The adage of playing the best in order to be the best starts with the opening serve this season when the Hawaii beach volleyball team opens the year with two-time defending NCAA champion UCLA.

The Rainbow Wahine host the Bruins as part of the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic on Feb. 22-23 at Queen’s Beach. Also in the field are Stanford and LSU.

Hawaii has 15 home matches and, for the first time since 2014, all will be played at Queen’s Beach. The SandBows also will host the Heineken Invitational on March 21-22 with Grand Canyon, Nebraska and Washington; and the First Foundation Cup April 4-5 with UC Davis, Loyola Marymount and Portland.

Hawaii is on the road for the Bay Area Classic on Feb. 29-March 1 at Stanford; the Stetson Beach Blast on March 14-15 in Deland, Fla.; the Big West Challenge on March 28-29 at Huntington Beach, Calif.; and the East Meets West Invitational on April 11-12 at Manhattan Beach, Calif. The Big West tournament is April 17-19 at Davis, Calif., and the NCAA championship again is at Gulf Shores, Ala., on May 1-3.

Last season, the SandBows finished 28-11 with their fourth consecutive top-four NCAA finish. The schedule includes six of the seven teams that joined Hawaii at the NCAA tournament and 12 that were ranked in the final Top 20 poll.

Hawaii returns seven players, including all-conference selections Amy Ozee, Julia Scoles, Morgan Martin and Pani Napoleon, the latter who was the Big West Freshman of the Year. Among the five newcomers are freshman Ilihia Huddleston, younger sister of former SandBow Hi‘ilawe, and freshman Maia Hannemann, daughter of former Warriors setter Albert.