HONOLULU — The Hawaii women’s volleyball team is headed back to the Pacific Northwest for the NCAA Tournament.

Unseeded Big West tournament champion UH reacted favorably to its draw against fifth-seeded TCU of the Big 12 on Thursday at Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Ore., as revealed during the NCAA selection show on Sunday afternoon.

The Rainbow Wahine flew home in two groups on Sunday after beating Cal Poly in four sets for the Big West title in Irvine, Calif., on Saturday night. As per tradition, they settled in for the selection show on couches in the Edwin S. Wong Hospitality Room in the Stan Sheriff Center.

This is the third time in six seasons and second straight year that UH (21-9) has been sent to Eugene. It beat Iowa State in the 2023 first round and lost to subregional host Oregon in the second round.

The match is set for 2 p.m. Hawaii time

“I think it’s a revenge tour for us,” said libero Tayli Ikenaga, the Big West tournament Most Valuable Player. “We definitely like it. I think now they have TeraFlex (court surface), so that’s going to be more exciting to play at. It’s a super big school and there’s a lot of Hawaii fans in Oregon. We’re really excited to go back.”

Ikenaga, setter Kate Lang and hitter Caylen Alexander are UH’s holdovers who saw extensive floor time there last year, and Tali Hakas and Jackie Matias to a lesser extent.

It will be UH’s 31st straight NCAA appearance, not including the 2020 season that the Big West canceled due to COVID-19 concerns.

The matchup with TCU (21-7) offers an intriguing matchup between the national leader in kills, Caylen Alexander (602), and TCU hitter Melanie Parra, who is close behind (531). Oregon takes on High Point of the Big South Conference in the other first-round matchup in the pod.

“TCU is a well-coached team. They have one of the best outsides in the nation, but so do we,” UH associate head coach Kaleo Baxter said. “So I think it’s really going to come down to the supporting cast.”

The Horned Frogs placed fifth in the Big 12 regular season with a 13-5 record.

Lang shares her hometown of Keller, Texas, with TCU’s Melanie McGann, who has appeared in two matches this year.

Lang would make the 20-minute drive to attend TCU games in Fort Worth on a regular basis from when she was about 13 through high school, she said.

“I’m so excited. I get to play a team from my hometown,” Lang said. “I just see that as such a privilege and I’m really excited. I know every girl on the team’s going to be locked in and I’m ready to get it.”

She expressed comfort competing in Oregon’s arena.

“We know the vibe of the arena, I know the lighting in there as a setter,” Lang said. “It’s a little bit of an advantage, for sure. But any gym we’re going to find our pros and there are cons, obviously, but I think there’s a lot of pros for this one.”

TCU is the fifth different team from the Lone Star State UH will have played this year. It has beaten SMU once and Texas State twice at home and lost to Texas and Baylor on the road.

UH and TCU met in the 2015 NCAA first round, with UH prevailing in five sets as the first of three postseason victories to reach the Des Moines, Iowa, regional final.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.