Rainbow Wahine rise to No. 3

Hawaii rose in the AVCA coaches women’s volleyball poll to No. 3 yesterday — its highest ranking since the end of last season — but dropped to No. 9 in the NCAA RPI after last week’s wins over Louisiana Tech and Hawaii Pacific.

Cal, which lost to USC last week, dropped from No. 2 to No. 4. Both the Bears’ losses have come against USC, which is also the only team to beat the Rainbow Wahine (23-1). Florida and Stanford are Nos. 1 and 2 in the Top 25.

The Wahine’s fall in the RPI was no surprise. The power index provides a penalty for playing opponents that are not in Division I and HPU is a D-II team.

UH returns to the road this week, playing at Fresno State on Thursday (5 p.m. Hawaii time), San Jose State on Saturday (11 a.m.) and Nevada on Sunday (4 p.m.). The Wahine have won their last 37 Western Athletic Conference regular-season matches and last 47 sets. Both streaks lead the nation.

They play their final home match Nov. 18 against Idaho and will honor seniors Elizabeth Ka’aihue and Dani Mafua after the match.

UH’s Nelson is coach of year

University of Hawaii men’s tennis coach John Nelson was named the 2010 United States Professional Tennis Association Hawaii Division College Coach of the Year.

Nelson is entering his eighth season at Hawaii.

Last year, the Rainbow Warriors won the Western Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles and played in the NCAA tournament.

Nelson, who previously coached at Cal State Hayward, UC Davis and San Diego State, is a former Division II national coach of the year, a seven-time regional coach of the year and an 11-time conference coach of the year.

Slusher takes over as MPI coach

Carol Slusher is the new boys volleyball head coach at Mid-Pacific Institute, the school announced yesterday.

Slusher recently coached at Christian Academy.

She takes over for outgoing Owls coach Kainoa Obrey.

Before moving to Hawaii in 2008, she coached at the Richmond Volleyball Club in Virginia, one of the nation’s biggest volleyball clubs.

"Carol has been successful at developing young men into competitive volleyball players at the national level and we look forward to giving her the opportunity to apply her knowledge to our program and student-athletes," MPI athletic director Jo Ito said.