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top wahine volleyball stories and columns
An anti-climactic end to Hawaii's second season of sand volleyball is morphing into an offseason drama with rumors that Jane Croson might transfer.
Before a few hundred friends, family and tourists and one governor, Hawaii's first and final sand volleyball homestand provided some answers. Many more questions remain in this emerging sport's second season.
Hawaii showed up for Friday's exhibition volleyball match with Texas Tech in offseason form. That was not surprising for the spring, but hardly encouraging for the fall.
It was one play, one dig, but one heck of a game-changer.
Spoiler alert: Texas Tech, the volleyball team the Rainbow Wahine play tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center, lost to Hawaii Pacific on Wednesday.
Hawaii's second sand volleyball season opens today on one of the world's most famous beaches, with two top-10 teams and a hall of fame player now coaching.
Hannah Rooks, who transferred to Kaiser High last year, has signed a letter of intent to play sand volleyball for the University of Hawaii in the 2013-14 school year. Along with the 6-foot-2 Rooks, sand coach Scott Wong said that 6-foot Sydney Shinn, from Florida, will be on the team.
The American Volleyball Coaches Association confirmed on Wednesday what Santa Clara, Washington, the entire Big West Conference and Hawaii already knew. Rainbow Wahine junior Emily Hartong is one of the finest players in the country.
College of Southern Idaho announced that right-side hitter Keani Passi, a 5-foot-9 sophomore from Waianae, will play for Hawaii next season. Passi helped CSI to its 10th NJCAA national championship last month.
Of all the emotions swirling in the eighth-ranked Rainbow Wahine's heads after Saturday's devastating five-set loss to fifth-ranked Washington in the NCAA tournament's second round, anger was the most intriguing.
Hawaii was a swing away from redemption in so many ways Saturday. Instead, the eighth-ranked Rainbow Wahine suffered volleyball heartbreak for the second straight season.
Santa Clara knew exactly what was coming from eighth-ranked Hawaii on Friday and simply could not stop it. Jane Croson and Emily Hartong lowered the boom on the Broncos in the first round of the NCAA Volleyball Championship.
Hawaii's last live look at its Rainbow Wahine volleyball team this year ended with Emily Maeda quickly saying "yes" to Chad Reis when he proposed marriage Friday at her senior night.
There are two constants for this weekend each year. Turkey sandwiches (good) and moaning about the big, bad NCAA and how unfair and mean it is to the University of Hawaii volleyball program (bad).
A volleyball match that served only as a prelude to Emily Maeda’s solo senior night Friday found eighth-ranked Hawaii ringing UC Riverside’s bell, 25-17, 25-17, 25-23, and Maeda wearing a new ring.
With its postseason volleyball fate to be decided in four days, eighth-ranked Hawaii came out Wednesday against Cal State Fullerton with all the precision of six volleyball players who just met.
It took Dave Shoji 38 years to coach a volleyball match at UC Davis. When it finally happened Saturday, his Hawaii team made it memorable and mercifully quick. Shoji became the second in his sport to reach 1,100 wins when the seventh-ranked Rainbow Wahine swept the Aggies.
If all Dave Shoji's previous volleyball victories were like Friday's, no way he would still be around searching for No. 1,100 tonight. Seventh-ranked Hawaii wasted a rare hot start, but rediscovered its mojo in the final two sets.
If all goes well for seventh-ranked Hawaii on this Big West Conference road trip, Dave Shoji will come home with 1,100 volleyball wins.
With both teams riding lengthy winning streaks into Thursday's volleyball match, something had to give. It wouldn't be Hawaii's victory skein. It wouldn't be Brigham Young-Hawaii's pride.
Ninth-ranked Hawaii is still trying to create a lineup, but it clinched a conference volleyball championship and a place in the NCAA postseason Saturday.
Joining a conference has clearly been very good to Hawaii volleyball, with 19 championships in 28 years of membership. Whether it has been very, very good is up for argument — not that there was ever a choice when the NCAA seized control of women's sports in the early 1980s.
Dave Shoji jokingly tells his ninth-ranked Hawaii volleyball team it is "driving him into retirement." The Rainbow Wahine can be ragged. One night it is their passing and another blocking. Sometimes the hitters simply can't find the floor.
If Emily Hartong keeps accomplishing the improbable for ninth-ranked Hawaii, the volleyball awards might run out before her right arm.
The Emily Hartong Hitting Machine keeps pounding and pounding and pounding. But despite Hartong's 29 kills, Hawaii came within one set of losing its first conference match since 2008.
In a weird, woeful and ultimately wonderful volleyball match for ninth-ranked Hawaii, it got hammered early then hammered back Saturday to hand Pacific its third consecutive five-set loss.
Pacific libero Koala Matsuoka sucked up a quarter of her team's 103 digs last week against UC Santa Barbara, and the Kamehameha graduate is not even the most imposing part of the Tigers' Hawaii volleyball ohana.
October is not over, one of its best players is still out and its first Big West Conference season in 17 years has not hit the halfway mark, but ninth-ranked Hawaii is starting to focus on the volleyball postseason.
With a tenacity that often overwhelmed its volleyball talent Friday, eighth-ranked Hawaii held off Cal State Northridge for the second time in three weeks.
Few colleges are as isolated as Penn State and Hawaii, a fact Rainbow Wahine volleyball transfer Ali Longo has come to know all too well. State College is what folks around the world envision as the ultimate American college town, from its in-your-face football stadium to its creamery and perfectly plowed winter streets.
