Long before ninth-ranked Hawaii plays Long Beach State in tonight’s Big West volleyball match, the rest of the Rainbow Wahine will come together in Manoa. Those who have been left home will practice together, work on their skills and play for brownies from Kristina Kam’s kitchen.

"Her brownies are actually really good," Katiana Ponce, the tiny 2012 Moanalua graduate, says sincerely.

"Kristina has been in the program for the longest time so she likes to organize our practices," adds Courtney Lelepali, who is from Waianae and was Kam’s teammate at Punahou. "It’s good because it inspires us to challenge each other and, especially since we have brownies, we’re going to fight for them."

The 90-minute practices are spirited, with lots of defensive drills geared toward the six defensive specialists not on the travel roster. There are also fundamentals and 3-on-3 scrimmages. Points are up for grabs for all the skills. Those who finish with the most points eat the most brownies.

"They police themselves," UH coach Dave Shoji says. "We don’t have a coach to stay back with them. Our manager (Kayla Kaluau) runs it and Kam has been a real trooper about organizing people and getting them to work on what we want. Really, I just want them to go in the gym and have fun …touch the ball once in a while when we’re gone."

The reserves take their time together seriously. Shoji needed 15 people last week against UC Davis and 14 against Pacific, to keep his 17-2 team unbeaten (10-0) in the Big West. Starter Ashley Kastl spoke later of the "people who grind and bust their butts" at practice to "make us better."

For many, that will not translate into playing time this season. Lelepali, a redshirt junior who led Southern Utah in digs before transferring home, has appeared in more than half the matches as a designated server/defender. Kam and Kayla Kawamura, an all-state setter for Hawaii Baptist, have just seven appearances between them. Ponce, Katie Spieler and Sarah Mendoza, all-conference at Irvine Valley the past two years, will probably redshirt.

For now, their contribution is mostly about being selfless and making themselves, and those around them, better — athletically and academically.

This stay-at-home squad would start on anyone’s all-scholar team. Kam, a redshirt junior, is a biology major and Kawamura is in human resources with an eye on nursing. Spieler is majoring in business and had a 4.71 GPA at Dos Pueblos High School, where she was scholar-athlete of the year. Ponce is in civil engineering and Mendoza in psychology. Lelepali is majoring in Hawaiian Studies with an art emphasis.

They can provide inspiration for their teammates in many ways. For now, that has to be enough.

"We just want to give them motivation," Kawamura says. "Even though we don’t travel with them every trip, we still know how important it is to come to practice and not take a day off or be late. We show up in our actions, just by coming to practice and knowing we have to do our best, even though we know we’re probably not going to get the playing time we want."

Their payoff also comes in all kinds of ways. Lelepali thrives on watching her team play "in front of this amazing crowd … it’s an awesome feeling to know we get to play for them, too."

Ponce appreciates the dramatic jump in intensity in the college game. Kawamura likes to watch folks like Kastl come through after seeing their sweat equity in practice.

"Even though they get frustrated they keep trying," she says. "Then it comes to a game and you see them be successful. Ashley is a perfect example. She always works hard in practice and it shows in the games."

Tonight’s match at Long Beach (11-9, 6-3) will be shown live on FSN Prime Ticket (228) beginning at 4 p.m. It is the first televised home match for the 49ers since 2008. Tonight’s match and Saturday’s at UC Irvine, also starting at 4 p.m., will be broadcast live on 1500-AM and streamed live on bigwest.tv.

The Anteaters (9-14, 4-5) are 0-27 against Hawaii.