HONOLULU — Continuity and chemistry count for something. So does a loaded nonconference schedule.
A strong returning nucleus will deal with a difficult slate of opponents right from the 2023 opening serve as the Hawaii women’s volleyball team opens Friday night against Northwestern in the Hawaiian Airlines Rainbow Wahine Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center.
UH, 22-7 last season and a three-time defending Big West champion, will know pretty early how it stacks up against some of the nation’s best.
After Friday’s Big Ten opponent that went 18-14 last season, UH will face No. 13 San Diego — a national semifinalist in 2022 — and No. 9 Oregon on Saturday and Sunday.
“I like to play big teams,” seventh-year coach Robyn Ah Mow said this week. “The coaching staff can’t wait ‘til Friday. We’ll see what the girls can do.”
UH hosts No. 22 USC for two matches next week and also will bring in Pepperdine and UCLA in September. It will travel to Fort Worth, Texas, for a three-match tournament hosted by TCU just before the start of Big West play.
“That’s how we get our RPI up for the postseason,” senior hitter Riley Wagoner said. “It’s about coming out as strong as we can just because those games are so important to our season.”
Ah Mow has several established players to call upon — five starters are back. Opponents’ scouting reports will surely begin with senior middle Amber Igiede, a third-team AVCA All-American and the 2022 Big West Player of the Year.
Igiede, who led the team with 3.79 kills and 1.29 blocks per set, was invited to train with the U.S. National Team in March. She then operated as a right-side hitter during the team’s foreign tour to Brazil over the summer.
Kate Lang, the returning Big West Setter of the Year, will have other familiar options in pin hitters Riley Wagoner, a BWC first-teamer, and Caylen Alexander, the 2022 Big West Freshman of the Year.
“It’s reassuring for sure because I’m playing with girls that I trust and they trust me,” Lang said this week. “I know what they’re thinking most of the time and they know what I’m thinking most of the time. So, it’s definitely reassuring being able to play with them again, what to do in certain situations and how to read the team.
“But I’m also excited to engage with the new girls and be able to find their flow and our flow and do the whole thing.”
The newcomer to garner the most attention through the preseason has been 5-foot-11 freshman Tali Hakas, who is said to have the heaviest arm on the team. Hakas recently served in the Israeli military, attaining the rank of sergeant.
UH also has last season’s Horizon League Player of the Year in 6-foot-2 hitter Paula Guersching, a Youngstown State transfer. Third-year sophomore middle Jacyn Bamis, a 6-foot-1 Clemson transfer, made 15 starts for the Tigers last season and supplied 1.45 kills per set. And 5-foot-11 freshman Stella Adeyemi was a three-time state champion at Papillion-Lavista South High in Nebraska.
UH has two stalwart back-line players back in Tayli Ikenaga and Talia Edmonds. Ikenaga, a Moanalua alumna, has worn the libero’s jersey in 56 of the 59 matches UH as played the last two years.
Edmonds, who began her college career at Michigan State, was a lineup regular next to Ikenaga most of last season.
It is not a given that the two will play together extensively this year; Alexander was a full-rotation player during the Brazil trip and Ah Mow has not announced her starting lineup.
"We’ve got a lot of arms," Ah Mow said. "It’s putting the passing and the defense and the ball control together. We’ve definitely got people that we can put here and there in the game."
UH went 22-7 (19-1 Big West) and lost to host LSU in the 2022 NCAA Baton Rouge regional opener.
Wagoner said the team would lean into its continuity, which she said was the most UH has enjoyed during her five-year career.
“I think Brazil was a big part of that, being able to play a couple extra games that we wouldn’t normally get and having those same people come back to play now,” Wagoner said. “It was really helpful to continue what we were working on in the fall last year and kind of boost us into this next season.”
This is the first season of a Big West women’s volleyball tournament, which will be hosted by Long Beach State. The league cut the BWC regular-season matches from 20 to 18 to compensate.
The Wahine received 49 points in the initial AVCA preseason top 25 poll, which would unofficially place them at 31st. UH has made the last 29 NCAA tournaments, not including 2020 in which its season was canceled by the Big West due to the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Note: UH will wear sleeve patches all season in honor of Maui as the island deals with recovery from wildfires that devastated much of Lahaina.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.