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It’s a balancing act when it comes to scheduling, one that it is along the lines of Goldilocks.
Good for the RPI, but not so good that it negatively impacts the win-loss record.
Challenging but not a cakewalk. Tests that will make — not break — a young team.
In other words: just right.
That’s the feeling that Dave Shoji has when he looks at the schedule for his 40th season as coach of the Hawaii volleyball team. It resembles the Rainbow Wahine themselves, with both old and new.
Hawaii returns seven players from a 25-5 squad, plus a redshirt. It will add a transfer and at least six freshmen when practice opens in August.
The schedule also includes some nonconference returnees, such as UCLA, San Diego State and Utah State, as well as rookie Northern Arizona.
There’s also something new regarding two tournament schedules. For the first time, Hawaii will have volleyball and football on the same Saturday.
On Aug. 29, the Rainbow Warriors play Washington at 2 p.m. at Aloha Stadium. The Wahine face Arizona State at 8 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center. On Sept. 6, volleyball has a noon start against St. John’s with football at 4:30 p.m. against Oregon State.
"It’s not ideal but it’s the best we could do," Shoji said. "Some of the teams in our tournaments couldn’t stay to play Sunday. I’m hoping the people who have tickets to both will come to both and not choose just one game.
"With football at 2 p.m. (against Washington), we thought we could play that night."
There’s also a couple of 8 p.m. Big West matches (Nov. 28-29) due to earlier Wahine basketball games. There is one Sunday match, a 5 p.m. contest with UC Santa Barbara.
That Northern Arizona was able to come out for two matches before conference play filled a need and a desire: a need to fill two playing dates, a desire not to travel.
"If we couldn’t have gotten (NAU), we would have looked at someone else, but it’s tough," Shoji said. "It’s really hard to find teams, and it’s not just us.
"There are still teams with openings in their tournaments or needing to find a tournament to play in. Coaches have gotten so paranoid about the RPI. Unfortunately that’s the nature of the game now."
The continued goal for Hawaii’s three nonconference tournaments is to have at least one marquee team. Arizona State and San Diego State (with former Wahine great Deitre Collins-Parker as coach) are in the opening Chevron Invitational; Oregon, the 2012 national runner-up, is in the second tournament; and 2011 NCAA champion UCLA (with former associate coach Mike Sealy) returns for the 39th consecutive year.
"It’s always kind of a roll of the dice," Shoji said. "You hope the teams you bring in will have successful seasons, but you just never know. I think it’s a good schedule for us, competitive and challenging. We have some mid-majors that people might not recognize as good volleyball programs but teams like Ohio, San Diego State and New Mexico are going to be tough."
» See the schedule in Scoreboard
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