(Semi) Uncharted territory
In the illustrious history of the Rainbow Wahine volleyball program, something never happened until this week. UPDATE: (Well, almost.)
Notably, UH had never entered conference play with a losing record. That changed with last week’s five-set loss to then-No. 12 Oregon, the second defeat to the Ducks in as many nights. It knocked UH down to 4-5 going into Big West play; the Wahine are at UC Davis on Friday and UC Irvine on Sunday.
CORRECTION: This is actually the third year it happened in UH’s conference history, with the other two being 1992 (1-3) and 1993 (2-3). Apologies, I omitted San Jose State as UH’s first conference opponent those years, which affected UH’s record at the time of its first conference match.
Still it’s testament to the remarkable excellence and consistency that Dave Shoji oversaw spanning decades.
Going into the 2018 season, since its first season of conference membership in the sport — 1985 in the PCAA — UH was a combined 237-54 (.814) in pre-conference contests.
See below for a complete chart of the Wahine year-by-year records in those games and how their season resulted. It’s worth noting the timing of UH’s first conference game varied pretty wildly from year to year, especially in the early days. Sometimes the first conference match was the fifth game, or the 11th.
Can Robyn Ah Mow-Santos’ Wahine get back to usual expectations this year with a strong conference season? Given UH’s historical dominance of its league foes, you’d have to think it is possible, although challenging with defending champion Cal Poly (the No. 15 team this week) laying waste to its nonconference opponents at 10-1.
Here’s a few snippets of Tuesday interviews with Ah Mow-Santos and players Reyn “Tita” Akiu and McKenna Granato on their thoughts about the start of Big West play.
Some #HawaiiWVB interview clips from today … first here’s coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos about the start of @BigWestWVB this week. pic.twitter.com/Xj8mVffBt5
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) September 18, 2018
Libero/DS Reyn “Tita” Akiu on facing @BigWestWVB for the first time. She transferred home from Texas Tech and Big 12 play for her senior year. pic.twitter.com/sMGho0co8U
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) September 18, 2018
Here’s McKenna Granato on #HawaiiWVB’s readiness for @BigWestWVB coming off two losses to nationally ranked Oregon. pic.twitter.com/iYznM5jyg8
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) September 18, 2018
UPDATED: Prior to this, there were only three (corrected from two) seasons (1992, 1993 and 2005) in which UH entered conference play with a non-winning record; in 2005 they were .500 at the time of their first conference game. The Wahine narrowly attained a winning mark (15-12 overall) by the end of 1992, but did not make the postseason. In 1993, they did so with a flourish, reaching the second game of regional play. In 2005, they dominated the WAC to the tune of 16-0 and did well enough to advance to an NCAA regional, finishing 27-7.
Here’s the full year-by-year of Wahine volleyball pre-conference records, then how they fared in conference play and the postseason, the latter of which was applicable in all years but one. The PCAA (Pacific Coast Athletic Association) was the forerunner of the Big West.
PCAA era
1985 — PreConf: 5-0. Conf: 10-6 (T-3rd). Postseason: NCAA Northwest Reg. 1st round. Overall: 28-12
1986 — PreConf: 5-1. Conf: 15-3 (2nd). Postseason: NCAA Northwest Regional 2nd round. Overall: 31-7
1987 — PreConf: 4-0. Conf: 17-1 (1st). Postseason: NCAA National Champion. Overall: 37-2
Big West era
1988 — PreConf: 7-0. Conf: 18-0 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Finals. Overall: 33-3
1989 — PreConf: 6-0. Conf: 17-1, (1st). Postseason: NCAA Northwest Regional 2nd round. Overall: 29-3
1990 — PreConf: 8-2. Conf: 16-2, (1st). Postseason: NCAA Northwest Regional 1st round. Overall: 28-6
1991 — PreConf: 6-0. Conf: 15-3 (T-2nd). Postseason: NCAA Northwest Reg. 2nd round. Overall: 26-5
1992 — PreConf: 1-3. Conf: 11-7 (4th). Postseason: None. Overall: 15-12
1993 — PreConf: 2-3. Conf: 13-5 (3rd). Postseason: NCAA Northwest Regional 2nd round. Overall: 19-11
1994 — PreConf: 4-1. Conf: 15-3 (2nd). Postseason: NCAA Northwest Regional 1st round. Overall: 25-5
1995 — PreConf: 7-0. Conf: 18-0 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Mountain Regional 2nd round. Overall: 31-1
