The Chaminade women’s volleyball program adheres to a motto: “Huli ka lima i lalo.”
That is Hawaiian for “turn your hands down.”
When it came to fundraising for the first foreign tour in Silverswords athletics history — in any sport — coach Kahala Kabalis Hoke insisted that her team would earn it.
“Instead of opening (our) hands up and asking for something, we were like, you know what, we’re going to work hard for this,” Kabalis Hoke told Spectrum News in a recent interview.
The result: the ‘Swords scrapped and scraped and successfully raised the $75,000 necessary to spend a week in Osaka, Japan. They embarked Tuesday and will face three teams from Japanese universities over the course of a week as a lead-in to their 2023 NCAA Division II preseason.
The defending PacWest Conference champions are familiar with breaking new ground. In a program first last fall, the Silverswords, the No. 8 seed of eight teams in the NCAA West region, won two matches to reach the regional final, where they lost to Cal State Los Angeles.
In the aftermath, instead of being elated with their achievement, Kabalis Hoke said the team was distraught that it fell short of something even bigger. A subpar showing in early season nonconference play — the team started 3-6 against a series of elite teams — prevented them from attaining respect and a higher seed that would’ve helped in the long run. Even a stretch of 21 wins in 22 matches through PacWest play wasn’t enough.
Kabalis Hoke, the reigning PacWest Coach of the Year going into her 12th season, decided mere days after the flight home from the NCAAs that the ‘Swords would try something ambitious in order to better prepare the team for its preseason matches the next time around.
With a foreign tour — allowed once every four years and common among Division I programs, but exceptionally rare in Division II — Chaminade would be allotted 10 full practices leading up to the Japan trip, plus multiple matches against Japanese teams known for their stingy defense.
If CUH could afford it, that is. A Silverswords spokesperson told Spectrum News there was no record of an athletics foreign tour in the school’s history.
“The only way we would be approved would be if we could fundraise the entire trip,” Kabalis Hoke said. “Our new incoming players helped fundraise for their airfare. All of our returners, they had put in work since January, the entire spring, they worked almost every weekend. (We) hosted local club tournaments, we did concessions, we did anything that we could to fundraise.”
It was close leading up to the trip, but they got there, though some must-have items like team equipment must be fundraised later. Nineteen of Chaminade’s 20 players (there was a late roster addition) made the trip along with three coaches and an athletic trainer.
Chaminade opened with a close loss against Senri Kinran University on Thursday. The ‘Swords follow with Kansai University and Bukkyo University, then will play a four-team tournament against those same opponents.
When the possibility, and destination, was broached to the team in December, players’ eyes got wide. In particular disbelief was senior libero Nanna Inoue, a Kyoto native who moved to Maui at age 14 and became the 2019 MIL Division I Player of the Year as a senior.
Her extended family is still in Kyoto, within a 15-minute ride from Osaka on the Shinkansen bullet train.
“I was talking about it like, ‘there’s no way, there’s no way.’ It’s kind of a dream, you know?” Inoue told Spectrum News. “And then Coach made us come through this dream, and I almost cried. I talked to my mom, and my mom was like, ‘wow.’ It never happens. … They’re really excited to see me play, and I’m really excited as well.”
The team has strong international ties with All-PacWest hitters Greta Corti and Ajack Malual of Italy and middle Sophie Schilling from Germany. But there were no objections when Japan became the pick; Kabalis Hoke targeted a single-leg destination.
“Being in Hawaii, we have a lot of Japanese influence, so we’re excited to see the real deal,” she said.
Inoue, a junior college transfer who emerged as the team’s defensive stopper and emotional leader by midseason of 2022, happily volunteered to be a tour guide for the rest of the ‘Swords.
“I will tell them which spot is a good spot. I would love them to have a fun time while in Japan,” said the 5-foot-2 Inoue, who had a monster game of 34 digs and 12 assists as Chaminade knocked off No. 1 West seed Alaska Anchorage in last year’s NCAA first round. “I mean, volleyball is the main reason we are going there, but at the same time I want them to love Japan. So I will be the best guide for them.”
Kabalis Hoke thinks her team’s conditioning will be tested with long rallies produced by the Japanese universities’ defense. Her team lost the PacWest Player and Setter of the Year, Alexia Byrnes, and middle Lataisia Saulala, the program's all-time blocks leader in the offseason but got a graduate transfer setter from Oklahoma in Grace Talpash.
Once Chaminade returns from Japan, it will have about a week and a half of practice before embarking to the Hawaii-Alaska Challenge in Fairbanks beginning Aug. 24.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.