ESPN Honolulu Rainbow Wahine play-by-play voice Tiff Wells with his six biggest takeaways from the Hawaiʻi Women’s Volleyball schedule release (and other offseason pertinent news).
1. Texas Two-Step. For the third time in the past four seasons, Hawai`i heads to Texas during the non-conference. 2022 (Texas A&M tournament), 2023 (TCU tournament) were Multi Team Tournaments and here in 2024, it’s single matches at two-time defending national champion Texas and Baylor. It’ll be UH’s first trip to Austin since the 2005 NCAA Tournament when the Bows won the Austin Subregional (wins against Texas State and Texas). With both of these teams being Power 4 members (Texas in the SEC and Baylor in the Big XII) and both figuring to do well during their respective seasons, UH’s RPI should be in a good spot prior to the start of Big West Conference play.
2. A Change In The Non-Conference Format. Under dates of competition, teams cannot exceed 28 competition dates during the regular season. As the Big West Conference has instituted an 18-match conference schedule again, UH has 10 competition dates to fill for their non-conference opponents. While the Power 4 conferences (Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big XII) have anywhere from a 16 to a 20 match conference slate, non-conference scheduling has become tougher for everyone, in particular for the non-power 4 teams. For UH, gone are the four straight non-conference weeks of round-robin tournaments with three opponents and UH. Teams are getting creative in scheduling and you’ll be seeing more three-team tournaments and two-match series against one opponent. Case in point is UH as they have the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic (SMU, San Diego), a two-match series with Pepperdine, a single match against Texas State ahead of the Outrigger Invitational (Oregon State, Texas State) and then single matches on the road (at UNLV, at Texas and at Baylor).
3. It’s Been A While…WAC. Two former Western Athletic Conference members (SMU and UNLV) are back on the 2024 Hawai`i schedule…as non-conference opponents. When the Bows open the season with the Mustangs on August 30th, it’ll be the first time since 2004 they played one another. Champions of the American Athletic Conference a year ago, SMU embarks on their first season as an ACC member. The September 17th match against UNLV marks the first matchup between the Rainbow Wahine and Rebels since 2003. For the Bows, it’ll also be the first match at UNLV since 1997. The Rebels feature three Hawai`i born players on their roster and their Head Coach is Malia Shoji, the niece of former UH Head Coach Dave Shoji.
4. Hunt For A Doozy Mid-October. Once again for the Bows, the middle of October has a daunting road trip to the Central Coast. Friday the 18th has UH at Cal Poly. The next night, the Bows play 99 miles south at defending regular season conference champion UC Santa Barbara. Not since 2016 has UH swept the Central Coast road trip (splits in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2023. Cal Poly and UCSB weren’t paired together in 2021 and 2022). Due to the unbalanced conference scheduling, rather than have UH take another road trip to play just one match, the Bows have added that one match to this Central Coast road trip and will play Cal State Bakersfield the following Tuesday to round out a three match in five day swing.
5. Unbalanced BWC Again. Because of the Big West Championship scheduled for the final week of the regular season and hosted by UC Irvine, it means that once again there won’t be a true conference schedule for all teams. For a second straight season, teams will have home and home series with eight schools, host a ninth school and travel to a tenth school. For UH, last year they played at UC Davis and hosted UC Riverside. This season, the Bows play Cal State Bakersfield (at Bakersfield) and CSUN (in Honolulu) just one time each.
6. Suitcase Living. The conference has put together its scheduling and has Hawai`i on the road the week before the conference tournament (at UC Irvine). It helps for UH that they can have at least one match played under their belts in the facility that will hold the conference tournament prior to the start of the conference tournament. The final week of the regular season has UH at Cal State Fullerton (Friday, Nov. 22) and at UC Irvine (Saturday, Nov. 23). With the quarterfinals of the conference tournament on Wednesday, November 27th, logistically it makes sense to keep UH on the mainland in between. Sunday, December 1st is Selection Sunday. Depending if the Bows are in contention for a National Seed (and a subregional host), seeing where in the bracket they would be placed (if they hold the BWC auto bid) or if they’d be on bubble watch, should the Bows make the NCAA Championship, they could be on the road at minimum for three consecutive weeks.
Notes and nuggets with the schedule:
-16 home matches.
-Six non-conference matches against five NCAA tournament teams (SMU, Pepperdine, Texas State, Texas, Baylor).
-Three Tuesday matches (Texas State, at UNLV, at Cal State Bakersfield).
