Hawaii nearly dug out of hole at NCAA tournament

The holiday present wasn’t wrapped up with the bow the Rainbow Wahine wanted. Saturday’s NCAA tournament loss to second-seeded Minnesota had Hawaii two matches shy of matching last season’s bracket ride, and three of getting to its first final four since 2009.

The 23-6 campaign was one of high highs and low lows, of expectations that continually were bandaged or iced, from All-American Nikki Taylor bookending her senior year with injuries, to senior Annie Mitchem breaking a second pinkie finger, to junior Kalei Greeley relegated to back-row passing duties when her recovery from offseason shoulder surgery didn’t progress as expected.

The pieces were there to make a deep run into the NCAA tournament but the pieces weren’t in place early enough. Hawaii, currently ranked 12th in the coaches poll, dropped four of its five preseason matches against power-five conference teams, a win or two against Wisconsin, Kansas State, UCLA or Washington should have gone a long way to boosting the Wahine’s RPI, the Ratings Percentage Index used to measure a team’s strength of schedule and to seed the top 16 of the NCAA tournament.

All four teams that defeated Hawaii early on received seeds and hosting duties. All but Kansas State have advanced to this week’s regional play, as has the one power-five team that the Wahine (last RPI 23) rallied to beat in five: Arizona.

“I think our preseason shaped our destiny,” Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said of his 42nd year in Manoa. “When we lost those four, we really had no chance to get back into the top 16, not with our conference.

“Obviously missing Nikki for three matches and Annie for nine hurt our chances to win some of those early matches. Once we were fairly healthy, after tweaking things to get our best lineup, we were really good at the end.”

After losing a heartbreaker to Washington in five, Hawaii won its next seven and 18 of its last 19, the lone defeat coming at Long Beach State in five where several UH players were battling flu-like symptoms.

The closing run of 11 straight included eight consecutive sweeps, winning 25 sets in a row and five matches where the opponents did not score more than 19 points in any set. Ten of those victories led to Hawaii successfully defending its Big West title, its 10th in the BWC and 26th overall.

The all-conference honors followed with Taylor repeating as Player of the Year and becoming just the sixth Wahine and 10th in Big West history to be named to the first team all four years. Shoji was named Coach of the Year for the sixth time in the Big West and 14th overall in his Hall of Fame career, and setter Norene Iosia was the Freshman of the Year, UH’s fifth Big West FOY and 12th overall.

Five starters were named to the first team, led by Taylor. Joining her were Mitchem, Iosia, junior middle Emily Maglio and junior libero Savanah Kahakai.

Kahakai became the 14th Wahine to record 1,000 digs. She had 17 in Saturday’s loss, giving her 416 on the season and 1,001 for her career.

Shoji said one of the brightest spots was the play of Taylor, who is likely to repeat on the All-American team. She finished 12th in kills on the UH all-time career list (1,277), eighth in aces (117) and was nationally ranked in three categories: aces (51), kills per set (4.59) and aces per set (.65).

Taylor injured her left ankle three points into Saturday’s match in Minnesota. No information has been released about her status.

There also was the continued progression of Maglio as a dominating middle (ranked 19th nationally in hitting percentage at .393, and 24th in blocks at 1.24 bps). The surprise may have been the emergence of freshman walk-on Emma Smith who rose above Hawaii’s five other “littles” to become the No. 1 defensive sub. She had an outstanding performance in Saturday’s loss at Minnesota, with eight digs and 8-for-8 on serve-receive.

It was the 24th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance, 36th overall, for the Wahine, who missed only in 1992.

Although Shoji said he’ll make an announcement later this week about whether he’ll be back for his 43rd season, next year’s schedule is beginning to form. UCLA will be back for its annual visit, along with Utah and likely BYU. Other teams have tentatively agreed to travel to the Stan Sheriff Center but, without a signed contract, Shoji didn’t want to name names.

Hawaii will return four starters — 13 letter-winners in all — as well as redshirts Faith Ma’afala, the former Kamehameha setter, and Rika Okino, a defensive specialist out of Kalani. There are three scholarship players coming in — 6-2 middle Sophia Howling, 6-2 middle Skyler Williams and 6-1 middle/opposite Shaney Lipscomb — as well as two invited walk-ons in 5-9 libero Janelle Gong and 6-2 hitter Adren Misraje; all five are from California.

The Wahine lose seniors Taylor, Mitchem, setter Tayler Higgins and defensive specialist Katiana Ponce. Also gone will be former Warrior all-American Tom Pestolesi, who took a one-semester sabbatical from coaching and teaching at Irvine Valley College to be a volunteer assistant for Shoji, his former coach.

“ ‘Pesto’ was the shining light every day in practice,” said Shoji, who also coached the UH men’s team from 1979-85. “He had such a positive influence on the girls, brought a lot of energy in to the gym.”

There is a question if first-year assistant Lindsey Berg will be back. The three-time Olympic setter was on a one-season contract that expires at the end of the month; she has several business ventures in Los Angeles.

“Lindsey has a bright future in coaching, has a lot to offer,” Shoji said. “She was tremendous in her role. I hope she returns but she has a lot of irons in the fire.”

And Shoji’s future?

“I think everyone is prepared for me to retire,” he said. “Whether I actually do or not … I’ll take a few days off, talk with my family and my team. There will be some sort of announcement by the end of the week.”