the 2023 Rainbow Wahine season was encapsulated over the two days of the Eugene Subregional. Strong starts, giving up lengthy scoring runs, the inability to close out sets, not quitting…we saw it all. In the Iowa State match, UH was outscored 23-9 to end set one and after seeing a 13-6 deficit in set two, UH continued to chip away and eventually won the set on a Talia Edmonds service ace…and won the momentum swing into set 3. UH had leads of 10-4 and 19-11 against Oregon in Set 1, but couldn’t close it out. Oregon took its first lead of the set at 24-23…and never trailed again the rest of the way en route to its second 3-0 win over Hawai`i of the season. UH was down 9-7 in Set 2 before seeing Oregon score 16 of the final 21 points. Oregon also outblocked UH in both matches (10-5 in the first match and 8-3 in the second meeting).
3 – Middle offense taken away by Oregon…again. When Oregon handed Hawai`i its first loss of the season on August 27th, the Ducks neutralized the Hawai`i middle attack. Amber Igiede recorded seven kills to hit .235, while Kennedi Evans hit .250 with six kills. As a team, UH had 20 hitting errors en route to a .113 hitting percentage…a number that would be the season low…until they played…Oregon a second time. In the second round, UH had 24 hitting errors as the Ducks held UH to a new season low hitting percentage of .061. Just six of the 31 UH kills came from its middles as Amber Igiede was held to a season low of four kills. It was also a season low of 11 attempts for Igiede as UH’s offense was more often than not operating from 10 feet off the net.
4 – One loss doesn’t define the season. In an era of instant gratification and a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately generation, sometimes you’re judged on the last performance…and not the entire season. As Head Coach Robyn Ah Mow said in her postmatch press conference after the Oregon match, “one loss doesn’t define the season.” A journey that had its ups (a win over a then-ranked San Diego team, a sweep versus Pepperdine, two wins against USC, a neutral site win over Florida State and two wins over during the first Big West Conference tournament since at least 1998) and downs (losing leads late in sets in match losses to Liberty, UCLA and TCU; getting swept at Long Beach State, not being able to use a challenge because the power went out…only to come back on for a UCSB challenge to end the match, losing back-to-back conference home matches for the first time in nearly 30 years, having a threatening email sent to the program because of those losses) saw a team that was the preseason favorite in the conference win the tiebreaker to get a bye into the conference tournament. And who would have thought that the Bows would need the conference tournament to continue their streak of consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament.
5 – Seeding…and hosting proves paramount in Subregionals. With the NCAA Selection Committee seeding the top 32 teams for a second consecutive tournament, there really weren’t a lot of opening round upsets…at least for seeds one through six. Three seven seeds (James Madison, Auburn and Iowa State) and one eight seed (Miami) were all one and done. Of the 16 subregional hosts (all seeded one through four), 13 of them won their own subregional to move into the regional round. All four top seeds (Nebraska, Wisconsin, Stanford and Pittsburgh) will each host a regional, with all matchups seen on either ESPN2 or ESPNU. Chalk nearly held up into the Regional round as all 1 seeds, all 2 seeds (Kentucky, Louisville, Oregon and Texas), all 3 seeds (Arkansas, Creighton, Purdue and Tennessee) are among the final 16. One four seed (Washington State) and three five seeds (Georgia Tech, Penn State and Arizona State) complete the Sweet 16.
6 – Special ’23 Sistahhood…what’s next for ’24? The six seniors each took a different route to Mānoa. Two seniors (Amber Igiede and Riley Wagoner) were the first two recruits for Head Coach Robyn Ah Mow and Assistant Coach Kaleo Baxter. They stayed with the program when the Big West Conference cancelled the 2020 season. The other four (Talia Edmonds, Kennedi Evans, Kendra Ham and Chandler Cowell) all came to UH via the transfer portal. Two had direct ties to the state (Edmonds came to UH camps as a child and her mom was a standout player for Hawaii Hilo women’s volleyball while Cowell is an alumna of King Kekaulike and her brother Colton was an All-American for the UH Men’s team), while two others (Kendra Ham and Kennedi Evans) played against Hawai`i (Ham at Cal Poly, Evans at Utah) before becoming a Rainbow Wahine. While UH says aloha to four senior starters (including both middles), UH has signed five for the 2024 class. Madeline Way (Middle Blocker from Sierra Canyon High in California), Victoria Leyva (Defensive Specialist from Pebble Hills High in El Paso, Texas), Miliana Sylvester (Middle Blocker out of University Lab School), Malinah Purcell-Telefoni (Middle Blocker out of Kapolei High) and Adrianna Arquette (Middle Blocker/Opposite/Setter from Kamehameha Kapalama). There’s always the transfer portal (both leaving and coming in) and don’t be surprised when the schedule comes out next season if UH hits the road for one week in the non-conference slate.