Tiff’s takeaways for UH WAhine volleyball 2026 | schedule release
By Tiff Wells
ESPN Honolulu Rainbow Wahine play-by-play voice Tiff Wells with his six biggest takeaways from Wednesday’s 2026 schedule release.
7/15
1. Opening Weekend Test – The 52nd season of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine Volleyball opens at home for a 42nd time. The first of two consecutive non-conference tournaments is the 36th Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic, August 28th-30th. Sun Belt Conference member and a 19-win team from a year ago, Georgia Southern is UH’s season opening opponent (also the first meeting ever between the Bows and the Eagles) and the first match under new Head Coach, Joshua Walker. 2025 NCAA Tournament teams Baylor and San Diego round out week one for the Rainbow Wahine. The Bears won 18 matches in 2025, made it to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament and finished 20th in the final AVCA poll. For a fourth consecutive season, San Diego plays a non-conference week in Hawai`i. The Toreros (in the others receiving votes category of the final AVCA poll) dropped just 13 sets in conference en route to an 18-0 WCC regular season and lost in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament in what was a 25-win season. Nemo Beach, last year’s Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic Most Valuable Player, returns on the outside for USD.
2. Home Sweet Home – Utah Tech (Big Sky Conference), Loyola Marymount (West Coast Conference) and UC San Diego (Big West Conference) comprise the field for the OUTRIGGER Invitational just after Labor Day Weekend. It’ll be the first ever meeting between UH and the Trailblazers, who are led by Kahuku High alumna Camilla Hafoka and are coming off a 21-win season that saw them make the WAC Tournament final. For the first time since 2007, Loyola Marymount is on the schedule. The Lions look to bounce back from a seven-win season a year ago and have added to their roster via the transfer portal. A former conference foe in UC San Diego returns to Honolulu, this time as a non-conference opponent. Hawai`i is 11-0 all-time against the Tritons, who are led by first-year Head Coach and Punahou alum Spencer McLachlin. Week Three is a trend that UH recently has had on its schedule…a two-match series against one team; this rounds out the eight-match season-opening homestand. It’s been Texas State and Portland in the past. This year it’s Central Arkansas, another first-time opponent for UH. The Sugar Bears won the ASUN tournament title and lost in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament. UCA is part of a new conference, the United Athletic Conference (alliance of the ASUN and WAC).
3. Viva Las Vegas – Another recent trend of UH’s non-conference schedule is playing a week on the road. 2026 marks the eighth consecutive season that Hawai`i has played at least one non-conference match (whether it was a single match or part of a tournament) on the mainland (2018-Pepperdine. 2019-Baylor. 2021-Utah. 2022-Texas A&M. 2023-TCU. 2024-UNLV, Texas and Baylor. 2025-Stanford). In conjunction with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and hosted by the Orleans Hotel and Casino, Hawai`i is part of the Lucky Aces Volleyball Invitational, a four-team round-robin tournament that rounds out the non-conference slate. The three-day event in mid-September (18th-20th) features Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Southland Conference), Big XII member Iowa State and longtime rival UCLA (Big Ten). The Islanders look to rebound from a 13-win season a year ago. AVCA National Libero of the Year and AVCA 2nd-Team All-America Rachel Van Gorp returns for a Cyclones team that won 23 matches and made the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. First-year Head Coach Matt Werle leads a Bruins team that swept Hawai`i a year ago during the Stanford non-conference tournament, lost at No.1 seed Kentucky in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament and received votes in the final AVCA poll. The September meeting between the Bows and Bruins is the 80th all-time in the series. This tournament is a trial run for when the venue hosts the 2027 and 2028 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championships. With Hawai`i hosting both Nevada schools (UNLV on 10/23-24 and Nevada on 11/5, 11/7), UH hopes a second trip to the Ninth Island is in the cards during Thanksgiving Week.
