Silly String. A crown. And enough lei for a well-stocked flower shop.

Those are the memories that Emily Maeda has of Oct. 17, 2009, the night Hawaii coach Dave Shoji earned his 1,000th career victory. A freshman then, Maeda didn’t play in the four-set win over New Mexico State, but the defensive specialist vividly remembers the last point going down: a solo stuff of Stephanie Ziegler by Brittany Hewitt to end it at 25-8 and begin the very loud and long celebration.

That night Shoji became the second women’s volleyball coach to win 1,000 matches. This week, 108 matches and 98 victories later, he is on the verge of becoming the second to reach 1,100.

Shoji is at 1,098 and could achieve the milestone with road wins at Pacific on Friday and UC Davis on Saturday. Only retired retired UCLA men’s coach Al Scates (1,138) and retired UCLA women’s coach Andy Banachowski (1,106) have more victories in the sport at the NCAA Division I collegiate level.

Maeda is the only remaining active Rainbow Wahine who will share in both of Shoji’s achievements, whenever this one happens.

"That’s pretty cool," Hawaii’s lone senior said after Tuesday morning’s practice. "It’s gone really fast and it’s been really fun to be a part of it.

"He’s been such a great coach, has taught me a lot. He’s so knowledgeable but is so down to earth."

It comes as no surprise to those who know him that Shoji said he didn’t realize he was so close to 1,100.

"I don’t think about things like that," he said. "When was it, 2009? It’s gone fast, but when you have good teams it happens.

"What we want to do is win two this week. We’d like to win out (finish 26-2 in the regular season) and then see what happens with the (NCAA tournament) selection."

Although Hawaii is ranked No. 7 in the AVCA Coaches Top 25, the Rainbow Wahine are No. 19 in the computer-generated Ratings Percentage Index. After last season’s vocal national protest over the discrepancy between the poll and the RPI, the NCAA has said it will take the coaches poll into account when seeding the top 16.

Shoji pointed to Illinois as a prime example of how power ratings can be skewed. The Illini currently are 11-15 but are No. 40 in the RPI. It took losing six of their last seven to knock them out of the RPI’s top 20.

"It is confusing," said Shoji, in his 38th season. "If I understand how it works, I think our RPI could actually go up if we lost to Pacific. How is that possible?"

Not that he wants to see if it would happen, but Shoji is wary of the Tigers. Pacific led 2-0 on Oct. 20 at the Stan Sheriff Center, with Hawaii rallying to win in five.

One of the players who bothered Hawaii was freshman opposite Kat Schultz. The left-hander had 15 kills, hit .316 and had 11 digs.

Schultz didn’t play in last weekend’s five-set road win at UC Santa Barbara. It was the eighth time in nine matches that UOP went five with its opponent, with the Tigers winning the last three.

Shoji said he wasn’t sure why Schultz didn’t play, suggesting the Tigers might be experimenting with their lineup. That’s still the scenario with Hawaii, particularly at right-side hitter.

As of Tuesday’s practice freshman Tai Manu-Olevao is slotted on the right, with junior Emily Hartong and sophomore Jane Croson as the left-side hitters.

"I think at the moment she gives us the best chance to be athletic over there," he said of Manu-Olevao, who was activated last month when Croson was suspended.

Besides racking up victories for Shoji, Hawaii owns the nation’s top active winning streak in conference play with 69 straight, carried over from the Western Athletic Conference to the Big West. Keeping it going will be a challenge, junior libero Ali Longo said.

"I think we’re excited as a team for this trip because we didn’t play Pacific super great here," the transfer from Penn State said. "We want to come out strong against them."

Longo has the unique distinction of playing for the two winningest women’s volleyball coaches: Shoji (1,098) and Penn State’s Russ Rose (1,083).

"I feel really lucky and really honored to have played for two great coaches," Longo said. "I appreciate both of them."