By the looks of Wednesday’s exhibition, the difference between professionals playing volleyball for a living in Japan and students playing for sixth-ranked Hawaii is many miles an hour.
It took Toyota Auto Body 90 minutes to speed by the Rainbow Wahine, 25-18, 26-24, 25-22, before a Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 3,653.
The team that placed fifth in Japan’s finest league last season was simply too quick for UH — and former Wahine All-American Kanani Danielson was on the wrong team.
The Queenseis signed her to a contract before last year’s exhibition and came to pick her up when they played Hawaii here last year.
She didn’t play in that exhibition because she hadn’t even met her teammates. She did play Wednesday — 10 kills worth in two sets — despite not practicing with her team until Monday.
"She’s the ace on our team, the main weapon," Toyota coach Masayuki Isumikawa said through an interpreter. "We just need to give her a good set-up and the best environment to hit the spike."
At 5 foot 10, Danielson is practically the tallest on the team. But it was the Queenseis’ smallest attacker — 5-7 Saki Takeda — who hurt Hawaii most.
She dropped 16 kills and hit .467, going without an error for the first 70 minutes.
"She had a lot of shots," UH coach Dave Shoji marveled. "She had all the shots. She had line, seam, crosscourt, tip. She was pretty effective."
The Wahine couldn’t stop her, not with their block, their defense or, twice, their faces. The match was filled with spectacular digs — 62 from the Queenseis and 55 more from Hawaii.
"They were a really scrappy team," said Tai Manu-Olevao, who led UH with 11 kills. "Balls that usually go down with other teams they picked up with finesse and grace. That’s a pretty good team."
The Wahine got mad after an uninspired opening set, and grew more comfortable with the fast pace of Toyota.
They nearly got even. There were 15 ties in the second set and 13 more in the third.
"Ali Longo kept telling us we need to put more emotion into the game," said Manu-Olevao, referring to her senior teammate. "We kinda just did that. We got mad because it was a close game and we don’t like losing so we played mad and … we still lost but at least we tried."
She and Longo (nine digs) were the only Wahine who played all three sets. Shoji used all 15 available players (Kaela Goodman had to attend class). He rested All-American Emily Hartong, freshman Nikki Taylor and setter Mita Uiato in the final set.
That gave Ashley Kastl an opportunity to again put a dent in Toyota’s defense. She led Hawaii with 13 kills last year in this exhibition and dropped seven in the final set Wednesday.
"They have a lot of good players, a lot of talent," Izumikawa said. "Also, the environment for volleyball is very good. Also, Dave is a really good coach."
Shoji’s team opens its Big West Conference season Friday against Cal State-Fullerton (7-5). It plays UC Riverside (1-11) Sunday, at 5 p.m.
He hopes his 11-1 team, which has won its last nine, doesn’t back off the pace Toyota set.
"We should play at a fast pace," Shoji said. "We won’t see a fast pace on the other side of the net, but we need to play faster than we did tonight."
Manu-Olevao, who erased two set points in the second, agrees.
"That would help us a lot if we could play that fast," she said. "We could get out there and have time to see where that hitter is leaning or adjust faster to where they are going to hit. I think it’s good we played against them"