Michigan poses a formidable opening obstacle in Hawaii’s second appearance in the NCAA women’s tennis tournament and first in six years.

Then again, confronting long odds and challenging circumstances defined the Rainbow Wahine journey into the field of 64.

“We got so much closer as the year progressed,” UH coach Jun Hernandez said. “Although we faced some tough tasks as far as injuries or opponents, they really came together.”

The Rainbow Wahine face the Big Ten champion and 17th-ranked Wolverines today in Stanford, Calif., having earned the NCAA berth by winning the Big West tournament on April 29 to cap a weekend of heartache and triumph.

The Wahine (13-6, 6-2 Big West) were a point away from elimination in the semifinals against two-time defending champion UC Santa Barbara, but senior Marina Hruba’s comeback in a marathon singles match clinched UH’s third straight appearance in the conference final.

While preparing for the championship match against Cal State Fullerton, Hernandez learned his father, Roger, died in San Diego at age 84. Hernandez had missed UH’s final match of the regular season at Cal State Northridge six days earlier to spend time with his father before rejoining the team in Indian Wells, Calif., for the Big West tournament.

“They said, ‘Take your time, just stay there for your family,’ ” Hernandez said. “So I’m really thankful for that because I got to spend the last few days with my dad.”

Hernandez, the youngest of seven children, was named after his father, and his first name is short for “Junior.”

“He’s a fighter. That’s all I ask from my team — to fight and compete and give whatever they have,” Hernandez said.

After receiving word of his father’s death, Hernandez led fourth-seeded UH back onto the court that Sunday and the Wahine pulled out a 4-2 win over Fullerton to earn the program’s first conference title since winning the Western Athletic Conference crown in 2012.

“We were very inspired by our coach, and I think we really realized right before singles that we were going to fight as hard as we can,” said sophomore Petra Melounova, the two-time Big West player of the year.

Hernandez dedicated the title to his father and was named Big West coach of the year after the tournament. He returned to California last weekend in advance of his father’s funeral on Tuesday, then met the team in Northern California, where the Wahine face Michigan (17-9, 10-1 Big Ten) today at 8 a.m. at Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Center. The winner advances to the round of 32 to face No. 15 Stanford or St. John’s.

“(The Wolverines are) going be loaded,” Hernandez said. “But again I think we’re definitely going to be competing well and that’s all you can ask of the girls.”

Exemplifying the etymology of her given name, Melounova (14-3) has been the rock of the UH lineup for the past two seasons. She enters the NCAA tournament on an eight-match winning streak and will represent the Big West at the NCAA singles tournament set for May 23-28 at Wake Forest Tennis Complex.

Melounova, ranked 73rd nationally, will likely face 29th-ranked Kate Fahey — the Big Ten women’s tennis athlete of the year — today at No. 1 singles. Michigan junior Brienne Minor (11-6) won the NCAA singles championship last year and went 3-0 at No. 3 singles at the Big Ten tournament.

Hruba (9-9) has spent most of the season at No. 3 singles for UH, and the Wahine — with four countries (Australia, Czech Republic, Philippines, Slovakia) represented on an eight-player roster — wouldn’t be in Palo Alto this week if not for her comeback against UCSB’s Amanda Atanasson in the Big West semifinals.

The 6-foot-1 senior from Prague dropped the first set and faced a match point in the second before rallying to extend the match by winning a tiebreaker. But she soon found herself down 3-0, then 4-1 in the third.

“I knew I had no more room for mistakes,” said Hruba, who sat out the fall with a broken finger. “Up until then I tried to be more aggressive, but I just made more mistakes as well, and that’s how she got her points. So I tried to make her run and wait for her to get tired.”

The strategy worked and she crumpled to the court after the final point in her 2-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5 victory.

“The semifinals, being down, just symbolizes what the year was,” Hernandez said. “Just really fighting for one more point and fighting for one another.”