Wahine sum it up on the sand

Consider it the Kentucky Derby with 18 entries in the field. It’s a wide-open race where anything can happen and anyone can win.

That’s how the Rainbow Wahine beach volleyball coaching staff is looking at its 18-player roster. It’s a mix of newcomers and returnees, indoor scholarship and walk-on players, and beach scholarship and walk-ons, all of whom have a chance to contribute one way or another.

It’s a matter of commitment, of being “all in” regardless of scholarship status. Four from the Hawaii indoor team officially joined the SandBows on Tuesday for the first spring practice and “for the first couple of weeks, we’ll be getting the indoor players up to snuff,” said assistant coach Evan Silberstein, who was running things with volunteer coach Danny Alvarez while head coach Jeff Hall was returning from a mainland recruiting trip. “We’ll start sniffing out a couple of combinations and start testing those.

“We’ll start testing chemistry. It’s important that they want to play together. It’s about the sum being greater than the parts.”

Coming in off an NCAA regional finalist team are junior Nikki Taylor, an indoor and beach All-America honoree; sophomore Emily Maglio, freshman Casey Castillo and senior Tai Manu-Olevao, the latter who last played for the SandBows as a freshman in 2013.

Also returning from the indoor team are sophomore walk-ons Clare-Marie Anderson and Gianna Guinasso. Hawaii also picked up transfer Brooke Garlick, a 6-foot-1 sophomore off the Hawaii Pacific indoor team.

Returning from last season’s 18-3 team that finished fifth nationally are senior All-American Katie Spieler, seniors Heather Boyan and Ginger Long, juniors Hannah Rooks, McKayla Tucker, Hannah Zalopany and Sydney Shinn; and sophomores Ka’iwi Schucht, Lara Schreiber and Hi’ilawe Huddleston. Also on the team is freshman Ariana Homayun.

“I’m super excited about the group we’ve put together,” Silberstein said. “I think we’ve got the right combination of experience and talent, a nice infusion of indoor players and lots of experience on the beach.

“We’ve done everything to give ourselves a chance (for a national championship).”

Hawaii opens on the road March 5 at the Pepperdine Kickoff Tournament, a field that features all of the past AVCA national champions in USC, Long Beach State and host Pepperdine. With UCLA also in the field at Zuma Beach, “it’s going to be the best five teams in the west, if not in the country there,” Silberstein said. “Four of us will go on to the nationals. It’s an early look (at) who has what going.

“Zuma is going to be extremely fun. We’ve assembled a schedule that has our team playing the best and it will show us what it takes to be the best. Fourteen of our 16 matches are duals (head-to-head team competition). We’ll be battle tested by the time we get to nationals.”

The inaugural Big West Tournament is set for April 29 through May 1 at Huntington Beach, Calif. This also will be the first year of NCAA sponsorship, with the national tournament at Gulf Shores, Ala., May 6-8.