The door swung open and a group of players hustled out of the gym and down a corridor.
There was little time for reflection following the final on-campus practice of the University of Hawaii women’s volleyball season on Tuesday morning. Not with a day of classes and an overnight flight still to come.
The session inside UH’s Gym I had been similarly focused on maintaining a quick pace in preparation for Friday’s NCAA Tournament match with Mississippi State in Seattle.
The Rainbow Wahine were scheduled to arrive in the Pacific Northwest today in advance of the program’s 39th tournament appearance after missing out on the altered 2020-21 tournament held in the spring.
They’ll face a Mississippi State team that earned the school’s first NCAA berth with a record-breaking season and bears some similarity to the UC Santa Barbara team UH faced to close the regular season on Saturday.
“Santa Barbara’s a faster tempo team, same thing with Mississippi State,” UH senior Brooke Van Sickle said.
“They serve tough and they have a quick offense. … They’re a team that just doesn’t make errors, so we have to take care of every single easy play. We have to win serve-and-pass for sure and be disciplined on blocking.”
The Big West champion Rainbow Wahine (21-7) will face the Southeastern Conference runner-up Bulldogs (25-5) for the first time in program history at 2:30 p.m. on Friday at the University of Washington’s Alaska Airlines Arena.
Washington, the No. 15 overall seed in the 64-team bracket, takes on Brown in Friday’s second match. The winners meet on Saturday for a spot in next week’s NCAA regionals.
UH is coming off a five-set loss to UCSB on senior night, and the lessons of the regular-season finale carried over into the team’s practices Monday and Tuesday before departing for Seattle.
“We’re putting these women in pressure situations because Mississippi State runs such a fast offense,” UH assistant coach Kaleo Baxter said.
“Having a ball go over the net and resetting really fast to pick up the hitters’ routes is what we’re focusing on. Putting our serve receive in situations that they’re going to see on Friday because Mississippi State serves the snot out of the ball. Just trying to mimic that in the practice gym so they’ll know what to expect.”
Baxter said the Wahine were also working on the connection between the setters and hitters after seeing the Wahine repeatedly opt for tips and roll shots against UCSB. He credited the Gauchos’ defense for popping up some of UH’s harder swings as well.
“At this stage in the game whoever plays the most confident and takes big-girl swings in the moment, those are the teams that are going to survive and advance,” he said.
The UH coaches and senior middle blocker Skyler Williams have an idea of what to expect from the trip itself. The Wahine were sent to Seattle for the NCAA first and second rounds in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2017. They were bounced by the host Huskies in the second round the first three years. UH’s last visit ended with a first-round loss to Illinois in five sets to close Robyn Ah Mow’s first year as head coach and Williams’ freshman season. Defensive specialist Janelle Gong was a redshirt that season.
Since then, the Wahine lost to Baylor in five sets in Eugene, Ore., in 2018 and advanced through the first and second rounds at home in 2019 before falling to Nebraska in the Madison, Wis., regional.
“(The past NCAA appearances are) really important,” Williams said, “because that’s how you can lead the team and help out the girls and calm down the girls. Because we’ve been through this experience.”
Of the four teams in Seattle this week, Washington is the only one that participated in what was considered the 2020 NCAA Tournament held in April. Hawaii and Brown were sidelined as members of the Big West and Ivy League, the only two conferences (out of 32 total) that did not run a women’s volleyball season in 2020-21. Mississippi State went 5-15 in the shortened season. The Huskies advanced to the Final Four and lost to eventual champion Kentucky.
NCAA WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
At Alaska Airlines Arena, Seattle
Hawaii (21-7) vs. Mississippi State (25-5)
>> When: Friday, 2:30 p.m.
>> TV: TBA
>> Radio: 1420-AM/92.7-FM
>> Online video: All NCAA Tournament matches available on ESPN+
