An anti-climactic end to Hawaii’s second season of sand volleyball is morphing into an offseason drama with rumors that Jane Croson might transfer.
Croson, who will be a junior in the fall, was an All-American on the sand last season and has earned all-conference honors indoors. More to the point, she and indoor All-American Emily Hartong provided almost 70 percent of the Rainbow Wahine’s offense in last season’s NCAA subregional.
Croson was left off the sand team’s travel roster for last weekend’s season-ending tournament 20 miles from where she grew up in California. UH volleyball coaches Dave Shoji (indoor) and Scott Wong (sand) said Croson stayed here to "concentrate on academics."
That is all school officials will say for now. Croson, after consulting with her father on Wednesday, said he had advised her not to talk about it, either. She did say, in one of two phone calls to the Star-Advertiser, "Everything is not settled. I haven’t made any decisions."
Croson was not allowed to play her final high school season in California. She missed seven matches at UH last fall, when she was suspended for "breaking team rules." The transgression was serous enough that Shoji initially called it an "indefinite suspension."
The Wahine, in the midst of 27-3 season, did not lose a match while she was out and Croson returned a month later after "meeting her obligations." Shoji said then that she would basically be on probation the rest of her career.
"Off the court, I need to get my schoolwork done and Dave has a couple things I still have to do," Croson said after her first match back in November. "I need to meet those requirements. It’s going to help me out."
Those requirements were apparently not met in the sand season, which ended Sunday with the Wahine finishing 6-7 in dual matches. All but one of the losses came against Pepperdine, USC and Long Beach State, all ranked in the top four. UH was fifth in the last poll.
No UH players were selected for next weekend’s second AVCA national championship. In the sport’s inaugural season a year ago, the teams of Croson and Ashley Lee, and Hartong and Elizabeth Stoltzmann were chosen.
Croson, who won a Youth Beach World Championship in 2010, went 6-10 on the sand this season with two different partners. On April 9, she posted on her Facebook page — where she has more than 1,100 followers — “Aw when we played carefree and volleyball was fun, now it’s like a job!”
Rumors began to circulate of a transfer, specifically to Arizona. Hawaii has reportedly offered Croson a scholarship renewal, which leaves the decision up to her. Arizona plays here in September and historically UH has been reluctant to give players a release to a school it will face the next season, meaning she would have to sit out a year unless she won an appeal.
