Rainbow Forecast: Football faces Oregon State, volleyball hosts another tourney, soccer heads to Dakotas

Is it Monday already?

Well, if it is — and we think it is, because it’s Labor Day — that means a fresh installment of the Rainbow Forecast.

For the first time in the athletic calendar, all three fall sports teams are in action this week. UH football is coming off a bye week, UH women’s volleyball hosts the Heineken Rainbow Wahine Invitational (fresh off winning the Hawaiian Airlines Classic), and UH soccer hits the road for the first time this season after playing its first four on its campus field.

Mercifully, there’s no sporting events for the first few days of the week, giving everyone a well-deserved breather.

THURSDAY
Volleyball: Army (3-0) at Hawaii (3-0), 7 p.m. (Spectrum Sports, KKEA 1420-AM)
What an opening weekend it was for Robyn Ah Mow’s group; UH is off to its first 3-0 start since 2015. The Rainbow Wahine defeated ranked foes San Diego and Washington, and twice came back from a 2-1 set deficit to win in five (San Diego and St. John’s). Their four-set win over the then-No. 13 Huskies on Sunday was dominant, and UH has its first ranking of the season (No. 20) to show for it. Well, this week’s Heineken Rainbow Wahine Invitational might not have the same caliber of opponents, but UH will have to be on its guard in the first matchup with the Black Knights. The service academy defeated New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Iona in the Army Invitational last week while dropping just one set.

FRIDAY
Soccer: Hawaii (1-2-1) at North Dakota State, 2 p.m. (3-0-1)
The Rainbow Wahine experienced a little bit of everything spanning their first four home matches on their grass practice field — a lopsided loss to a ranked foe (USC), an overtime defeat to a comparable opponent (San Francisco), an OT win vs. an upstart squad (Nevada), and a listless, scoreless draw against a counterattacking team (Sacramento State). Well, now the Rainbow Wahine take to the road for three games through the Dakotas, a place they’ve never been as a program. They’ll play three times in five days, starting with this matchup with NDSU of the Summit League in Fargo. The Bison are coming off winning the TD Bank Classic in Burlington, Vermont, by defeating Vermont and New Hampshire. The Bison have yet to be shut out, while that’s happened twice to UH, which is still searching for a cohesive attack.

Volleyball: Sacramento State (2-1) at Hawaii, 7 p.m. (Spectrum Sports, KKEA 1420-AM)
The Hornets of the Big Sky are coming off winning their Sacramento State Invitational, despite dropping the final match to Nevada in four sets. They beat Canisius in straight sets and Cal State Bakersfield (which joins the Big West next season) in five.

SATURDAY
Football: Oregon State (0-1) at Hawaii (1-0), 6 p.m. (Spectrum PPV, KKEA 1420-AM)
The Rainbow Warriors finally get a chance to build off their impressive Week Zero takedown of a Pac-12 team by facing … another Pac-12 team. The Beavers were one of four Pac-12 squads to lose their opening game, along with Arizona (to UH), Oregon (to Auburn), and UCLA (to Cincinnati). OSU fell in a 52-36 shootout with Oklahoma State, which, if you’re wondering, did not use former UH quarterback Dru Brown. Meanwhile, UH slotback Cedric Byrd II was just named the Mountain West offensive player of the week for his four-touchdown performance against the Wildcats, deferred a week to match up with the rest of the league’s first games. This matchup with the Beavers has a couple of key subplots, as it’s the first time the programs have faced off since the infamous recruiting gaffe by OSU back in May of 2018. More recently, Beavers linebacker Isaiah Tufaga transferred home to play for the Rainbow Warriors just before the season’s start. He’s redshirting this season, but gives Nick Rolovich and staff potentially huge source of inside information on Jonathan Smith’s team. There’s a possibility that more than just 20.5K will show up for this one. This game will be live streamed on Facebook for free for mainland watchers.

SUNDAY
Soccer: Hawaii at North Dakota (2-1-1), 11 a.m.
The Dakotas road swing continues through Grand Forks for the Rainbow Wahine. There, they’ll face a respectable Fighting Hawks squad that’s coming off its first defeat, 1-0 at The Citadel.

Volleyball: Denver (3-0) at Hawaii, 4 p.m. (Spectrum Sports, KKEA 1420-AM)
Interestingly, all four teams in the Heineken Rainbow Wahine Invitational are coming off a tournament title in their own school’s season-opening four-team event. That includes the Miners, who knocked off San Francisco, Southern Miss and Seattle last weekend, dropping only one set in the process. Note the earlier starting time for this one if you plan to make it down to the Stan Sheriff Center.