4. The MW: Built Bold – After 24 years as a member of the Big West Conference, Hawai`i is a full member of the Mountain West, effective July 1st. UH is one of three new volleyball members in the conference, joining UTEP (formerly of Conference USA) and former Big West member UC Davis. After the 2025-26 athletics season, the MW lost five schools to the Pac-12 Conference: Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State. Of those five teams, four (Utah State: 18-0 MW rec. Colorado State: 15-5 MW rec. Boise State: 11-7 MW rec. San Diego State: 9-9 MW rec) made the six-team conference tournament. With the current MWC as a 10-team volleyball member conference, it makes for nine consecutive weeks of balanced conference play, where everyone plays everyone twice. It’ll also be a new look in how the conference schedule is played out. Gone is playing two teams per week. In is playing one team twice, either on a back-to-back or over a three-day span. If you follow UH Men’s Volleyball, you know how the schedule works. This will save in terms of both travel and scouting, while limiting the number of class days missed for the student athletes. UH will host: New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, Nevada and Air Force, while travelling to: Grand Canyon, Wyoming, UC Davis and UTEP. While there will be more travel than before when UH was in the Big West, it’s still direct flights to GCU (Phoenix), UC Davis (Sacramento) and in a sense to Wyoming (Denver, then a drive).
5. New Keiki On The Block – With the Mountain West going away from a preseason predicted order of finish for its football teams, it remains to be seen if that will be the case for Women’s Volleyball. What we do know is Hawai`i is one of three new additions to this conference that lost five following the end of the 2025-26 athletics season. An injury-plagued season saw the Rainbow Wahine finish at 12-17, the first ever losing season in program history. An 8-10 in conference record that resulted in a tie for 6th place, UH lost out on the tiebreaker to make The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2025 Big West Championship and had its season done before Thanksgiving, snapping a streak of 31 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. Making the move with UH from the BWC to the MWC is UC Davis. In their last season as a Big West member, the Aggies went 21-7 and at 16-2, won their first (and last) BWC regular season title. UCD did come up short in the Big West tournament, losing to No.2 seed Cal Poly in the final. Jade Light (the 2025 BWC Player of the Year) did graduate, but 2025 Big West Setter of the Year Mia Starr returns for the Aggies who in 2025, swept the regular season series against UH for the first time ever. Coming over from Conference USA, UTEP has gone 31-2 over the last two seasons in conference play. With an overall record of 52-11 during that span, the Miners have NCAA Tournament appearances in back-to-back years and also received votes in the final 2025 AVCA poll. Hawai`i ends the regular season playing at UTEP twice, its first trip to El Paso since 2003.
6. A Ninth Island pre-Thanksgiving? – A move from 11 teams down to 10 also meant what was a six-team MWC tournament field is now at four. The 2026 Credit Union 1 Mountain West Women’s Volleyball Championship is a two-day tournament that is November 24th and 25th, hosted by UNLV at Cox Pavillion. That’s the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving with the semifinals featuring the regular season champ against the fourth place finisher, while the teams that finish second and third face off against one another in the other semifinal. No byes or days off in between as the final is the night after the semifinals. Until the Lucky Aces Tournament in September, Hawai`i hadn’t been to the state of Nevada since 2024, where they lost in five sets at UNLV. While UH hosts both UNLV and Nevada during conference play, the Rainbow Wahine hope their card will be among the four at the table for this conference tournament.
Notes and nuggets with the schedule:-18 home matches.
-Five non-conference matches against ’25 NCAA tournament teams (Baylor, San Diego, Central Arkansas, Iowa State and UCLA).
-Five first-time opponents (Georgia Southern, Utah Tech, Central Arkansas, Texas A&M – Corpus Christi and Grand Canyon).
-Two of UH’s nine Mountain West Conference series have a day off in between (11/6 for the Nevada series, presumably due to UH Basketball. 11/14 for the Air Force series, due to a home UH football game).
