Tiff's takeaways for UH Women's Volleyball - Week 4

1. Something For Everyone In LV

In the city that never sleeps, Las Vegas has something for everyone. In the inaugural Lucky Aces Volleyball Invitational, the Rainbow Wahine parlayed the first two matches into a pair of aces. Want efficient, clean and just pretty volleyball? Friday’s 83-minute sweep over A&M Corpus-Christi was just right for you. The team practically sided out at will (80% for the match) as they were down 5-4 in Set 1 and never trailed again. A season-low five hitting errors (the fewest since they had two against Cal State Fullerton in 2017), helped the Bows hit a season-high .471 (their highest since hitting .471 against UC Irvine in 2022). The defense held the Islanders to an .099 hitting percentage and limited their leading attacker Ally Saleh (averaged 3 kills per set coming in) to just three total kills. Grinders can mean a sandwich in some places, but Saturday’s match against Iowa State was just that…a grinder. Points came at a premium (each team had 69 points between kills, aces and blocks) as both teams figured out ways to stack points together. Neither team hit over .171 (UH outhit ISU 170 to .158) as they combined for 56 hitting errors. Alternating set wins put Hawai`i into another five-set match. The first lead change of the entire match was at 5-4 in UH’s favor and they found a way to pick up the signature win over a power four program. Sunday’s theme was much like the ups and downs, twists and turns as seen with the Big Apple Coaster at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino. Hawai`i saw themselves up in the match lead twice (1-0, 2-1) before UCLA threw in two twists as the Bows ended up playing their second consecutive five-set match in less than 24 hours. The ups of leading 8-4, 14-11. Then came the euphoria of celebrating on the court after a Bruin hitting error at match point…to then playing the waiting game during a challenge that reversed the call…followed by going into extra play before ultimately falling 18-16 after a hitting error. A second signature Power Four Conference win in as many days just wasn’t in the cards for the Rainbow Wahine in Sin City, despite the Bows not allowing any of the three teams to hit over .200 against them.

2. The Duality Of It All

Coming off a 12-17 season in 2025, a handful of players either hit the transfer portal or did not come back at all. Its Head Coach stepped down less than five months before the start of the season and less than 90 days before the season opener, a new Head Coach was hired. Add in an entirely new staff, no one really knew what to expect for this 2026 season and that included their new conference as the Mountain West preseason poll slated them fifth (just outside of the top four; top four teams qualify for November’s conference tournament). An 8-3 non-conference record (a point or two away from being 9-2 or 10-1) is a big positive and something to build from as Friday begins the start of conference play for UH. Despite the right shoulder injury to Cha’lei Reid, UH has found a 1-2 combo in Panna Ratkai and Tali Hakas on the left side, while the middle tandem of Miliana Sylvester and Rachel Purser have forced the opposition to worry about them as offensive threats. While playing a third match in three days saw its only 3-0 loss of the season so far, fans have been proud of the effort put in by the Rainbow Wahine in the losses to then No.21 Baylor and UCLA. As Miliana Sylvester said to the media from Las Vegas after Sunday’s match, “you can be proud of the work put in and the fight against good opponents, but at the same time there’s a higher standard and benchmarks to meet entering conference play.” Next benchmark? Qualify for the Mountain West Tournament.

3. The Bucket Getter

A two-time All-Horizon League first-team selection in her two years at Purdue Fort Wayne, Panna Ratkai recorded a total of 1,048 kills. While UH lost out on getting Ratkai as a Junior (she chose to play for Dayton), she reentered the transfer portal after her Junior season and chose to play her final collegiate season at UH. The Bows knew they were getting a solid, six-rotation player that had been used to carrying an offense and that’s been evident through the first four weeks of the 2026 season. She was named the MVP of the OUTRIGGER Invitational and named to the All-Tournament Team at the Lucky Aces Volleyball Invitational. With the injury that has held out Reid for the last eight matches, Ratkai has carried the offensive load as she’s recorded 12 or more kills in all eight of those matches. She’s hit .240 or better in six of them, including a season best .556 against A&M Corpus-Christi. Unafraid to take a lot of swings, she had a season-high of 66 against UCLA, while still hitting a respectable .212. As an outside, she’s in the primary passing rotation with Tali Hakas and Victoria Leyva and the group has yielded just 43 aces in the 44 sets played, a mark of 0.98 aces/set. Hawai`i is one of four Mountain West teams that finished the non-conference with a .500 or better record and the Hungarian is a main reason as to why UH is where they currently are at. She’s already been named Offensive Player of the Week and one could easily say she’s been one of the best players in the MW through the first four weeks of play. Basketball has the term of “bucket getter” or “walking bucket” for those players that are consistent scoring threat. Ratkai is just that for the Rainbow Wahine, either from the service line or from nearly any attacking position on the court.

