Rainbow Wahine sweep Big West awards for first time

Six was the number of the day.

Six Hawaii volleyball players honored with all-conference selections by the Big West.

Six matches to win the NCAA title.

The Rainbow Wahine returned to the practice gym for the first time since claiming the conference title last week, embracing what has been accomplished so far and how much more they want to do next month in the NCAA tournament.

Tuesday was a pretty good start as, for the first time in 19 years of Big West membership, Hawaii swept the top awards. Senior Norene Iosia was named Player of the Year, Hanna Hellvig Freshman of the Year and Robyn Ah Mow, in her third season, Co-Coach of the Year.

While Hawaii was a member of the Western Athletic Conference (1996-2011), the Wahine swept the top three awards four times.

Iosia and Hellvig were joined on the first team by junior middle Sky Williams and Amber Igiede. Igiede, a middle, and outside hitter Hellvig also were name to the all-freshman team, while senior hitter McKenna Ross and junior hitter Brooke Van Sickle were honorable mentions.

“Props to all my girls,” Ah Mow said. “It’s awesome. It shows how much work they have put in.

“I saw a couple of them (earlier) and I said, ‘Hey, six more games, right? It’s good that we got all these award but six more games.’ They said, ‘Rajah, Coach.’ Good.”

Tuesday was a history lesson in Wahine Volleyball 101, one that connected the current players to their coaching staff. The last time two players were named to the all-freshman team was 1993: Ah Mow and associate head coach Angelica Ljungqvist.

Ljungqvist, the 1993 Freshman of the Year, and Hellvig also are both from Sweden and “that’s so cool to know that other Swedish people have been before me and I can keep walking in their footsteps,” Hellvig said. “I heard the news from Coach Ang (Ljungqvist). I was happy and surprised.

“And I am so happy for Norene, she deserved it so much. I’m glad she is finishing her time here in this way.”

Iosia is the 10th Wahine to earn Big West POY, just the third setter in the last 21 years for the Big West. She also is the second Hawaii setter, joining three-time winner Kanoe Kamana’o (WAC 2004, ’05, ’06).

Iosia also is the seventh Wahine to earn first-team honors all four seasons, the second with a career entirely in the Big West. The other four-time winners are Ljungqvist (Big West 1993, WAC ’94-’96), Lily Kahumoku (WAC 1999-2000, ’02-’03), Kim Willoughby (WAC 2000-03), Kamana’o (WAC 2004-07), Kanani Danielson (WAC 2008-11) and Nikki Taylor (2013-16).

“I found out from Coach Ang, and usually when I get a text from her I’m in trouble,” said Iosia, who ranks in the Top 10 of UH’s career lists in aces (No. 4), assists (No. 9) and digs (No. 10). “It’s cool.

“A lot of credit goes to my teammates and coaches for helping me be a better person and better player. The awards are a good reflection of what this program is.”

That was the message that Ah Mow shared with Ashley Preston when congratulating the Cal State Fullerton fifth-year coach on the Co-COY.

“She said she was so shocked,” Ah Mow said. “I told her we were building programs and it’s going to take time.”

It was the second coaching honor for the Titans program, which doubled its win total from last season to 12, and the first for a Wahine coach not named Dave Shoji. In his 42 seasons, Shoji received the honor 15 times, seven from the Big West. (Hawaii was not in a conference during Shoji’s first 10 seasons, 1975 through 1984).

Under Ah Mow this season the Wahine are 24-3 overall, are riding an 11-match win streak, won their first Big West title since 2016 and are optimistic about their chances of hosting the NCAA subregional for the first time since 2013. They’ll learn whether they are traveling next week or not during Sunday’s selection show (2:30 p.m. on ESPNU).

Hawaii had the most first-team selections with four. Conference runner-up Cal Poly, UC Davis and Long Beach State each had three, UC Santa Barbara two and Fullerton one.

Note

Hawaii will spend Thanksgiving together feeding the homeless in Waimanalo along with former player Mahina Eleneki-Hugo as one of their community service projects.