-2025 records, 2025 final RPI and 2025 postseason finishes for 2026 non-conference opponents:
-Georgia Southern (19-9, 10-6 Sun Belt Conf. East t-2nd / RPI 124).
-Baylor (18-10, 12-6 Big XII t-3rd / RPI 23 / NCAA Second Round).
-San Diego (25-5, 18-0 West Coast Conf. 1st / RPI 33 / NCAA First Round) .
-Utah Tech (21-6, 10-2 Western Athletic Conf. t-1st / RPI 92).
-Loyola Marymount (7-20, 5-13 West Coast Conf. t-9th / RPI 204).
-UC San Diego (6-24, 4-14 Big West Conf. 9th / RPI 273).
-Central Arkansas (18-12, 12-4 Atlantic Sun Conf. t-2nd, RPI 105 / NCAA First Round).
-Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (13-17, 8-8 Southland Conf. 6th / RPI 193).
-Iowa State (23-8, 12-6 Big XII Conf. t-3rd / RPI 26 / NCAA Second Round).
-UCLA (19-13, 12-8 Big Ten Conf. t-6th / RPI 35 / NCAA Second Round).
Other offseason pertinent news:
-Robyn Ah Mow steps down. Ahead of the May 1st date when the Spring Transfer window opened, Robyn Ah Mow stepped down as Head Coach on April 29th. She leaves the program after nine years (eight seasons due to the Big West cancelling the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic). She compiled an overall record of 165-72 and 114-28 Big West record. Her teams won three Big West regular season championships (2017-2019) and two Big West tournament titles (2023, 2024). Seven of the eight seasons ended with appearances in the NCAA Tournament, reaching the 2019 NCAA Regional Semifinal in Madison, Wisc. Three times (2019, 2021 and 2022) she was named BWC Coach of the Year and in 2019 was named the AVCA Pacific North Region Coach of the Year. From April 29th to June 5th, Kaleo Baxter was named as the interim Head Coach and during the two weeks of when the Spring transfer window was open, zero UH players entered.
-Joshua Walker named Head Coach. On June 5th, Joshua Walker was named the fourth Head Coach in Rainbow Wahine history, with June 6th as his official first date of work. Walker spent the previous four seasons (including the last three as the Associate Head Coach) on the Baylor staff, where they went to the NCAA Tournament each year. Prior to his time in Waco, the former Rainbow Warrior All-American Outside Hitter was an Assistant Coach for Charlie Wade for seven seasons (one of which he coached Kolby Kanetake, now his Assistant Coach). Ahead of being named Head Coach, Walker was an Assistant Coach for the USA’s U17 National Team that won gold at the 2026 Pan Am Cup. His contract is for four and a half years, covering five seasons (end of the 2030 season).
-A Class of Seven. National Signing Day in November 2025 inked two for the 2026 Rainbow Wahine roster: Rachel Purser (Henderson, Nev. / Coronado High) and Cameron Holcomb (San Marcos, Calif. / San Marcos High).
Purser is a 6’3” Middle Blocker and was a three-time, first-team all-conference and all-region selection. Holcomb is a 5’8” Libero and received all-league honors in each of her four high school seasons. The Hawai`i connection here is that the club she played for (Wave Volleyball), Scott Harley (former Rainbow Warrior volleyball player) is the recruiting coordinator there and was also one of her club coaches.
In December 2025, UH announced the additions of two players via the transfer portal and were at UH during the 2026 Spring Semester: Maëli Cormier (Les Iles de la Madeleine, Quebec / Oregon State) and Panna Ratkai (Budapest, Hungary / Purdue Fort Wayne, Dayton). Cormier, a 6’2” Outside Hitter/Opposite, made the West Coast Conference’s All-Freshman Team, averaging 2.63 kills/set. Ratkai is a 5’10 Outside Hitter and had 82 kills with Dayton in 2025. She was a two-time Horizon League Player of the Year during her time with Purdue Fort Wayne; her 2024 season ended with 4.57 kills/set (NCAA 15th) and 5.17 points/set (NCAA 19th) and was named an AVCA Honorable Mention All-America. Cormier is a sophomore, while Ratkai is a senior.
