Rainbow Forecast: Hawaii football, volleyball begin conference play on mainland

Hawaii’s football and volleyball teams have synched up and will begin their respective Mountain West and Big West conference schedules on the mainland this week.

The Rainbow Warriors, off to a 3-1 start, seek to win at Nevada for the first time since the Sugar Bowl squad of 2007 pulled it off on Dan Kelly’s field goal. The Rainbow Wahine, meanwhile, open up league play at Long Beach State and Cal State Northridge after moving up to No. 11 in this week’s AVCA poll. They are remaining on the mainland following the Baylor Classic.

It’s a light week of overall game action in the Forecast, with nothing until Friday. Soccer has this week off from games before beginning Big West play at Waipio next week. Women’s golf and cross country are in California.

However, the UH basketball teams begin official practices this weekend.

FRIDAY
Women’s volleyball: No. 11 Hawaii (10-1) at Long Beach State (3-9), 4 p.m. (BigWest.TV, KKEA 1420-AM)
The record of the Beach/Sharks/49ers (or whatever LBSU wants to be called these days) is a little deceiving, as they spent all but three games of their nonconference on the road. They’ve dropped four straight heading into conference play. They had some mutual opponents with UH, getting swept at San Diego and at home by UCLA. But they also took Florida to five sets in Gainesville. Hawaii has won its conference opener, home or away, in 25 straight seasons. The last loss in an opener was in the 1993 Big West in five sets at San Jose State. UH’s last loss to LBSU was at The Pyramid in 2016.

SATURDAY
Football: Hawaii (3-1) at Nevada (3-1), 4:30 p.m. (ESPN2, KKEA 1420-AM)
The Rainbow Warriors opened as a 2 1/2-point underdog to the Wolf Pack on Vegas betting lines. That might be because success in Reno has been hard to come by — UH is just 1-8 there all-time. As mentioned above, the only success UH found at Mackay Stadium came down to a last-second field-goal for a 28-26 win in 2007. Since then, here’s how the Warriors have fared in the Biggest Little City in the World: 31-21 L, 2009; 42-28 L, 2011; 31-9 L, 2013; 30-20 L, 2015; 35-21 L, 2017. Nevada opened the season with an impressive 34-31 home win over Purdue. That was followed by a 77-6 pasting at Oregon, but the Pack responded with a 19-13 home win over Weber State and a 37-21 win over UTEP in El Paso this past weekend. Carson Strong is expected to resume his duties as starting quarterback after sitting against UTEP due to some hard hits in the previous games. This is Nevada’s homecoming game.

Women’s volleyball: No. 11 Hawaii at Cal State Northridge (5-7), 4 p.m. (BigWest.TV, KHKA 1500-AM)
This will be the Matadors’ home opener, as they spent all 12 nonconference games at events in Ogden, Utah, Fresno, Calif., Portland and Phoenix. They travel to UC Santa Barbara for their first league game on Tuesday. UH’s last loss to CSUN was at the Matadome in 2014.

Women’s golf: Cowgirl Invitational, all day
Stephen Bidne’s Rainbow Wahine have 1987 U.S. Open champion Scott Simpson as an assistant coach this year. In their first event of the season, though, the Wahine struggled to a 16th-place finish of 17 teams. They were hobbled at the Hobble Creek Classic in Utah, as senior Malia Ebersberger had to withdraw and the team competed with only four. This week, they’re at Palm Desert, Calif.

Cross country: Capital Cross Challenge, all day
Graduate transfer Shannon McLish won last week’s Chaminade Invitational at Kapiolani Park with a time of 19:56. The Wahine finished behind Hawaii Pacific in the four-team local field, though. This week they travel to Sacramento for this event hosted by Sacramento State.

SUNDAY
Women’s golf: Cowgirl Invitational, all day
Sophomore Haruka Shintani and junior Sahara Washington led the Wahine in their season-opening event with 76s in their final round and finished 42nd and 46th, respectively.