WAC era
1996 — PreConf: 10-0. Conf: 16-0 (1st Pacific Div.). Postseason: NCAA Finals. Overall: 35-3
1997 — PreConf: 6-4. Conf: 14-0 (1st Pacific Div.). Postseason: NCAA First Round. Overall: 25-8
1998 — PreConf: 5-1. Conf: 13-1 (T-1st Pac. Div.). Postseason: NCAA East Reg. 2nd round. Overall: 32-3
1999 — PreConf: 11-0. Conf: 14-0 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Mountain Regional 1st round. Overall: 29-2
2000 — PreConf: 10-0. Conf: 16-0 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Semifinals. Overall: 31-2
2001 — PreConf: 6-4. Conf: 13-0 (1st). Postseason: NCAA West Regional 1st round. Overall: 29-6
2002 — PreConf: 11-0. Conf: 13-0 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Semifinals. Overall: 34-2
2003 — PreConf: 11-1. Conf: 13-0 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Semifinals. Overall: 36-2
2004 — PreConf: 10-0. Conf: 13-0 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Green Bay Regional 1st round. Overall: 30-1
2005 — PreConf: 5-5. Conf: 16-0 (1st). Postseason: NCAA State College Reg. 1st round. Overall: 27-7
2006 — PreConf: 6-4. Conf: 15-1 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Honolulu Regional 2nd round. Overall: 29-6
2007 — PreConf: 6-3. Conf: 15-1 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Second Round. Overall: 27-6
2008 — PreConf: 7-2. Conf: 15-1 (T-1st). Postseason: NCAA Fort Collins Reg. 2nd round. Overall: 31-4
2009 — PreConf: 9-2. Conf: 16-0 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Semifinals. Overall: 32-3
2010 — PreConf: 10-1. Conf: 16-0 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Second Round. Overall: 29-3
2011 — PreConf: 10-1. Conf: 14-0 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Honolulu Regional 1st round. Overall: 31-2
Big West rejoined
2012 — PreConf: 7-2. Conf: 18-0 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Second Round. Overall: 27-3
2013 — PreConf: 11-1. Conf: 13-3 (T-1st). Postseason: NCAA Second Round. Overall: 25-5
2014 — PreConf: 8-3. Conf: 13-3 (2nd). Postseason: NCAA Second Round. Overall: 22-7
2015 — PreConf: 10-1. Conf: 16-0 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Des Moines Reg. 2nd round. Overall: 29-2
2016 — PreConf: 7-4. Conf: 15-1 (1st). Postseason: NCAA Second Round. Overall: 23-6
2017 — PreConf: 6-5. Conf: 14-2 (2nd). Postseason: NCAA First Round. Overall: 20-8
2018 — PreConf: 4-5. Conf: — Postseason: — Overall: —
I don’t know that it is fair to compare Robyn and Dave in this manner. Both should be respected for what they have contributed to Women’s Volleyball. TBH, when Dave started, WVB was different. He built it up. His latter successes to what we are pointing at is in his later years when he was a more seasoned and experienced coach.
I, for one, am very happy that Robyn stepped up to the challenge of following Dave because of these comparisons. Instead of expecting her to fill his shoes, we should follow her footsteps/
Maybe it’s not fair, bur Robyn is going into conference with a 4-5 losing record.
H-Man:
September 19, 2018 3:48 pm
What is not fair about the situation?
Given where the team is now, to what the BWC has to offer, the ONLY way this team can continue their NCAA streak is to be unbeaten in the conference. I know this sounds cliche to say that, but with what has happened with the Hurricane Lane fiasco and the different hurricane on/off debacles, this team has gone through so much, and having to face ranked Cal Poly is going to be a tough order for this group. I’m hoping that they use whatever they learned from the two losses against Oregon as motivation to get better and better once conference play starts.
On a side note, yes, this is a rebuilding process for Robyn Ah-Mow Santos, but the issue at hand for this group after this season is how she’s going to replace the height that is going to be lost in this group. Rumors were pointed on Facebook that Natasha Burns is planning to leave the program, and if she leaves, Robyn’s seriously going to have a stressful time to figure out how to replace a 6’5″ player. A ton of height actually is going to be lost after this (6’0″ Granato, 6’1″ Gaskin and Liva, 6’2″ Howling, and 6’3″ Castillo) in addition to libero Akiu and setter Ma’afala. This really is going to be a long season for sure.
After all, we don’t want a repeat of what happened in 1992 to happen to this team. Keep the NCAA streak rolling!