Fully loaded Wahine head to Texas tourney

“Aloha” meets “Howdy” beginning Wednesday when seventh-ranked but unseeded Hawaii arrives at College Station, Texas, to open the NCAA tournament. It is the second straight year that the Rainbow Wahine (26-1) are on the road for a first-round match, the 10th time in 12 seasons.

But the deja vu goes beyond the most-traveled team in NCAA volleyball to be traveling again.

“It feels like an old WAC kind of travel,” Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said of the Western Athletic Conference. “We fly all night to Texas and get on a bus. It’s like going to Louisiana Tech.”

It will be a much shorter drive than the five-hour one the Rainbow Wahine used to make to Ruston, La. This time it’s about 90 minutes to the host Aggies’ campus, but it will be deja vu all over again when Hawaii sees former WAC opponent TCU across the net in Friday’s first match.

The Horned Frogs (19-9), an at-large selection out of the Big 12, have made first-year coach Jill Pape Kramer’s homecoming a very successful one; Kramer played for TCU (1996-99), where she was the program’s first scholarship player.

TCU’s signature win was a sweep over then-No. 2 Texas in the overflow 2,000-seat University Recreation Center on Oct. 28, the program’s first victory over the Longhorns.

“They look good on film,” Shoji said. “We’ll have our work cut out for us.”

Hawaii will do its game preparation with its entire 15-player roster on the trip for the first time this season. That includes redshirt middle Natasha Burns as well as junior middle Annie Mitchem, who hasn’t played — or traveled — since fracturing her right pinkie finger in the Oct. 17 home match.

Some six weeks later, Mitchem was finally cleared to practice Tuesday and took a few reps.

As happy as she was about that, she was even happier that she’ll be about two hours northwest of her hometown of Friendswood on Wednesday.

“I am really excited to go home, see some family and eat the food in Texas,” said Mitchem, the reigning two-time two-year-college national player of the year. “(The finger) is still pretty sore, so I’m not too sure when (she’ll be cleared to play). Hitting and blocking could be difficult.”

While Mitchem isn’t expecting a lot of family and friends to make the drive, one friend will already be there. TCU starting junior outside hitter Jillian Bergeson, who transferred from Pepperdine after two seasons, was Mitchem’s high school and club teammate.

One other Hawaii connection will be starting for host Texas A&M. Sophomore middle Jazzmin Babers is the daughter of former Rainbow Warrior Dino Babers, current head football coach at Bowling Green, and Sue Hemenway Babers, who played for the Rainbow Wahine in 1981.

The 6-foot-2 Jazzmin Babers, an honorable mention All-American last season, leads the Aggies in kills (3.20 kps) and blocks (1.41 bps). She was named the national player of the week on Nov. 24 after leading Texas A&M to a sweep of No. 19 Kentucky and a five-set victory over No. 14 Florida, and has started every match during her three-year career.

“I was excited when I saw Hawaii was coming here,” Jazzmin Babers said in a phone call with the Star-Advertiser on Tuesday. “UH always has a great team, and having that connection with both my parents is cool. It would be really cool if we were to meet.

“Mom isn’t sure if she’s coming, but she has talked about what a great coach (Shoji) is and that she loved him to death.”

The Aggies are coached by Laurie Corbelli, whose husband John, is the associate head coach and a 1974 Punahou graduate.

The last time Hawaii and Texas A&M met was in 1999 in an NCAA regional semifinal at the Stan Sheriff Center. It was also the last time that Hawaii hosted the final four.

“They came in and upset us,” Shoji said of the four-set loss. “They are well coached and will be a great challenge to us if we see them.

“We’ve never played there, but I’ve heard they have a tremendous atmosphere at home and great student support.

“It should be a fun match. But first we have to get there.”

To ensure a good home crowd, the 12th Man Foundation is paying for all TAMU students who wish to attend on both Friday and Saturday. The normal student ticket is $3. Reed Arena seats 12,989.