By: ESPN Honolulu Rainbow Wahine play-by-play voice, Tiff Wells
1 – Prayers For Tali. If you’ve watched Rainbow Wahine Volleyball over the last couple of years, you know that one player in particular plays with a lot of emotion. That player is Tali Hakas. The Junior Outside Hitter is one of three players (Stella Adeyemi, Tyla Reese Mane) that are in year three on the roster. Around the midway point in Set 1 on Sunday against San Diego, Hakas was subbed out and rubbing her shoulder as she went to the tunnel behind the UH bench. She was not seen again until the intermission between Sets 1 and 2. Donning the warmup top and an ice pack on that shoulder as she jogged over to rejoin her teammates, it was then reported by Spectrum OC16’s Ryan Kalei Tsuji that Hakas was out and would not return for the rest of the match. It remains to be seen as to the status of Hakas ahead of this week’s Outrigger Invitational that begins on Thursday. It also will allow someone (or multiple players) the opportunity to step up, both as an energy leader and a statistical leader should it be a prolonged abscence.
2 – Leyva Leads. Having been an early enrollee in the Spring of 2024, Victoria Leyva got an extra semester to get acclimated to college life and volleyball at the next level. It also gave her half a year more to learn from UH’s libero, Tayli Ikenaga. Leyva became a sponge and learned as much as she could from Ikenaga, all the while being the top defensive specialist off the bench. It led to 250 digs and 24 service aces, while receiving a nod to the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic All-Tournament Team. Entering 2025, UH needed to fill the void of having lost Ikenaga (’24 Big West Libero of the Year and the Most Outstanding Player of The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2024 Outrigger Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship) to graduation. The sophomore has become one of the faces and voices of the team while quarterbacking UH’s serve-receive and backrow defense. A career-high 23 digs on opening night against Marquette led to a 39-dig weekend (a weekend that could have led her or any of the liberos in the tournament field to a spot on the All-Tournament Team), an average of 3.55 digs per set (currently seventh in the conference). While there were reception errors and a few rotation violations on UH, the young team is still trying to work out a serve receive that lost two of its primary passers from a year ago.
3 – Not How You Start. 1980. 2017. 2022. 2025. For just the fourth time in program history (51st year), Hawai`i starts a season 0-3. While the Marquette match saw UH go from up 2-0 and having six match points in the third set to a season opening 3-2 loss, the Rainbow Wahine were swept in the next two matches. Nine straight set losses. Hawai`i has never began a season 0-4. Each of the previous 0-3 starts, that fourth match UH was victorious…in straight sets. Each 0-3 start to a season saw those years end with postseason play (1980-3rd at AIAW; 2017-NCAA 1st round, 2022-NCAA 2nd round). Even with eight returnees and eight newcomers, one of the words heard throughout fall camp was “patience.”
4 – Blocking Improvements. 1.63 in 2024. That was the blocking average for UH last season, ranking 10th in the 11-team Big West Conference and 294 out of 334 Division I teams. Only four times in 31 matches did Hawai`i record 10 or more total team blocks. The season high of 13 was on Senior Night (match 26) against UC San Diego. The Rainbow Wahine hit the transfer portal in the offseason and landed Bri Gunderson, one of the top blockers from the 2024 season. A great first impression was made by Gunderson as she was in on eight of UH’s 14 blocks. After week one last year, UH played 14 sets and recorded 23 blocks. In 11 sets played this year, Hawai`i has 28 blocks. Gunderson along with Miliana Sylvester each lead UH with 1.20 blocks per set, an average that has them both tied for second in the Big West Conference. As a team, the Bows are averaging 2.55 blocks per set.
5 – Newbies. Of the eight newcomers to the roster, fans got to see six of them over the weekend. Both Gunderson and Cha’lei Reid were among the starters. Reid debuted with nine kills, five digs, three blocks and two aces (utilizing a spin serve). A career-high 11 kills against Utah State were among the 29 (team-high) she had for the weekend and was UH’s lone representative on the All-Tournament Team. Gunderson averaged 1.3 kills per set. Two of the littles, Kahea Moriwaki and Leilani Lopez came in as serving subs throughout the weekend. Moriwaki’s debut included an ace among all seven of her serves put in play (all 16 of her serves were put in play, yielding two aces), while adding in two digs (four for the weekend). Wearing the same number (15) as her mom (Kristal Attwood) did when she was a Rainbow Wahine, Lopez notched two aces. Audrey Hollis appeared in all matches and had 10 assists and three digs coming off the bench. Ravyn Dash saw limited action in one set against San Diego. Makena Biondi did not play while Evangeline Zeyha was not cleared for participation (non-COVID illness) and hopes to rejoin the team this week.
6 – Hawaiian Time Match Start Times. Fans had to wait just a little longer for the season opener against Marquette as the San Diego-Utah State match went five sets. That would become the norm all weekend long as each start time for the Hawai`i match was delayed because the first match needed five sets. Friday started around 7:45pm and by the time the 10:00pm news came on, roughly half of the announced 4,608 had left the arena because it was so late. 3 hours and 15 minutes was the match time. Saturday was an even later start time as first serve didn’t occur until roughly 8:10pm, while Sunday’s first serve came around 6:07pm. While one can’t control how many sets are played in the preceding match, the start time of that match can be changed. Perhaps a 2 hour, 15 minute buffer (even without television) isn’t enough time. If the non-conference tournaments that the Rainbow Warriors host have three hours between matches (4:00pm and 7:00pm, 2:00pm and 5:00pm), why can’t the Rainbow Wahine have the same?