‘No matter what’

Rainbow Wahine senior Mita Uiato describes volleyball as if she is a stranger looking in, not one of the finest setters in the country. It is never about her, but always about a sense of place and pride and family. Particularly family, for a little girl who started setting at 10 and says she was born into a family of setters.

Her sister set for Arizona State and married a setter. They are Uiato’s offseason coaches. Her mother, Sola Fa’atulu, set growing up in Samoa. In Uiato’s freshman year here, Sola was diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live.

"I called her every day," Uiato recalled. "I call her every other day now. She’s gotten a lot better … she’s doing really well. That’s why … I struggle here sometimes with time management and school and travel and stuff, but then my mom’s so amazing.

"She is really strong. She is more the motivation than making me be worried."

Uiato’s motivation her senior season is unquestioned. Hawaii coach Dave Shoji has started telling people he believes he has the best setter in the country.

"Her location is usually right on," he says. "She gets to almost every ball and makes a hittable set. It’s rare she has a poor set, rare."

Uiato’s gifts have become more obvious during the 13th-ranked Wahine’s recent struggles. They have lost an unprecedented three of their past four to unranked Big West teams going into tonight’s match against UCIrvine. In large part, their problem has been passing and Uiato’s ability to make something out of almost nothing has been relentlessly featured.

"She can face the net and flick it left or right. She can have her back to the net and flick it left or right," Shoji says. "She just has complete body control and hand control. That’s a huge difference from when she started here. Most setters can’t go with their back to the net and set a hittable ball to the left or right. Facing the net and flicking it left or right …most don’t even try that."

Uiato has had great teachers, beginning at home and maturing with the help of senior Dani Mafua her freshman season, Olympian Robyn Ah Mow-Santos the past three and an enlightening experience with the national program this summer.

"She could play on the national team," Ah Mow-Santos says. "She could play in Division I overseas. I think she can. She has the potential to do it."

The assistant coach and her setter are so close that UH senior Kristiana Tuaniga, one of Uiato’s best friends, sees her becoming a "mini Robyn" in the future, with a pro career followed by marriage and a family. Uiato and Ah Mow-Santos talk about that future often.

"It’s a confidence boost, especially coming from Robyn because she’s not one to sugarcoat things or lie to me," Uiato says. "She kind of says, in regards to work ethic, if I were to work really, really hard and be a leader, I could play at any level I wanted to."

The two share another deep bond. Ah Mow-Santos’ devoted mother Lovina died suddenly while she was visiting Robyn during her pro career overseas. She and Uiato have both found solace in their sport.

"I think it helps,"Ah Mow-Santos says. "When my mom passed away I thought I was going to quit volleyball, go home and stay with my dad, but that was the thing that kept my mind off it. Every time I was playing volleyball it was OK … the minute it stopped, then Ithought about my mom. Ithink this takes her mind off it. She’s a strong girl."

Strong enough to admit how difficult the past four years have been.

"What Robyn says is exactly how I feel,"Uiato says. "When Iplay volleyball, I forget about everything."

For all she has been through, the tiniest Wahine on the court — Uiato still weighs the same 135 pounds she did four years ago — must be tough. She also has many shoulders to cry on here, an ocean away from home. She has felt comfortable, in a volleyball atmosphere unlike any other, from the moment she got off the plane four years ago.

Uiato has embraced the huge responsibility of her role since "nearly having a breakdown" while getting introduced as the starting setter her sophomore season. She talks often of "feeling blessed" to play in a place where that responsibility is so appreciated. She will probably end her career fifth on the Wahine assist list, replacing Mafua. The first four are All-Americans and started most of four years.

Uiato hopes to play professionally next year — "I can’t let go of it, I just want to play until I can’t anymore" — but that is far away. There is a season to get back on track and a degree to complete. There is more time to train and much more to hear from coaches who never "sugarcoat it."

Uiato has found peace with a setter’s constant criticism. She looks back gratefully on all the fine-tuning that has come with four years of relentless training, which transformed her from someone who simply tried to put up the best set she could to someone who could run an offense.

She appreciates, more than most, the intricacies of developing players and putting together a contender with the limited resources here. Uiato is part of a team made up of the best players in Hawaii and "green- and black-chip" mainland recruits — a shade below blue chip. That’s why wins over teams like Stanford and Texas give the Wahine so much satisfaction, and their recent slide is so frustrating.

Ah Mow-Santos, one of the world’s great setters, watches Uiato glide under an errant ball and "flick" it at some ridiculous angle for a kill and shakes her head. She knows better than anyone what is possible, if Uiato becomes more vocal and relentless in the final months of her college career.

"Sometimes when she’s running all the way to the scoring table to set a ball,"the coach says, "I tell (volunteer assistant) Kaleo (Baxter), ‘That was a nice set.’ "

For three years they have only become more breathtaking. Uiato can flat-out deal the ball from awkward angles and on a dead run. She gives the Wahine a shot at reaching all their goals, from a position she describes simply as "putting my hitters in the best position to score a point no matter what — no matter what."

In return, Hawaii has offered her solace.

"I tell her all the time, ‘Mita, you remember who you are out there and who you are playing for — your family, your friends and all the people that love you, especially your mom,’ " Tuaniga says. "At one point in time she was really down. I was telling her ‘you need time to get your mind off that and use that energy to better yourself on the court. Remember where you come from.’

"You would think that she’d be going crazy, but she’s not. She’s very focused, does what she has to do — whatever needs to be done."