As Hawaii prepared for its second road trip of the season Monday, it would not be much of a stretch to think that this would be the same scenario two months from now.
The NCAA’s first Ratings Percentage Index for women’s volleyball was released Monday with the Rainbow Wahine at No. 17. That means Hawaii would be on the bubble to host first- and second-round matches in December.
RPI is the main criterion used by the NCAA selection committee to seed the top 16 teams that also are given preference as site hosts. Hawaii, which was at No. 11 in the RPI last Selection Sunday, hosted for the second time in three seasons.
The Rainbow Wahine’s RPI is unlikely to remain that high as they move deeper into Big West Conference play. While the two teams that Hawaii (12-3) faces this week are in the top 40 — Cal State Northridge (11-4) at 20 on Friday, Long Beach State (13-4) at 38 on Saturday — the rest of the conference will continue to drag down the ratings of those top three teams.
Out of the 334 Division I teams, UC Santa Barbara (7-7) is at 107, UC Irvine (10-7) 128, Cal State Fullerton (6-10) 138, UC Davis (7-8) 156, Cal Poly (6-7) 218 and UC Riverside (2-13) 262. The RPI formula is based on a team’s winning percentage, its opponent’s winning percentage and the winning percentage of the opponent’s opponents.
"RPI is not in our favor anymore as the season progresses," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "Some of the teams we thought would be better aren’t, so it’s hurting our RPI.
"We just need to keep winning."
Two of the three Pac-12 teams Hawaii lost to in nonconference play are helping the RPI. Oregon (13-1) is at No. 5 and UCLA (11-4) No. 15, but Arizona State (12-4) is at No. 37.
One of the other criteria used by the selection committee is the AVCA Coaches Top 25. On Monday, Hawaii moved up three spots to No. 21.
Stanford (14-0) is No. 1 in both the RPI and the poll. The Cardinal received 56 of the 60 first-place votes.
Remaining at No. 2 in the poll is Texas (11-0, 3 votes) while Washington (15-0, 1 vote) and Florida State (15-0) both moved up courtesy of a loss by then-No. 3 Penn State to Nebraska. The Nittany Lions (15-2) fell to fifth.
The rest of the top 10 remained the same, led by Wisconsin (12-2). The Badgers are followed by Colorado State (16-1), Nebraska (9-4), Florida (1-3) and BYU (14-2).
Of the three teams that defeated Hawaii, Oregon (13-1) stayed at No. 11, while UCLA (11-4) moved up three spots to 17 and Arizona State (12-4) slid a spot to No. 18.
Hawaii is the only Big West team in the poll. Cal State Northridge had been receiving votes, but the Matadors’ loss to Long Beach State last Saturday had CSUN unmentioned on any ballot this week and the 49ers appearing with five votes.
The Rainbow Wahine hope to have freshman defensive specialist Savanah Kahakai back for this week’s road trip. Kahakai, out since spraining her knee on Sept. 17 against Toyota Auto Body, has been cleared to practice since Friday and "she’s very close to being 100 percent," Shoji said. "We’ll see how Tuesday’s practice goes and if she doesn’t have any discomfort, we’ll take her and one other (defensive specialist) besides (senior Sarah) Mendoza. If not, then it will be two of our other three."
Sophomore Katiana Ponce and freshman Clare-Marie Anderson made the first road trip to UC Davis and UC Riverside. Kahakai was left in Honolulu, as was freshman defensive specialist Gianna Guinasso.
Shoji said there was little separating Ponce, Anderson and Guinasso, adding that they were all still competing for playing time. He had gone with Ponce as the first option off the bench recently because of the scoring effectiveness when she was serving.
"But that didn’t happen last week, so we’ll go back and look at the stats," he said. "We have to decide what we need more, a passer or a server."
