HONOLULU — As the fortunes of the Hawaii women’s volleyball team have swung wildly for much of the 2024 season, the Rainbow Wahine have consistently fallen back on a couple of program stalwarts in times of need.
Setter Kate Lang and libero Tayli Ikenaga have pretty much seen it all and, for a younger crop of teammates, have been a steady senior presence for UH as it has navigated some turbulence on the way to what it hopes will be a 31st consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.
“We’ve had our ups and downs,” Ikenaga said this week. “We’re still trying to navigate. As we’re … almost at the end, we’re at a point that we know what we need to do.”
The two seniors will be traditionally honored this week following two pivotal home matches at the Stan Sheriff Center, against Long Beach State on Friday and UC San Diego on Saturday night.
Both matches could test the Wahine. LBSU (16-9, 10-5 Big West) and UCSD (16-10, 10-5) are only a half-game behind UH (16-8, 10-4). UC Davis (16-8, 11-4) beat CSUN on Thursday night to move a half-game up on UH and Cal Poly (17-8, 10-4).
UH concludes the regular season with matches at Cal State Fullerton (4-20, 0-14) and UC Irvine (14-11, 8-6) next week leading into the Big West tournament at UCI. Only the top six qualify, meaning one of UCD, UH, LBSU, UCSD, CP, UCI and UC Santa Barbara (12-14, 8-6) will be left out.
“These next two weekends are big. We really need to dial down and focus,” coach Robyn Ah Mow said on Wednesday.
The Wahine are coming off a trip that showcased some of their worst (the program’s first-ever loss to UC Riverside) and best (a four-set win over Davis to move back into a share of first).
Asked if the trip encapsulated the team's ups and downs, Lang replied, “Maybe a little bit, to the public. I think that encapsules the entirety of this conference throughout the years of playing here. This conference is scrappy and kind of a wild card sometimes.
“Anybody can win on any given night.”
UH has unintentionally, and sometimes frustratingly made that into the mantra of the season; it has played 10 five-setters, over which it has gone 6-4. That is the most times it has gone the distance since the 1984 Wahine did so 12 times.
Despite that, Lang, who arrived in Hawaii from Keller, Texas, just prior to the pandemic-canceled 2020 season, said this year has gone by the quickest of any of her five.
It has been about growth and patience, she said, for everyone involved — herself, her teammates and her coaches. She has had a prolific target in Caylen Alexander, who is among the nation’s leaders in kills, but she has also had to bring along some inexperienced middles and pin hitters.
“This year was just about trusting our teammates and trusting our coaches that they’ve prepared us to be successful,” Lang said.
Lang is the third UH setter to accumulate 4,000 assists and 1,000 digs, along with Kanoe Kamana‘o and Martina Cincerova. She entered the week leading the Big West in total assists (1,046) and assists per set (10.46). Those were good for 10th and 27th in the nation, respectively.
Ah Mow’s first setter recruit has started 108 straight matches over the last four years. Over that time, coach and player have bonded over their occasional butting of heads.
Ah Mow, a former Wahine and Olympic great at setter, has a door-open policy for her players. And Lang is one of the few who has always taken her up on it, every week.
“The gym is my domain; I’m really hard on them in there,” Ah Mow said. “But outside, up there (at the coaches offices), we just have conversations. She’s a big one from Day 1, after we … hit the heads the first year, she just kept coming. I think I’m going to miss that.”
Lang affirmed that this year will be her last, as she is out of eligibility because 2020 was her NCAA COVID waiver year, not a redshirt year.
Ikenaga, like Lang, was known to Ah Mow well before her arrival on campus. Ah Mow coached Ikenaga in club before she became the Rainbow Wahine coach in 2017.
Ikenaga was an OIA East Player of the Year at outside hitter for Moanalua, and also hit in club as a six-rotation player. All the while, she was aware that, at 5 feet 5, she was on borrowed time at the pins.
At the encouragement of coaches, she focused on libero and strength training before it was time to play at the next level in 2021.
“I wish I had the opportunity to at least hit one ball in the game, but that’s OK,” Ikenaga said with a smile. “I had my time to shine in high school.”
Ikenaga, who came into her own playing alongside Talia Edmonds the last two years, now shares the back row with freshman specialist Victoria Leyva. When UH is at its best, Ikenaga and Leyva have combined to keep rallies alive long enough for UH to wear down opponents through attrition.
“I think it’s just her ball control. The volley IQ that she had,” Ah Mow said of what made Ikenaga viable at libero. “She played middle back because she was an outside; she wasn’t a libero. She just had to get a different sense of the court awareness playing on the left for here, a year and a half or so. … And she’s a good kid.”
Ikenaga is second in the Big West in total digs (387) and is fourth in digs per set (3.87). Her 1,253 career digs ranks sixth in program history.
“The best way to sum them up is, they embody what the University of Hawaii is,” Ah Mow said. “Kate’s from Texas; she came here and embodied that. The community loves her. A lot of people know her. Tayli is homegrown here. It was good for her to stay home and play. Local girl growing up and finishing up her career here.”
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.