University of Hawaii volleyball team’s streak of consecutive NCAA Tournaments can continue

The University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball team’s streak of 27 consecutive NCAA Championship Tournament appearances is getting a reprieve.

With the Big West Conference postponing its fall sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a chance that the championships would go on this fall without the Wahine for the first time since 1992.

But Thursday NCAA President Mark Emmert declared, “We cannot now, at this point, have fall NCAA championships, because there’s not enough schools participating.”

The 2020 NCAA tournament had been scheduled for Dec. 18 and 19 in Omaha, Neb.

With the Big East joining the Mountain West, Pac-12, Big Ten and other conferences in dropping their fall sports lineups in recent days the number of continuing teams in the 32 Division I conferences fell below the required 50% threshold, Emmert said.

“But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t and can’t turn toward winter and spring and, create a legitimate championship for all those students,” Emmert said.

The Big West has said it could consider moving fall sports to the spring, pending the COVID-19 situation.

UH has participated in 38 of the 39 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championships.

Only Stanford and Penn State have appeared in all of them.

The Rainbow Wahine’s run of NCAA appearances began in 1993 when Robyn Ah Mow and Angelica Ljungqvist, coaches of the current team, were freshmen.

“From the get go in March, my main concern has been the health and safety of our players, staff and community,” Ah Mow said. “The NCAA streak is an accomplishment, but in these times it is the furthest thing from my mind.”