The University of Hawai‘i women's volleyball team had an inauspicious start to its 2025 season, losing all three of its matches at the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center over the weekend.
On opening night against Marquette, the Rainbow Wahine had match point against Marquette in the third set, but were pushed to deuces. The Golden Eagles eventually pulled out the set and the match, toppling the Rainbow Wahine in a reverse sweep.
Hawai‘i went on to get swept by Utah State and San Diego the next two nights, losing nine consecutive sets from Friday to Sunday.
With another tournament being hosted on campus this weekend, the Rainbow Wahine quickly turned the page and return to practice on Tuesday. The 'Bows will host San Jose State on Thursday, Utah Valley on Friday and St. John's on Sunday for the OUTRIGGER Invitational.
"Definitely a lot of passing," head coach Robyn Ah Mow said of the priority of the week's practices. "We had our serve and pass. The game before this past one, our passing wasn't that good, and we couldn't set the middle, so we did extra passing reps. Definitely our passing, we got to really get a little bit better on that just to help us with the rest of the game."
Hawai‘i's young roster of eight newcomers and eight returnees features just three seniors. The Rainbow Wahine understand they'll need more time to gel.
"Internally, with each and every one of us, one of the things that we talk about is being a very young team, and we don't like to use that as an excuse at all," said sophomore libero Victoria Leyva.
"We're really focusing on trying to make progress right now. I think it's one step at a time. We learned so, so much from this past weekend, from the three losses that we had, but I can positively say we were fighting the whole time. It wasn't just something that we gave up on in each and every set. The fight was always there from the girls. I don't think it's us not being able to or just not wanting to be here, because we do want to be here, and we want to go out there and show that, but more so the game inside of our head versus the emotional aspect, the mental aspect, and then the volley IQ part of that."
As the host of the tournament, the Rainbow Wahine played in the nightcap each day. With every other match in the tournament going five sets, the 'Bows started an hour later than scheduled first serve each match. But fatigue, like the team's youth, was not a valid excuse to those on the UH roster.
"We were probably warming up and peppering a little bit longer than we were normally, but after a while, we did learn from that first night. We did learn that we could just kind of relax a little bit, just to kind of let our bodies cool down after warming up for about an hour and a half before the match, and then we got right back at it," Leyva said. "It was a lot later that we did have to stay here. I mean, a lot of girls were getting home at like, 12, 1 in the morning after our matches. But I don't believe that had a big effect on the way that we played."
Despite the program's consistency, which is highlighted by 31 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, the Rainbow Wahine are not immune to slow starts. The 'Bows started the 2022 season 0-3 but eventually won the Big West and finished 22-7 overall.
"Give these girls a chance. They've been going at it for three weeks," Ah Mow said. "They're working hard. They just have to learn how to gel and connect with each other and keep moving. Whatever happened, like three, four, five years ago, it is what it is. It's this year now, and we're just going to look at the things we got to work on and move forward."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
