HONOLULU — Through the grind of the offseason, the culture endured.
Now the Hawaii women’s volleyball team just has to worry about the chemistry.
The Rainbow Wahine held their first two full practice sessions on Tuesday as the opener of the 2022 season rapidly approaches. After the 6 a.m. session, fifth-year head coach Robyn Ah Mow judged the 14-player group ready to proceed, mentally and physically — something that hasn’t always been the case on Day 1s in her tenure.
“From the first year ‘til now, it’s definitely been a commitment for them,” Ah Mow, the former UH and Olympic setter, said at the second practice session in the afternoon. “I’m not saying the first year when I was here that the girls weren’t dialed (in). They just weren’t probably used to it. But now they get the picture. In order to be up here (high), you have to do work outside of what we do.
“They’re starting to understand that.”
The voluntary, players-only portion of the offseason included a mock practice, something that made Ah Mow laugh.
Since the spring, the first order of business has been retooling on the outside, where the team leaned on all-region hitter Brooke Van Sickle on the way to a 22-8 record, a Big West championship and the NCAA tournament second round in 2021.
After a six-year college career that began at Oregon, the undersized-yet-versatile Van Sickle finally exhausted her eligibility.
UH’s returning first-team All-Big West players, junior middle Amber Igiede and sophomore setter Kate Lang, helped set a tone of accountability in the offseason.
Even Lang, who started the last 22 matches of the season in her first full season of college volleyball, refused to be complacent heading into the fall as she faces competition from two other setters, senior Mylana Byrd and Punahou graduate Jackie Matias.
As the Texas native drove to practice, it came to her mind that several teammates have it in them to call her out for being off her game — something she appreciated.
“I never feel comfortable. This is a competitive gym. There’s no comfort,” Lang said. “It’s pushing yourself every day, it’s competing with your teammates. It’s thinking about the starting six — Coach was talking about the starting six this morning at 6 a.m. I’m ready to go, and I know everybody else is too.”
Van Sickle was the most notable of UH’s losses, but she wasn’t the only one; all-league middle Skyler Williams was also among the six players who either graduated or transferred.
The chiseled, 6-foot-3 Igiede, already a force at the net, built off an efficient 2021 season (team-high .388 hitting with 3.0 kills and 1.3 blocks per set) by spending some time with the national collegiate team in the offseason.
“It was a growing experience. I got to learn a lot. … way more than I thought I even knew before,” Igiede said. “They really helped with widening my lens, especially for blocking and hitting. And just the speed of it.”
Those who spoke to the media on Tuesday agreed that while the Big West Player of the Year Van Sickle was hugely important in a number of areas last year (she led points per set at 4.47 and kills per set at 3.73), she wasn’t everything.
Van Sickle, incidentally, appeared at the team’s 5:45 a.m. mile run to cheer them on.
“We also have amazing players on this team that are ready to go, too,” Lang said. “It’s going to be maybe a different style of play, but it’s the same intensity. We’ve got new pin hitters and new people ready to go at it, so I don’t think it will be a speed bump at all. We’re good.”
Competition at outside hitter will include returnees Riley Wagoner, Tiffany Westerberg, Braelyn Akana and Kendra Ham. Among the newcomers, there is a notable addition in Chandler Cowell, a Saint Mary’s transfer from Maui who is the younger sister of former UH men’s volleyball standout Colton Cowell.
Ah Mow was reluctant to have the offense become so Van Sickle-dependent last year, but it evolved out of necessity, she said.
“I don’t like girls to fill shoes. I like everybody to give whatever they can and more than one person,” Ah Mow said. “I don’t like the whole, ‘let’s set this one person 5 million times.’ Let’s have a diverse offense and during the spring that’s what we tried to accomplish.”
She told her current crop that there is a likelihood some will be expected to play two positions along the net.
“Who’s going to step up?” Ah Mow said.
UH will begin the season on the road for the first time since 2005. The Wahine open in the Texas A&M Invitational against the host Aggies on Aug. 26, followed by Pittsburgh and San Diego on successive days.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.