This week at the Stan Sheriff Center, the three worst defensive volleyball teams — statistically — in the Western Athletic Conference will gather. That is probably a surprise to anyone who has ever followed Hawaii.

The Rainbow Wahine (12-1) host Nevada (2-10) on Thursday and Fresno State (6-7) on Saturday. The three who are about to flee the WAC rate 6-7-8 in conference digs, the most glaring defensive statistic.

The Wahine rank 11th nationally and have won their past seven matches. Their defense is as much a part of their tradition as the four national titles and the sport’s biggest crowds. But they are a woeful 179th nationally in digs, out of 320 teams. They don’t have a player ranked in the top 250, with Emily Maeda and Jane Croson barely making the WAC’s top 10.

It is a mystery 37th-year coach Dave Shoji has yet to solve.

"I don’t know why, we’ve always been low in digs," he says. "I don’t know if it’s the way we ‘stat’ it or the way other people ‘stat’ it. It is not a significant stat the way it is coming out on paper.

"It was the same last year. I would have taken Liz (Ka‘aihue) over 90 percent of the liberos in the country last year, but the numbers didn’t show that. Kanani (Danielson), in my opinion, could be the best defensive player in the country and the stats don’t show that."

His team averages 14.38 digs a set. That’s five-plus fewer than national leader Duquesne (19.59) and barely better than such volleyball powers as Coastal Carolina, Manhattan and Hofstra.

UH is not alone among the Top 25. The only ranked teams in the top 65 of the NCAA dig statistics are No. 20 Miami (third at 18.85), No. 6 Stanford (13th at 17.71), No. 14 Northern Iowa (27th at 17.04) and No. 24 Ohio State (50th at 16.43).

The NCAA definition of a dig is 358 words. UH media relations, which keeps statistics, boils it down to every time there is an attack there must be a kill, an error or a dig.

The only partial explanation is that teams with big blocking numbers could cut into their dig statistics, though Utah State now leads the WAC in both. Teams that hit well also could, since, by definition, the ball doesn’t come back as often.

Shoji doesn’t entirely buy either explanation, though his team ranks 10th nationally in blocks (2.94) and third in hitting (.302). Junior Brittany Hewitt, who led the country in stuffs last season, is 13th nationally (1.44) now.

She came out after the first set Saturday, suffering from sickness and her chronically bad back. She has been practicing and is expected to play this week. Shoji is considering tinkering with his lineup though, looking mostly at libero and on the right side.

Hawaii opened its final WAC season with wins at Idaho and Utah State last week, extending the longest active conference winning streak in the country to 43. It hasn’t lost a WAC regular-season match since Oct. 12, 2008.

Notes

» In other national statistics, Hawaii ranks fourth in kills (14.85) and sixth in assists (13.65). Individually, setter Mita Uiato is 16th in assists (11.46), and middles Emily Hartong (.396) and Brittany Hewitt (.379) are 20th and 28th in hitting. Kanani Danielson ranks 26th in points (4.83) and 30th in kills (4.21).

» Danielson, who became the seventh Wahine with 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs last week, has nine double-doubles this season, including six in a row. She is now seventh in career kills, needing 66 to catch Suzanne Eagye, and 12th in career digs, nine short of Jessica Sudduth.

» Hawaii is a combined 84-1 against Nevada and Fresno State. The Bulldogs are 0-49 against UH, while the Wolf Pack got its lone win in 1992 when both teams were in the Big West.

» The Wahine’s passing should be tested this week. FSU leads the WAC in aces at 1.45 and Nevada’s Grace Anxo is the individual leader, averaging 0.40.