Tiff's takeaways for UH Women's Volleyball - Week 8
By Tiff Wells
1. SistaHhood Of The TraveLing Defense
A lot of factors have gone into why the Rainbow Wahine started 2026 at 14-3, their best start to a season since 2019 (also 14-3) ahead of its Wyoming trip. One of the biggest factors has been the overall defense. While the Bows suffered two losses in their first three matches of the season, they’ve gone 15-1 since and much of it is due to how hard it’s been for opponents to score points on UH. Getting teams out of system with their serving, forcing them to rely on other players because they’ve taken away their top offensive options, using film to create an extensive game plan and winning long rallies (either by UH scoring the point or forcing an error) has made this group very fun to watch here in 2026. Over the last two weeks, they’ve been among the top 15 in the nation in opponent’s hitting percentage. In each of the past 14 matches, opponents have hit under .200. They’ve held in check the leading attacker by hitting percentage in the Mountain West when they’ve played them (New Mexico’s Reagan Miller, Aubrey Goodere of Grand Canyon). Would defense travel from sea level to elevation? Simply put…yes. Nine sets were played in Laramie and on their home court, the Cowgirls hit under .195 in all nine. Only twice (Set 2 on night 1: .194 and Set 3 on night 2: .158) did they finish a set hitting in the .100s. The other sets? -.071, .098, .047, .077, .067, .059 and .091. UH used a season-high 83 dig performance (83-72 dig advantage) and recorded their best blocking performance since 2010 (21.5 total team blocks, including seven each in Set 1 and Set 4) in outlasting the Cowgirls on night 1 in the 5-set win. More to come on what Miliana Sylvester did over the weekend. A 64-41 dig advantage helped overcome a slight block disadvantage (Wyoming 15-14) on night two as UH extended the win streak to a season-best eight in a row as the defense set up shop at elevation. After this weekend, opponents are now hitting .135 against Hawai`i, third lowest in the nation.
2. Paradise In Laradise…Twice
Dubbed “The Gem City of the Plains” in the 1870s, it’s more recently been nicknamed “Laradise.” Around 300 sunny days a year and with lots of access to outdoor recreation opportunities, Laramie is an outdoor enthusiast’s paradise. For the first time since 2008, UH and Wyoming would play one another and this weekend’s matches in Laramie marked the first trip for Hawai`i to Wyoming since 1996. From sea level to elevation, UH fans were curious as to how the Rainbow Wahine would compete at 7220 feet. While the Bows went 4-1 in playing at altitude in Las Vegas (~2,000 feet) and Phoenix (~1,080 feet), it was nothing compared to competing in Laramie this past weekend. There are numerous reminders all around campus as to how high at elevation you are. UH brought with them a 6-0 conference record and played the three set minimum in each. While the conference set streak was snapped at 19 after the Set 2 loss on Thursday, it was Seventh Heaven for the Bows after the five-set win. Even with the day off between matches due to an on-campus Wyoming athletics fundraiser, Hawai`i again came from behind in the match score, this time stacking three sets together to take the 3-1 match win and 2-0 series victory to feel great at 8-0. UH joins UTEP as the second conference team this season to win both matches at Wyoming. The two Rainbow Wahine wins also keep them perfect in the series with Wyoming, as UH now leads it 12-0 all-time.
3. Mili mili!
She came into the Wyoming series as the league’s top blocker. And she will leave the Wyoming series as the league’s top blocker. Junior Miliana Sylvester put on a masterful blocking performance this past weekend, that also included a couple of historical stats. She scored 11 kills on 23 swings and was in on a career-high 13 blocks (five of them solos) as Hawai`i registered 21.5 total team blocks…the most blocks by UH since 2010 against San Diego. Sylvester picked up her first career double-double (11 kills, 13 blocks), which marked the first double-double by a Rainbow Wahine Middle Blocker since Amber Igiede (11 kills, 10 blocks) in 2022 against UCLA. Two nights later, she hit .316 (9-3-19) and added nine more blocks (four solos). For a second-straight match, Hawai`i recorded 10 or more total team blocks (14). Over the weekend, the University Lab alumna had 20 kills, 22 blocks and hit .310. There really is no question as to whom the Defensive Player of the Week should be when the award comes out on Monday. The CEO of The Mānoa Roofing Company enters UNLV week with a 1.31 blocks/set average, which should have her among the nation’s Top 50 blockers when individual rankings are updated on Monday.