4. DS Roulette Lands On 16

While Victoria Leyva continues to wear the Libero jersey for the Rainbow Wahine, each of the other four defensive specialist have taken their turns sharing the spotlight as the standout defensive specialist through the non-conference. Over the weekend in Las Vegas, the roulette wheel landed on 16…the number for freshman Cameron Holcomb. A six-for-six performance on serve receive while adding in two digs in just one set played, the San Diego native helped the UH defense hold the Islanders to an .099 hitting performance. One day later, she played in the final three sets and notched six digs, while again going six-for-six on serve receive and added an assist. Arguably one of the toughest aspects of volleyball is to come in off the bench cold and put a tough serve in play as a service sub. The neon lights didn’t phase the freshman as she put all 10 of her serves in play, including an ace. Holcomb’s biggest impact was saved for Day 3 in Las Vegas as she had a 3-0 and 4-0 scoring runs from the service line to help Hawai`i take the opening set over UCLA. A team-high 26 serves, she went 11-of-11 on serve receive and recorded a career-high 10 digs against the Bruins. The former four-year starting libero in High School has continued to stay ready when her number is called.

5. Purser’s Homecoming

The University of Hawai`i announced its move to the Mountain West Conference in 2024. The following year during signing day, Las Vegas native Rachel Purser made it official on National Signing Day in choosing to play for the Rainbow Wahine. It also meant she’d have the chance to come back to her home state and play in front of family and friends during her collegiate career. When the conference announced its schedule, Purser and UH learned it would be hosting both Nevada schools in the fall as both UNLV and Nevada come to island. While UH does need to finish in the top four to book its ticket to UNLV for November’s conference tournament, Hawai`i played host to The Lucky Aces Volleyball Invitational at The Orleans Arena and the freshman got that first trip back home to play as a collegian. Hawai`i travels well and the trip to the ninth island meant even more UH fans were in the arena for all three days. As the fans cheered for each UH starter, those cheers were just a little louder when No. 19 was announced. With her entire family, friends and both club and high school teammates in attendance to help lead the cheering, the Bows were buoyed by the fan support in leaving Las Vegas with a 2-1 Invitational Record as the freshman recorded 15 kills and was in on 10 blocks over the weekend.

6. A Whole New Conference

UTEP and Hawai`i both finished with the most non-conference wins (8). Four teams finished with .500 or better non-conference records (8-3: UTEP and UH. 7-4: Wyoming. 6-5: Grand Canyon). The MW scored three wins over the Big XII (UC Davis over #7 Arizona St, Wyoming winning against Texas Tech and Hawai`i taking down Iowa State) and one over the SEC (GCU beating Ole Miss). The best win for the conference by far was UC Davis’ first ever ranked win as they won at then No.7 Arizona State in four sets. While Hawai`i plays its first conference match on Friday, six teams begin Mountain West play on Thursday. Outside of a couple of instances where a two-match series is a home and home, nearly all other matchups will be a two-match series hosted by one school. By sheer luck with how the schedule was drawn and how the preseason poll went, UH (No. 5 in the preseason poll) will travel to play at teams picked ahead of them: GCU (#3), Wyoming (#4), UC Davis (#2) and UTEP (#1) to end the regular season, while hosting the teams picked behind them: New Mexico (#10), San José St (#7), UNLV (#6), Nevada (#9) and Air Force (#8). Those that were on the team last year remember that feeling of falling at home to rival Long Beach State on senior night, finishing in a tie for 6th place but losing out on the tiebreaker to qualify for the Big West Tournament. With the 10-team Mountain West Conference, just four teams make it to the postseason in Las Vegas. Will Hawai`i see its name among those four and have a second trip to Las Vegas this season? We shall see how the cards are dealt over the next nine weeks of conference play.