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Once upon a time if the road to the Big West women’s volleyball championship didn’t run through Manoa then it was usually 1250 Bellflower Blvd. in Long Beach, Calif.
But, in 2019, it merely starts there today for the University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine.
UH’s longtime rival Long Beach State, which once loomed as large in women’s volleyball but is now 3-10, today figures to be the first steppingstone in the Rainbow Wahine’s 16-match path back to the top of the Big West Conference.
It is the first opportunity on a Big West court for the Rainbow Wahine to proclaim, “We’re back!”
After an absence of two years that at times seemed like much more, the 10-1 and 11th-ranked Rainbow Wahine are, again, poised to begin what was once an annual exercise, seizing conference championships. Something that history tells us they have done with more regularity than any of the 21 teams on the Manoa campus.
Between stays in the Big West, Western Athletic Conference and back to the Big West, UH won or shared 21 regular-season championships in the 22 seasons between 1995 and 2016.
But after winning four of five championships (The Beach, of course, being the pothole in 2014) in their return to the Big West, the Rainbow Wahine got derailed the last couple of years by a new nemesis, two-time defending champion Cal Poly.
Not by much, as UH went a collective 28-4 in the conference for 2017-18. Just enough to make you appreciate anew the roll the Rainbows had been on and long for a return to championship form.
When the Big West Conference coaches were polled this summer they picked the Mustangs to narrowly prevail over the Rainbow Wahine for the title for what would be a third consecutive year, something unknown in the lifetimes of the current UH players.
Undoubtedly, the reshuffling of the Rainbow Wahine roster with nine new players and just one returning starter, Norene Iosia, gave coaches cause to wonder what third-year head coach Robyn Ah Mow could cobble together. And how soon.
Those questions, however, were answered after glimpsing the assemblage of the transfers and incoming freshmen in action. What the Rainbows demonstrated in victories over then-21st ranked San Diego and No. 13 Washington in the Stan Sheriff Center in the first weekend of the season has since been underlined by a neutral-site triumph over then-No. 17 Missouri last week.
Meanwhile, Cal Poly, which lost conference coach of the year Sam Crosson to Cal but retained five starters, is 8-5 after sweeping The Beach on Tuesday.
UC Santa Barbara is an emerging 11-1 and off to its best start since 2002 behind outside hitter Lindsey Ruddins, though the schedule hasn’t been all that imposing.
So, as UH begins to wade into its Big West schedule putting to use lessons learned at Baylor in the only loss of the season so far, you have to like its chances. The way things are shaping up, the Wahine should power through The Beach today and Cal State Northridge (5-8) on Saturday, build up some more momentum at home and then head into the first-round showdowns, Oct. 11 at Cal Poly and Oct. 12 at Santa Barbara.
While things have changed for the worst for The Beach, they are finally back on the rise for the Wahine, who look to once again start hauling back championship trophies to 1337 Lower Campus Road in Manoa.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
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