More »
Before a few hundred friends, family and tourists and one governor, Hawaii's first and final sand volleyball homestand provided some answers. Many more questions remain in this emerging sport's second season.
Hawaii showed up for Friday's exhibition volleyball match with Texas Tech in offseason form. That was not surprising for the spring, but hardly encouraging for the fall.
It was one play, one dig, but one heck of a game-changer.
Spoiler alert: Texas Tech, the volleyball team the Rainbow Wahine play tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center, lost to Hawaii Pacific on Wednesday.
Hawaii's second sand volleyball season opens today on one of the world's most famous beaches, with two top-10 teams and a hall of fame player now coaching.
Hannah Rooks, who transferred to Kaiser High last year, has signed a letter of intent to play sand volleyball for the University of Hawaii in the 2013-14 school year. Along with the 6-foot-2 Rooks, sand coach Scott Wong said that 6-foot Sydney Shinn, from Florida, will be on the team.
The American Volleyball Coaches Association confirmed on Wednesday what Santa Clara, Washington, the entire Big West Conference and Hawaii already knew. Rainbow Wahine junior Emily Hartong is one of the finest players in the country.
College of Southern Idaho announced that right-side hitter Keani Passi, a 5-foot-9 sophomore from Waianae, will play for Hawaii next season. Passi helped CSI to its 10th NJCAA national championship last month.
Of all the emotions swirling in the eighth-ranked Rainbow Wahine's heads after Saturday's devastating five-set loss to fifth-ranked Washington in the NCAA tournament's second round, anger was the most intriguing.
Hawaii was a swing away from redemption in so many ways Saturday. Instead, the eighth-ranked Rainbow Wahine suffered volleyball heartbreak for the second straight season.
Santa Clara knew exactly what was coming from eighth-ranked Hawaii on Friday and simply could not stop it. Jane Croson and Emily Hartong lowered the boom on the Broncos in the first round of the NCAA Volleyball Championship.
Hawaii's last live look at its Rainbow Wahine volleyball team this year ended with Emily Maeda quickly saying "yes" to Chad Reis when he proposed marriage Friday at her senior night.
There are two constants for this weekend each year. Turkey sandwiches (good) and moaning about the big, bad NCAA and how unfair and mean it is to the University of Hawaii volleyball program (bad).
A volleyball match that served only as a prelude to Emily Maeda’s solo senior night Friday found eighth-ranked Hawaii ringing UC Riverside’s bell, 25-17, 25-17, 25-23, and Maeda wearing a new ring.
With its postseason volleyball fate to be decided in four days, eighth-ranked Hawaii came out Wednesday against Cal State Fullerton with all the precision of six volleyball players who just met.
It took Dave Shoji 38 years to coach a volleyball match at UC Davis. When it finally happened Saturday, his Hawaii team made it memorable and mercifully quick. Shoji became the second in his sport to reach 1,100 wins when the seventh-ranked Rainbow Wahine swept the Aggies.
If all Dave Shoji's previous volleyball victories were like Friday's, no way he would still be around searching for No. 1,100 tonight. Seventh-ranked Hawaii wasted a rare hot start, but rediscovered its mojo in the final two sets.
If all goes well for seventh-ranked Hawaii on this Big West Conference road trip, Dave Shoji will come home with 1,100 volleyball wins.
With both teams riding lengthy winning streaks into Thursday's volleyball match, something had to give. It wouldn't be Hawaii's victory skein. It wouldn't be Brigham Young-Hawaii's pride.
Ninth-ranked Hawaii is still trying to create a lineup, but it clinched a conference volleyball championship and a place in the NCAA postseason Saturday.
Joining a conference has clearly been very good to Hawaii volleyball, with 19 championships in 28 years of membership. Whether it has been very, very good is up for argument — not that there was ever a choice when the NCAA seized control of women's sports in the early 1980s.
Dave Shoji jokingly tells his ninth-ranked Hawaii volleyball team it is "driving him into retirement." The Rainbow Wahine can be ragged. One night it is their passing and another blocking. Sometimes the hitters simply can't find the floor.
If Emily Hartong keeps accomplishing the improbable for ninth-ranked Hawaii, the volleyball awards might run out before her right arm.
The Emily Hartong Hitting Machine keeps pounding and pounding and pounding. But despite Hartong's 29 kills, Hawaii came within one set of losing its first conference match since 2008.
In a weird, woeful and ultimately wonderful volleyball match for ninth-ranked Hawaii, it got hammered early then hammered back Saturday to hand Pacific its third consecutive five-set loss.
Pacific libero Koala Matsuoka sucked up a quarter of her team's 103 digs last week against UC Santa Barbara, and the Kamehameha graduate is not even the most imposing part of the Tigers' Hawaii volleyball ohana.
October is not over, one of its best players is still out and its first Big West Conference season in 17 years has not hit the halfway mark, but ninth-ranked Hawaii is starting to focus on the volleyball postseason.
With a tenacity that often overwhelmed its volleyball talent Friday, eighth-ranked Hawaii held off Cal State Northridge for the second time in three weeks.
Few colleges are as isolated as Penn State and Hawaii, a fact Rainbow Wahine volleyball transfer Ali Longo has come to know all too well. State College is what folks around the world envision as the ultimate American college town, from its in-your-face football stadium to its creamery and perfectly plowed winter streets.
More »