Wahine volleyball still tweaking to satisfy middle

Battles are being waged on and off the volleyball court this week for No. 14 Hawaii.

Some occurred during this week’s practice as players made their case for starting spots. Some will happen on Thursday at UC Irvine and on Saturday at UC Davis as the Rainbow Wahine try to move closer to clinching the Big West championship and the automatic NCAA tournament berth.

And one with culinary — and far less critical — implications is a food fight. The competition is on with the family of sophomore middle Casey Castillo providing dinner at the team’s hotel tonight.

Kitchen Stadium likely has never seen a Battle Mexican like this. It began last month when the family of freshman defensive specialist Emma Smith hosted the team with catered Mexican food.

Tonight, it’s dinner from Tula Market — billed as the “Best Mexican Market in South Orange County” — which is owned by Castillo’s aunt and uncle.

“It’s very authentic and very good,” Castillo said. “I will win.”

That could carry over to this week’s road matches. With Castillo slowed by a lower-leg issue and the move of senior Annie Mitchem to the left side, freshman Natasha Burns has been starting in the middle along with junior Emily Maglio.

But in Tuesday’s practice, Castillo was with the projected starting lineup and “we’ve got to get something out of that position,” Wahine coach Dave Shoji said. “Today, Casey was back in the middle. That one position can go back and forth.

“Yes, the results last week (sweeps of Long Beach State and Cal State Northridge) were great. No, we’re not through tweaking the team.”

First up are the streaky Anteaters (10-16, 5-7), who knocked off Long Beach State in five sets two weeks ago at The Pyramid, knocking the 49ers out of first place. UCI then lost in five the next night at CSUN, the first of three consecutive losses coming into the rematch with Hawaii.

“One thing we would like to improve on is our serve and pass game,” said UCI coach Ashlie Hain, whose team dropped home matches last week to Cal Poly in four and UC Santa Barbara in three. “The last meeting at Hawaii (a 3-1 loss Oct. 14) I thought we could have done much better at this part of the game. We have effective servers and good passers, but we didn’t perform as well as we are capable.

“We need to do that and play the entire game well if we are going to battle with Hawaii.”

There are concerns in the Hawaii camp. The Anteaters feature 6-foot-3 senior Victoria Dennis (3.60 kills per set), and 6-foot sophomore opposite Harlee Kekauoha (2.47 kps, 47 aces).

“They are a dangerous team,” Wahine associate coach Jeff Hall said. “They have two of the top two hitters in the conference and we have to make sure we are on our game, that our defensive game is really on.”

UCI is playing the spoiler’s role when it comes to the conference title. Besides the Anteaters’ 3-2 road win over the 49ers, their 3-2 home loss to Long Beach State was ruled a no contest, with the original ruling that it would be restarted from the protested point in Set 2.

A Big West official said the conference is working on getting the match replayed.

It also would have major NCAA automatic berth implications should it not be replayed and Hawaii, with four matches remaining, not win out. There would be a half-game difference in the win-loss column.

“We control our own destiny,” said Shoji. “Every match is critical now. Win and we don’t have to rely on anyone else.”

Notes

Hawaii is expected to sign three players today, the first day of early National Letter of Intent signing. While Shoji cannot speak about the players until receiving the official paperwork, the three from Southern California told the Star-Advertiser earlier that they had orally committed. They are 6-foot-2 middle Sophia Howling, Venice High; 6-1 middle/opposite Shaney Lipscomb, Cathedral Catholic; and 6-2 middle Skyler Williams, Mayfield High.