-All 11 Big West Conference teams now eligible for postseason play (UCSD recently finished its four-year reclassification).
-2023 records and postseason for 2024 non-conference opponents:
–SMU (26-7, 18-1 AAC West 1st, NCAA 2nd Round).
-San Diego (16-10, 12-4 WCC 3rd).
-Pepperdine (19-9, 15-1 WCC 1st, NCAA 1st Round).
-Texas State (20-10, 12-4 Sun Belt West 1st, NCAA 1st Round).
-Oregon State (11-19, 6-14 Pac-12 t-9th)
-UNLV (19-13, 11-7 Mountain West 3rd, NIVC 1st Round).
-Texas (28-4, 17-1 Big XII 1st, NCAA Champions).
-Baylor (17-13, 10-8 Big XII t-6th, NCAA 2nd Round)
Other offseason pertinent news:
-Head Coach Robyn Ah Mow into USAV HOF. UH women’s volleyball alumnae and three-time U.S. Olympic team teammates, Robyn Ah Mow and Heather Bown were voted as the 2024 USA Volleyball All-Time Great Female Indoor Athlete award winners in January and thus, officially inducted into the USA Volleyball Hall of Fame this past May.
-Bows sign five. This past January, UH Women’s Volleyball Head Coach Robyn Ah Mow announced the signing of five players that comprise the 2024 class. Adrianna Arquette (Kamehameha), Victoria Leyva (El Paso, Texas), Malinah Purcell-Telefoni (Kapolei), Miliana Sylvester (University Lab) and Madeline Way (Santa Clarita, Calif.) comprise the largest class ever of incoming freshman for Coach Ah Mow.
Naturally a setter, Arquette played both in the middle and on the right side en route to the 2023 HHSAA Division I State Championship. Among the awards for Arquette in 2023/2024: Gatorade Player of the Year, AVCA High School All-America Second Team, ILH and State Player of the Year, HHSAA State Tournament Division I MVP and HHSAA Hall of Honor.
Leyva graduated high school early and enrolled at UH this past spring semester ahead of the 2024 season and fall semester.
In 2022, Way led her high school team to a CIF Southern Section Division I title and were in the Open Division state regional playoffs in 2023.
For Purcell-Telefoni, she moved from America Samoa to Oahu and played at Kapolei High. Her uncle is former UH football standout defensive end Mel Purcell.
Sylvester put down 25 kills on 49 swings in the HHSAA Division II State Championship match as she was named to the All-Tournament Team.
All three local signees were named to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Fab 15 (No.1-Arquette, No.10-Purcell-Telefoni and No.12-Sylvester).
-Two depart. On June 12th, Miami announced that former Rainbow Wahine Paula Guersching will join the Hurricanes for the upcoming season. The one-time Rainbow Wahine was a Big West Conference Honorable Mention selection as an Outside Hitter who played in 61 sets in 2023. 129 kills, hitting .235 on the season, Guersching added 15 service aces and 80 digs. After leaving Youngstown State following the 2022 season, she chose UH over USC. Per College VBall Transfers on X, they list Defensive Specialist/Libero Colby Lane as a transfer out of Hawai`i. Lane did go through Spring 2024 Commencement exercises at UH this past May and per the Florida International roster for the 2024 season, they list Lane among the roster as a graduate student.
-Lang, Alexander w/ USAV National Team Open Program. Announced February 20th by UH, Caylen Alexander joined Kate Lang as invitees to the Women’s National Team Open Program that was held in late February in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Big West was represented by four (Amarachi Aimufua-UC Davis and Zayna Meyer-Long Beach State) at the WNTOP. Last month, Lang was selected as 1 of 10 alternates for the U.S. team that took Silver at the NORCECA Pan Am Final 6. Among the final 24 on the roster, Lang was the only player who plays collegiate ball at a non-power 4 conference.
-Spring Success. This past March, UH scheduled three matches in three days. Hawai`i beat UNLV in five sets on night one behind Caylen Alexander’s double-double (18 kills, 12 digs). Night two saw a 3-0 win over Colorado State as Jacyn Bamis led all attackers with a match-high 17 kills and nine blocks. A second consecutive 3-0 victory, this time over Notre Dame closed out the Spring schedule. Once again, Caylen Alexander led the way with 11 kills.
-#PackTheStan. Season tickets for the 2024 Rainbow Wahine Volleyball season go on sale July 15th. Head to etickethawaii.com to buy your tickets to support the team. Hope to see you both on the island and on the continent this season.