Tickets for the Rainbow Wahine’s volleyball exhibitions next month against Nittaidai of Japan and Nebraska are for sale online at hawaiiathletics.com.
Hawaii takes on Nittaidai in the annual spring match at 7 p.m., March 14, at Stan Sheriff Center. Tickets are $10 for adults, $6 for seniors (65-older) and $4 for students.
The indoor exhibition against Nebraska is March 23 on Maui. It will start at 6 p.m. at War Memorial. Tickets cost $12, $8 and $6. Those can also be purchased in person on Maui at Pacific Radio Group (311 Ano Street, Kahului).
"It will be quite a contrast." UH coach Dave Shoji says. "Nittaidai is high energy, very deceptive, runs a fast attack, plays great defense. It will be the best passing and defending team we will play all year, but they are going to be short. We are going to be more physical, which is why we have a chance to win.
"Nebraska will probably be the most powerful team we’ll play all year. We have to be like the Japanese team playing Nebraska. We have to out-ball control them and out-quick them and play smart to have a chance."
For information on the Maui exhibition, call 877-5566 on Maui. The UH football team is also planning a scrimmage and autograph session on Maui, April 21.
The volleyball exhibitions are part of UH’s offseason training. The Nittaidai match is three days before the debut of sand volleyball, which opens March 17 with a tournament featuring Nittaidai and Hawaii Pacific.
Hawaii will play its inaugural season at Queen’s Beach Sand Box in Waikiki. An on-campus sand volleyball venue is in the works at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex. The Ching addition will also include offices and locker rooms for soccer and track and field/cross country, track bleachers and a "changeout" locker room for sand volleyball.
That project is going to bid and UH hopes the two sand courts, with seats for 800, will be ready for the 2013 season.
The Ching complex is also scheduled to include "future buildouts" of training and equipment rooms, concessions and a box office. A separate project will create another sand volleyball practice court, or two.
Hawaii returns to the Big West Conference in the fall. The Wahine won five Big West championships and had won their last 19 conference matches when they entered the Western Athletic Conference in 1996.
Hawaii’s 2012 volleyball schedule cannot be released until the Mountain West — where UH is a member in football only — announces its football schedule. Volleyball will have 18 conference matches, no conference tournament and bring in Pac-12 powers Cal, Stanford and NCAA champion UCLA. Old WAC opponents Idaho and San Diego State — coached by former UH All-American Deitre Collins-Parker — will also return to the Stan Sheriff Center.
Hawaii’s only recruit so far is Punahou senior Tai Manu-Olevao. Shoji said he hopes to bring in "at least one more hitter" before this fall. Associate coach Scott Wong just returned from a recruiting trip to Europe. He went to one tournament and several practices in Sweden, Estonia, Germany and Switzerland.
Notes
» The Wahine averaged 8,504 fans per match last season. They have led the nation in attendance since moving into the Stan Sheriff Center in 1994.
» Nebraska, No. 12 in the final 2011 poll, will come here without freshman Taylor Simpson, a reserve hitter ranked No. 9 nationally coming out of high school by Prepvolleyball.com. Simpson left the program and reports have her transferring to Kansas State, which upset the ‘Huskers in the NCAA second round in December.
