On a rare drizzly day in Hawaii, the NCAA gave the Rainbow Wahine a rare opportunity.

The Wahine were seeded 11th when the NCAA Volleyball Championship bracket was announced Sunday. They will stay home — for only the second time in the past 10 years — for the first two rounds.

The players arrived home from their road trip just before 3 p.m. Sunday and gathered in the back of the Stan Sheriff Center by 4:30 for the announcement.

Hawaii was in the last quadrant and a spontaneous roar went up when the players realized they would stay home, where they have drawn the largest crowds in the game the past 19 years.

"We’re home, it’s just huge," said Ashley Kastl, one of seven UH seniors. "We have our fans, have our whole support system behind us. Everyone in Hawaii is with us, I mean everyone."

Hawaii (24-4) plays Big Sky champion Idaho State (23-11) in Friday’s second match. Brigham Young (22-6) takes on Arizona State (19-13) in the 5 p.m. opener.

Kastl transferred here from ASU last year, which could help if both teams win Friday.

"As a team we know they are pretty good," said Sarah Mendoza, Kastl’s roommate, of ASU. "And Ashley says they all have a lot of heart."

The second-round match is at 7 p.m. Saturday, with the winner advancing to the Southern California regional, Dec. 13-14.

UH coach Dave Shoji thought his team might be headed to USC this week as the seeds disappeared.

"When the 16, 15, 14 and 13 seeds went to somebody else … I didn’t think we would get the 11th seed," he said. "It was looking really bad, but we caught a break this time."

Those words were never uttered from 2004 to 2010, when the Wahine were seeded between third and 15th and sent away each time. The NCAA passed a rule in 2011 that the 16 seeded teams had the option of hosting and No. 10 Hawaii finally hosted a subregional.

But last year, the Wahine won their last 19 and saw their seeding drop to 17th the final week. They were sent to Washington, giving that subregional two teams ranked in the top eight in the coaches poll. The Huskies beat the Wahine in five in the second round.

"Last year we got gypped," senior setter Mita Uiato said. "We had to go to Washington and either us or Washington wasn’t going to come out, so it was a bad pull. This year we are really excited we got Idaho State and BYU and ASU at home."

At home. Shoji and Hawaii’s fans wondered if they would ever hear those words again.

"Our fans were very emotional last year when we didn’t get a seed," Shoji said. "They feel it just as much as we do."

Even athletics director Ben Jay, who hasn’t been in Hawaii a full year yet, senses that.

"It looks like a good bracket to me," said Jay, who brought his family to hear the NCAA show. "It’s something we can play deep into. I think the fans from Hawaii will really show the NCAA we’ve always been worthy to host here.

"The best part about this is being at home, playing in front of the home base that has supported you all year. The team absolutely deserved it from the way it’s been playing all year long and it finished strong. It just shows the moxie of this team. It’s the kind of thing fans of Hawaii know, and now we will be able to show the rest of the NCAA, too."

The final four is Dec. 19 and 21 at Seattle. Washington, the Pac-12 champion, is seeded third behind defending NCAA champion Texas and five-time NCAA champion Penn State. Unbeaten Missouri, with Hawaii freshmen Carly Kan and Loxley Keala, is fourth.

The Huskies are also in the USC regional, along with the sixth-seeded Trojans, 14th-seeded Kansas and Cal State Northridge, who shared the Big West championship with UH and UC Santa Barbara.

The Gauchos got one of 32 automatic qualifier slots because they held the tiebreaker advantage. They will play at ninth-seeded San Diego.

It is the first time since 2006 that the Big West has advanced three teams. The Pac-12 has nine in the 64-team tournament and the Big Ten and Southeastern Conferences eight each. They accounted for 22 of the 32 at-large selections.