Wahine end season devoid of title, but fulfill goals

It began with gelato in Milano.

It ended with milkshakes from Zombie Burger in Des Moines.

In between it was a sweet ride for the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team.

The expectations that Hawaii had for this year were high, higher than the realities of the past five where the season had ended short of a regional final. In four of those NCAA tournaments, the Wahine were one (win) and done, eliminated in the second round.

Goals were set during an offseason that included the two-week team bonding experience in Europe last May: 1. Have a successful, RPI-building preseason. 2. Win the Big West. 3. Advance to at least the third round of the NCAA tournament.

While Hawaii had no control over the computer-generated Ratings Percentage Index that left it at 26 and unseeded come Selection Sunday, the Wahine attained 21⁄2 and more. They went 10-1 in nonconference play, ran the table in the Big West for the fourth time, and surpassed the regional semifinal goal when riding a 24-match win streak into Saturday’s regional final against Big Ten champion Minnesota.

The Sweet 16 sweep of two-time defending champion Penn State turned bittersweet when falling to the Golden Gophers, 25-18, 25-13, 24-26, 25-21 at Wells Fargo Arena. It ended the careers of all-conference seniors Olivia Magill and Tai Manu-Olevao, both of whom played critical roles in the 29-2 season, one that finished with 10 consecutive road matches.

“I’m just grateful for all the support we’ve been shown throughout the season,” Manu-Olevao said. “Just the amount of people who came out to Iowa was amazing. We can’t thank everyone enough.”

Hawaii again finished second to Nebraska in home attendance, the Huskers averaging 8,206 to the Wahine’s 6,905. Hawaii had held the attendance average record from 1995, the first full season in the Stan Sheriff Center, through 2012; Nebraska moving from the 4,000-seat Memorial Coliseum to the new 8,000-plus Bob Devaney Sports Center in 2013.

Magill, who transferred to Hawaii after two seasons at Arizona, said the support of the fans drove the team. She expressed her thanks in her final blog entry, the OMG Report chronicling the team’s NCAA journey for the HawaiiAthletics.com website.

Magill and junior Nikki Taylor are expected to receive All-America recognition on Wednesday. Magill came into the NCAA tournament ranked No. 7 nationally in blocks — anchoring the Wahine block that ranked No. 1 most of the year — and was 17th in hitting percentage.

Taylor, the Big West Player of the Year, was named to the all-region team on Saturday along with Manu-Olevao. Taylor was ranked nationally in three categories, No. 5 in points, 19th in kill average and 21st in ace average; she heads into her senior season nine kills away from reaching 1,000.

Taylor headlines the 2016 senior class that includes setter Tayler Higgins, defensive specialist Katiana Ponce and middle Annie Mitchem, the latter who fractured her right pinkie against UC Irvine on Oct. 17 and missed the rest of the season.

It was just one of many injuries that sidelined several Wahine but not the winning. Taylor missed a start due to concussion protocol, sophomore hitter Kalei Greeley was out two starts with a knee problem and Higgins five starts with an ankle injury.

Returning as juniors will be Greeley, setter Kendra Koelsch, middle Emily Maglio, libero Savanah Kahakai, and defensive specialists Clare-Marie Anderson and Gianna Guinasso. Maglio was first team all-conference and Greeley and Kahakai honorable mention.

Back as sophomores will be hitters McKenna Granato and Casey Castillo. Redshirt freshman middle Natasha Burns will be joined by incoming freshmen Norene Iosia and hitter Kirsten Sibley.

It will be a rare situation for Hawaii coach Dave Shoji as he will have three setters on scholarship for the first time.

“We’ll let them battle it out,” he said. “There’s also the option to redshirt someone.”

With five starters returning and eight others who saw substantial court time, Shoji was optimistic about 2016. He’s already looked at who would replace his departed seniors; Mitchem is the obvious choice to replace Magill and for Manu-Olevao, it could be Granato who showed a lot when pressed into playing for an injured Greeley on Saturday.

“We have a good nucleus coming back,” said Shoji, named conference coach of the year for the 14th time in his 41-year career. ‘We’ll be good and we’ll try to get back to the regional again. It’s really hard to get where we got this year, every team is good at that point.”

He expects that next year’s schedule would be challenging. With no contracts signed, Shoji declined to name the teams other than to say one Pac-12 team would be in each of the three preseason tournaments and that there will be teams from the other Power Five conferences.

The 69-year-old has signed a contract extension through 2017 but has said he always has the option to retire before then.

“I’ll take some time over the next few weeks and re-evaluate,” he said. “It was a great season. It was a disappointing loss considering we were in position to go five and couldn’t make the plays at the end (up 20-18 in Set 4).

“We really did everything we talked about, the goals of getting to the regional and getting to the final of the regional. We were able to beat Penn State (for the first time) but with Minnesota we just got too far down and couldn’t come back.”