4. Adversity Facers
A quick turnaround from playing Saturday against San Jose State to then hitting the airport early Tuesday morning for Wyoming, three plane rides covering roughly 14 hours of total travel, playing at altitude, competing in a very small gym, being down in the match score on both nights, finding offense from the others when their top attacker was slowed down and then hearing some unfortunate comments from the Wyoming student section on night one, Hawai`i endured a lot to say the least over the weekend in Laramie. Outside of the last statement, everything else is just part of being a college athlete. Lengthy travel is nothing new to UH athletes (same goes for Division II members Hawaii Hilo, Chaminade and Hawaii Pacific). It is what it is as you have to travel by plane for at least five hours somewhere outside the state. The thin air did make it somewhat difficult for UH, even with a couple of days to try and acclimate to it. Small venues are nothing new as they are used to one of their practice gyms on campus, Gym 1. When Panna Ratkai was slowed down both nights (14-10-53, .075 on night one and 11-10-35, .029 on night two) she didn’t let that affect the other aspects of her game. An ace, 11 digs and five blocks in the first match and then two aces, nine digs and a block on night two, the all-around game has her among the top players in the Mountain West Conference. As she was held below her usual efficient offensive numbers, the others showed up…both nights. Each time UH lost a set late in the 20s after leading, the Bows came back both times to win the next set. Four Hawai`i players had 10 or more kills on night 1: 16 from Cha’lei Reid, Maëli Cormier added 12 and Miliana Sylvester chipped in 11 (Ratkai had 14). Victoria Leyva led the backrow with her fourth 20-plus dig effort of the season (match-high 20) as UH outdug Wyoming 83-72. With UH plus 19 in kills on night two (56-37), it was Reid again going for match-high honors in kills, this time with 14. In doing so, it was on a season-high .393 hitting percentage. It was extremely unfortunate that after the two-hour, 39-minute win on Thursday, the only thing that seemed to be discussed after was the comments from the Wyoming student section (mostly the swim and dive team) directed towards the UH players. Brought to the attention of the UH coaching staff from the players, it was quickly relayed to both Wyoming athletics and the Mountain West Conference. These remarks have no place in athletics or anywhere frankly. A small consolation was that on Saturday, those student-athletes weren’t present and a few more security officers were on site. Attitude over altitude, and everything else…twice.
5. Mixed And Matched
It rarely, if ever happens where during a season, a head coach will employ the same strategy or gameplan. Sometimes it’s different from game to game and in the case of volleyball, it’s different from set to set and even within a set, changes happen. As the altitude did affect the spin servers (and servers in general) some, those spin servers (Adrianna Arquette and Panna Ratkai) put aisde the jump serve and served jump floaters in its place. Once again, all four defensive specialists saw time during the series to change the look of UH serving. Night 1 saw Ratkai and Reid start as the Outside Hitters but finished with Tali Hakas and Ratkai as Hakas played the backrow for Reid. After not being available for the San Jose State series the week prior, Hakas was available for backrow play only against Wyoming. As Rachel Purser was slowed down on night two, Marnie Ursem came off the bench for sets two and three, also scoring her first kill as a Rainbow Wahine. After starting the match in the negatives, you as a fan should appreciate the way Purser battled back in the final two sets to hit in the positive. With Ratkai being affected by Wyoming again and Hakas available for all six rotations, Hakas went all the way around in the final set as Reid played the front row and was subbed out in the backrow for Ratkai. The Kahuku High alumna took over Set 4, scoring seven of her 14 kills in the frame (7-0-10, .700) on a variety of shots. No one felt sorry for themselves, they weren’t worried about not getting their stats. Once again, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole and that selflessness is a major reason why this team is 16-3 overall and 8-0 in Mountain West play.
6. RPI & The MW
While it is nice to be recognized by the coaches that vote weekly in the AVCA poll, the more important number when it comes to Selection Sunday (especially for those at-large berths) is the one reflected by the RPI. It’s a mathematical formula that is based off your winning percentage, your opponents’ winning percentage and opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage. It’s why you see schools in mid-major conferences try to schedule as tough as they can in the non-conference. It’s why UH scheduled the way they did to face Power 4 teams (Baylor, Iowa State and UCLA), in addition to look for teams they felt would win a lot of matches and do well in their non-conference (Georgia Southern, San Diego, Utah Tech, LMU, Central Arkansas and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi). It works out when those non-Power 4 teams you schedule start well (GSU, Utah Tech and LMU). It’s not a true science as sometimes it doesn’t work out as well as you would have thought when originally making the schedule (UCA, AMCC). Hawai`i started with a 44 RPI and then saw it move up five spots to 39 entering the Wyoming week. The RPI comes out each Monday morning so we shall see where UH is at come tomorrow. The target RPI is around 45-50 when it comes to being a borderline at-large team. The best way to leave it out of the committee’s hands is to win the auto-bid from your conference, by either winning the regular season title or the conference tournament. Hawai`i continues to be the only MW member with a double-digit RPI. Speaking of the Mountain West, it’s been a mess the first four weeks of conference play for everyone not named Hawai`i. While the Rainbow Wahine have stacked four straight weekends of series wins to be atop the conference at 8-0, it’s not been as successful for everyone else. Take a look at this past week for instance as UC Davis split at San Jose Staté and preseason league favorite UTEP split with New Mexico. Both UCD and UNM are at 5-3, three matches behind UH in the standings. The Bows travel to Davis in two weeks and hold the tiebreaker over UNM (if it’s needed). Only the top four make the conference tournament next month in Las Vegas and right now, two losses separate those teams that are second through ninth in the standings. Even last place SJSU is a game out of fifth place. Control what you can control, take care of business at home and find ways to win on the road. And through four weeks of MW play, the view from atop the conference has been rainbow filled for Hawai`i.