It was not looking good. More than half of the 64-team field had been announced and, with other bubble teams such as Denver and Loyola Marymount popping up on the NCAA bracket during Sunday’s volleyball tournament selection show, Hawaii was worried.
“I saw some other teams get in and … you just never know,” Rainbow Wahine coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos said.
Right after Oregon was announced as the No. 15 seed and hosting New Mexico State in the Eugene subregional, Hawaii knew. The Wahine’s season would continue.
Hawaii (18-8) will make its 26th consecutive postseason appearance against Big 12 runner-up Baylor (19-8) in Thursday’s first match at 2:30 p.m. at Matthew Knight Arena. The second match has Oregon (20-10), one of eight Pac-12 teams selected, against Western Athletic Conference champion New Mexico State (24-7).
The Wahine lost twice to Oregon in September, swept by the then-No. 12 Ducks on Sept. 13. A night later, they fell in five, a Set 5 that Hawaii led 10-9 but couldn’t close.
Last season, the Wahine defeated Baylor 3-2. They have not played former WAC rival NMSU since 2013, a 3-0 sweep by Hawaii in the Hawaiian Airlines Classic.
“I was excited to see Hawaii in our bracket,” Aggies coach Mike Jordan said in a telephone call Sunday. “I’m glad they made the tournament. They deserved to be in and I’ll be rooting for them.
“I miss that rivalry we had.”
New Mexico State, as the WAC’s automatic qualifier, just had to wait to see where it would be sent. Hawaii had to wait on the NCAA gods to see if it had travel plans.
As they had last year, the Wahine gathered at the Manoa home of Ah Mow-Santos’ uncle. The wait was worth it.
“I don’t care about the draw, as long as we got a second chance,” the second-year coach said. “We know Oregon and we played Baylor last year.
“I’m excited. I’m excited we are still playing.”
Less than an hour later, Hawaii was back on campus and in Gym I for a three-hour practice.
“I would say this was our best practice since the last week of the season,” junior setter/hitter Norene Iosia said. “It’s having that motivation now to play for something. We’ve been practicing, thinking it was 50-50, but now we know we have an actual opponent. We walked into the gym knowing we have something to play for.”
“It’s a new season, for sure,” senior setter Faith Ma‘afala added. “The fact that we have a chance to continue the season is all we’ve asked for. We’re ready for it.”
Hawaii is in the region hosted by No. 2 seed Minnesota (25-3), the Big Ten champion. The Golden Gophers are hosting the final four.
Pac-12 champion Stanford (28-1) earned the top seed, Big Ten runner-up Illinois (28-3) was seeded third and West Coast Conference champion Brigham Young (27-1) seeded No. 4. Big West champion Cal Poly (25-2) is in the subregional hosted by 11th-seeded USC; the Mustangs will play San Diego (16-12).
USD is one of five WCC teams in the field. Also in is Pepperdine (21-8), the last team to defeat Hawaii.
The Big Ten was second to the Pac-12 in number of teams selected with seven, including Penn State (23-7). The eighth-seeded Nittany Lions and top-seeded Cardinal are the only programs to make all 37 NCAA tournaments.
NOTE
Two Big West teams accepted bids to the National Invitational Volleyball Championship: UC Irvine (16-12) and UC Santa Barbara (17-11). Both will play in Las Vegas on Thursday, the Anteaters against host UNLV (19-11) and the Gauchos against Fresno State (20-10). The winners meet in Friday’s second round.
