Rainbow Wahine back in Top 25 | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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The focus is on the first road trip of the year, building on the success found last week with two sweeps of Northern Arizona. Still, it’s not a bad thing to again be packing a number along with the bags when heading off to California.

Hawaii is back at No. 25 in the AVCA Coaches Top 25 volleyball poll a week after not being ranked for just the fifth week in program history. The Rainbow Wahine (8-3) now have been ranked 462 out of the 467 weeks of the poll’s existence, third-best all-time; only Stanford and Nebraska have been in every week since 1982, the season the voting began.

It wasn’t a surprise that Hawaii — one spot out of the Top 25 last week — moved back in. Former No. 25 Michigan State (7-4) lost in five to visiting Long Island-Brooklyn last Friday. The Spartans dropped into the "others receiving votes" list with enough points to be 30th.

"It’s not a real surprise — we won, (Michigan State) lost," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "It’s nice to have your name listed (in the Top 25)."

Better yet is to have a high Ratings Percentage Index ranking, which is used to help seed the NCAA tournament. Although not official, RichKern.com — which has closely mirrored the NCAA’s RPI for years — has Hawaii at No. 6. (The official RPI by the NCAA will not be out until next month).

Hawaii is the only Big West team ranked in the coaches poll. Somewhat surprising, Cal State Northridge (9-3) — coming off a big win at then-No. 19 San Diego — only received two points; the Matadors are No. 19 on RichKern.com.

The top three teams in the AVCA poll remained unchanged Monday, led by Stanford (10-0, 53 first-place votes). The Cardinal are followed by Texas (8-0, 6 votes) and Penn State (12-1). Washington (11-0, 1 vote) and Wisconsin (9-1) traded places at Nos. 4 and 5 after the Huskies outlasted the Badgers in five last week.

The three Pac-12 teams that defeated Hawaii this season remained ranked: Oregon (9-0) up a spot to No. 13, Arizona (10-2) down a spot to No. 19 and UCLA (9-2) up two spots to No. 20.

The Rainbow Wahine leave Wednesday night and will be at UC Davis on Friday and UC Riverside (2-10) on Saturday. Hawaii will travel 14 players, with freshman defensive specialists Savannah Kahakai (sprained knee) and Gianna Guinasso remaining in Honolulu.