Should be easy to pick out former Rainbow Wahine All-American Kanani Danielson on the Toyota Auto Body team in tonight’s exhibition against sixth-ranked Hawaii. She will be the one speaking broken English, Japanese and "Volleyball."

The Queenseis — a word created by combining Queen and seis, as in six in Spanish — took Danielson back to Kariya (near Nagoya) to debut on their Japanese pro team exactly a year ago. Because she had yet to meet her teammates, she wasn’t allowed to play in last year’s exhibition at Stan Sheriff Center.

Tonight she will, after an inaugural season where she "had a blast" taking on a radical learning curve. It was created by the frenetic pace of the game in Japan and the endurance demanded by double-day practices and relentless rallies. Danielson says the "normal" volleyball rally lasts eight to 10 seconds. In Japan’s elite, 62-year-old V. Premier League, that is often doubled.

"I had to learn how to have enough stamina for the entire match — three, four or five games — because the rallies are very, very long," Danielson said. "It’s just insane and everybody is working really hard. So it’s stamina and talent that wins. …It’s amazing how things don’t go down as fast as you are used to."

Toyota allowed Danielson, whose 5-foot-10 stature is about average in Japanese volleyball, to train here this summer. The team arrived Sunday and will take her "home" after the exhibition. She might not see Hawaii again until May. The Queenseis finished fifth in the 18-team women’s league last season, three wins short of the final four.

They took Hawaii out in four frantic sets last year. Every set was 25-22.

UH coach Dave Shoji, using 14 players a match this season, started subbing in the second set and promises to clear the bench again tonight. Toyota cleared it in the final set last year, with the exception of Danielson.

She had never met her teammates before they came over. This year they are mostly the same, but she has only practiced with them three times and still needs a translator full-time. On her one day off a week last season, Danielson usually found herself flopped down at home, too tired to play tourist or study her Japanese CDs.

"Basically, I need the translator to understand what the girls are talking about," she said. "I learned a few volleyball terms in Japanese. On the court, it’s all broken English or Japanese, but because we’re all volleyball players we understand each other."

Each team in Japan is allowed one foreign player. Most are from Europe, Danielson said.

She has watched the Wahine play enough this season that she can sense the seven seniors’ motivation — "especially (Emily) Hartong, this is the last time for her before she goes pro." She also knows that, despite their nine-match winning streak, "they get nervous and sometimes can’t finish as fast as they want to."

That was true at the Shocker Classic last week. Hawaii swept South Dakota and Wichita State, controlling the final five to seven points in each set. It needed five sets to stifle 23rd-ranked Creighton, getting seven kills from Hartong in the 15-9 final set. She was tournament MVP, for the third time in four weeks.

In the last set Saturday against Wichita State, Hartong did not have a kill. Sophomore Tai Manu-Olevao and freshman Nikki Taylor had four apiece, with Manu-Olevao adding all three of her blocks.

Hartong said before the team left that the Wahine’s level of play outside Hawaii will "be testimony to our season." The Wahine might not be in Kansas anymore, but Shoji believes his team got "absolutely" what it needed there.

"I think Nikki and Tai really started to play like we need them to play," he said. "They are not going to be our first option, but when they do get used we need offense out of them. They both hit for a pretty good percentage and got enough kills to help us with some balance."

He looks for that again tonight, but admits the match will be more about "having fun and seeing a different style, seeing if we can match the pace of the game, which will be much faster. They will dig us a lot. I think we can dig them too, so you will see a lot of rallies."

The Wahine open their Big West season Friday against Cal State Fullerton (7-5) and Sunday, at 5 p.m., against UC Riverside (1-11).

Notes

UH sophomore Jade Vorster’s hitting percentage (.492) is higher than all but two qualifiers nationally, but she doesn’t qualify because she is six short of the minimum attempts needed (3.33 per set). Kalei Adolpho, the Wahine’s other starting middle, is 20th at .426. Adolpho has 30 more kills and 59 more attempts.

In other national statistics, senior Emily Hartong is 10th in kills (4.7) and 11th in points (5.29) and Mita Uiato 35th in assists (10.95).

In the Big West, Hawaii is first in hitting percentage (.301), assists (13.47) and kills (14.65). Vorster leads in hitting percentage, followed by Adolpho. Hartong is first in kills and points and third in aces (0.37). Uiato is second in assists and Ali Longo second in digs (4.19).

» Nebraska fell in five at Texas — now ranked fifth — last week. With the 12th-ranked ‘Huskers and Hawaii both traveling last week, their attendance numbers remained the same. Nebraska leads the nation, averaging 8,178 a match, followed by Hawaii at 7,621. Texas is next at 4,281.

» Nebraska holds the record for most weeks ranked in the AVCA top 10 — 409 of a possible 446. It was No. 10 in the preseason poll and hasn’t been higher than 12th since. Hawaii is third at 349 weeks.

» Creighton, which remained 23rd in this week’s ranking, held off Wichita State in five in Sunday’s conclusion of the Shocker Classic. Along with Hawaii’s Emily Hartong (MVP), Kalei Adolpho and Mita Uiato, the members of the all-tournament team were Jess Bird and Kate Elman from Creighton, Ashlyn Driskill (Wichita State) and Kendall Kritenbrink (South Dakota).