Last time the Rainbow Wahine played a volleyball match, before a sold-out Stan Sheriff Center crowd in December, revenge was sweet for Southern California. After having Hawaii end three of their previous five seasons, the Trojans rode Alex Jupiter’s remarkable talents to a five-set win in an NCAA Regional semifinal.

The Wahine felt miserable when it was over and the winter and spring have not dulled their discontent. Going into Friday’s season opener against Albany in the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational, they can recall every decisive moment of the 21⁄2-hour experience that featured two of the country’s three top-ranked teams. Jupiter, who would be named national player of the year the following week, finished off Hawaii with the last eight of her 33 kills in the final set.

"That fifth set we needed to dig deep within ourselves," UH junior Emily Hartong said. "At that point it’s anyone’s game and I feel like we should have won. It was hard. We put as much as we could into the match, left it all on the court. If we have the same situation this year, maybe one of us should stand up and take charge. Hopefully I’ll become a player like that, but it could be anyone."

Hartong went to the final four in San Antonio to get her second-team All-America award. She watched UCLA beat Illinois for the championship, but could not bring herself to see the semifinals, where USC fell in five to the Illini.

"It’s hard to take when it’s that close, hard to watch," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "I was a little surprised that Hartong felt very strongly about it. She didn’t even want to be at that match. To me, that’s a good sign about her. She is really passionate for her own team."

This new, eighth-ranked Wahine team is very different. Three starters are gone and Hartong has moved from the middle to the outside. Shoji will probably shuffle his inexperienced middles awhile — "I really wanted to be a little further along offensively in the middle" — and is searching for someone to break away on the right.

But Mita Uiato is back at setter and so is Jane Croson on the left. Croson is what Shoji remembers most about that USC match. The then-freshman torched the Trojans for 25 kills and 23 digs, both career highs.

"That match showed me and her that she can play at a high, high level against a really good team," Shoji said. "I’m hoping this year she will be more consistent and bring that kind of energy and contribution to the team every night."

Shoji has just one senior this season. Roosevelt graduate Emily Maeda started at libero last year and will probably share defensive duties with Penn State transfer Ali Longo this season.

Maeda said her offseason was filled with memories about "the plays we missed that were so close" in the USC match. She has been reminded relentlessly of the digs that got away and, heading into her final season, knows better than anyone that every play counts.

"We need to do the little things, like talking to each other," Maeda said. "We can’t take any play off because that could be the deciding factor between winning or losing the match. It’s just the little things."

Or, as UH All-American Kanani Danielson called it the night her college career ended against USC, "the itty-bitty plays." In conference, Hawaii can get away with taking time off. In this preseason and every postseason, that can’t happen.

Shoji said he hopes Maeda, Croson, Hartong, Uiato and Longo, who have all played primary roles in the postseason, are prepared to help their teammates reach another level now. That starts against Albany.

"I just want us to play with confidence," Shoji said. "There will be a few people out there for the first time and they might be a little nervous. I hope they can get over that nervousness and play hard and we can play like we can."