Wahine drop in poll and RPI | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / crussell@staradvertiser.com

A kill attempt by UH's Emily Hartong was blocked by a pair of Gauchos during the second set of Friday night's loss to UC?Santa Barbara at the Stan Sheriff Center.

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Hawaii’s first regular-season conference loss in five years sent it sliding in Monday’s weekly volleyball ratings, but it remained in the top 10 in both the AVCA Coaches Poll (No. 9) and NCAA RPI (10).

The RPI, which rates all 332 D-I teams mathematically, is crucial to the postseason. That weekly power rating is used to place teams in the NCAA tournament. The top 16 are seeded and have the option of hosting.

UH was third in last week’s first RPI of the season. Four days later, it was upset by UC Santa Barbara in five, earning Gauchos senior Katey Thompson the Big West player of the week award. UCSB jumped from 102nd to 75th in this week’s RPI. The only BWC teams ahead of it are Hawaii, Cal State Northridge (51) and UC Irvine (71).

The Gauchos, who took three sets off two Pac-12 teams this season, finally found a way to finish Friday. The Rainbow Wahine, for only the second time this season, did not.

"We came out slow, and after that we might have got a little frantic, trying to fix it and make it better," said senior libero Ali Longo. "Sometimes when you do that, it makes it worse. We needed to keep calm while we were trying to find a rhythm instead of getting frantic in the first and second sets."

The Wahine play an alumnae exhibition Friday at Stan Sheriff Center. They play at first-place Northridge on Oct. 24. The Matadors (15-3, 5-0), off to their best start since 1996, play at Santa Barbara on Friday. Senior Mahina Haina, an ‘Iolani graduate, is seventh on Northridge’s career kills list.

This is the first time in seven years Hawaii (16-2, 5-1) has not been in first place in its conference. The Wahine lost at New Mexico State early in the 2006 Western Athletic Conference season, ending an NCAA-record 132-match conference winning streak (including postseason). Last week’s loss ended the longest active NCAA regular-season conference winning streak at 77.

UH has wins over two teams in the RPI’s top 10 — Texas (1) and Creighton (7). Its other loss came against No. 13 San Diego. A year ago, it was 21st in the first RPI. After going unbeaten in the Big West, it was 17th at the end of the regular season and denied a chance to play the NCAA’s first and second rounds in front of a home crowd — the biggest in the country the past 19 years.

Cal Poly coach Sam Crosson, whose team was swept by Hawaii on Saturday, says the Wahine still look the same to him.

"I was trying to remember back the last two, three to five years of Hawaii teams," Crosson recalled. "It’s interesting to see that it’s basically the same makeup of types of players, they’re just different names. There’s no Kim Willoughby or a Kanani (Danielson), you now have a (Emily) Hartong. A couple years ago, you had Aneli (Cubi-Otineru) and now you have Tai (Manu-Olevao). So the personnel kind of changes — you’ve got Nikki Taylor as a freshman — but there are lots of similarities."