March 2026 saw two more international players sign with Hawaii, Manoline Antiga (Lublin, Poland) and Manon Baudrillard (Paris, France). Antiga, a 6’0” Outside Hitter/Opposite, is of French decent but grew up in Poland. She played for the U18 team La Savino Del bene Volley in Italy. Baudrillard, a 6’0” Setter developed in France’s national program and most recently played for Evreux VolleyBall in France’s Ligue A this past season.
Last month, Marnie Ursem (Auckland, New Zealand / UNC Wilmington) was added from the transfer portal. Ursem, a 6’3” Middle Blocker played in 40 matches over two seasons for UNCW. She averaged 1.53 kills/set and 1.01 blocks/set. In 2025, she led UNCW with 30 service aces and was second in the Colonial Athletic Association with 1.08 blocks/set. Ursem comes to UH as a Junior.
-Five depart. Prior to her season-ending knee injury in mid-September, Stella Adeyemi was a starting outside hitter. Having graduated early, she went into the transfer portal and was picked up by Notre Dame. Evangeline Zeyha (Middle Blocker) didn’t play as a Rainbow Wahine in 2025, her one and only season. She transferred University of the Fraser Valley (Abbotsford, British Columbia). Audrey Hollis (Setter) went into the transfer portal and is now at Washington State. Middle Blocker Maddie Way transferred to Saint Mary’s. Ravyn Dash (Outside Hitter) entered the transfer portal and as of July 15th, no mention of her new school has been made public. Expect the full roster to be posted in the coming days ahead of fall camp.
-Staff Changes. A July 3rd post to social media said “Mahalo to Kaleo Baxter for 13 years of dedication to Rainbow Wahine Volleyball.” The Kauai High alum started as a Director of Volleyball Operations under then Head Coach Dave Shoji and while away for a short stint on the UC Irvine women’s staff, Baxter was both an Assistant and Associate under Robyn Ah Mow. He also served as the Interim Head Coach in between the resignation of Ah Mow and the hiring of Walker. He contributed to nine Big West championships and 11 NCAA Tournament appearances. Much to his credit (and also to Nick Castello), no players on the roster entered the spring transfer window in May nor did UH lose any of their signees for the 2026 season. July 14th saw the announcement of Kolby Kanetake as an Assistant Coach. The former Rainbow Warrior libero (2013-2016) spent the last six seasons (including the last three as the Associate Head Coach) on staff just up the road at Chaminade University of Honolulu. In 2022, the Moanalua alum was a recipient of the AVCA’s Thirty Under 30 award and was named the AVCA NCAA Division II Assistant Coach of the Year in 2024. Expect the naming of the entire staff in the coming days ahead of fall camp that starts in August.
-Full Member of Mountain West. On July 1st, Hawai`i officially became a full member of the Mountain West Conference. The Bows join as full members, along with UC Davis and UTEP. The football-only affiliates include North Dakota State and Northern Illinois. Women’s Volleyball is one of 15 conference-sponsored sports that Hawai`i will compete in. As a full member of the Mountain West, UH’s request for two-match series during conference play was agreed upon by the MWC.
-Spring Prep. This past March, Hawai`i scheduled a two-match series against Louisville. The 2025 NCAA Regional Semifinalist won both matchups against UH, by 3-1 and 3-0 match scores respectively. Following a successful and soldout 2024 Keiki clinic on Kaua`i, a second clinic was set for March 2025. However, due to weather during that week, the March 14th clinic was cancelled.
-#PackTheStan. Season tickets are now on sale and may be purchased in two ways: www.etickethawaii.com or by heading to the box office at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Hope to see you both on the island and/or on the continent this season as we venture to some new locales and see some new teams as the Rainbow Wahine enter a new conference, under new leadership.