Hawaii women’s volleyball: Wahine add Oregon transfer Brooke Van Sickle
Hawaii is adding Oregon junior hitter/libero Brooke Van Sickle, the third former Duck who will be on the Rainbow Wahine roster in fall.
Dad Gary played for the Rainbow Warriors (1988-90) and mom Lisa (Bragado) played for Hawaii Pacific and was on the AVP. Brooke missed most of 2017 (played in six matches) after a season-ending injury.
Van Sickle played in 67 career matches spanning three seasons. She started 30 matches and played in all 31 matches as a freshman. Last year as a redshirt sophomore, Van Sickle appeared in 30 matches and finished third on the team with 31 service aces, fourth with 252 digs. She also posted 108 kills.
She joins Kyra Hanawahine and Jolie Rasmussen from Oregon. The other transfer is Bailey Choy who graduated from Utah.
Here’s UH’s press release.
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Been on vacation.
One thing announced last week: Former Wahine Tara Hittle was named the new assistant at Pepperdine.
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A belated thank you for all the kind words regarding my AVCA award. Very honored.
Unreal! Another proven addition. Get your season tickets…NOW!
Let’s Go Bows!
Wow!!! That’s all I can say.
yup, just WOW!
I knew BVS was coming for some time, but I fully expected beach only.
It was not a surprise to me
If she came for beach only, would she be only on a partial scholarship? I don’t think beach have that much scholarship to offer since they are loaded too. With an available scholarship available for indoor, I think Brooke did the right thing and accepted the indoor scholarship to help with the cost of attending college. Save mom and dad money.
6. don’t know the scholarship situation, including whether she is getting money from indoor. She cannot receive money from beach and play indoor. but she can get money from indoor and walk-on for beach. I think this continues to signal. a change in the indoor coaching philosophy that initially said ‘indoor only’ (i.e. what happened with Iosia in 17 and this past spring).
Something that hasn’t changed. It is hard to play two sports in college, especially when indoor has a spring season and beach trains in fall. People who say “it’s all volleyball” don’t get the time commitment for a student.
Cindy….when the school announces a signing like that one with Brooke(also with Kyra and Jolie) does that indicate that she signed some kind of scholarship agreement? I assume that UH cannot make any kind of announcement if that player is a walk-on until that player(s) are enrolled in school.
Coaches are not even supposed to comment on kids who are not signed or enrolled so I am assuming Brooke signed an some kind of financial agreement with UH.
The wording of those 4 PAC 12 transfer seems to be very interesting.
With Choy and Hanawahine, the press release stated that they were “added” to the roster/team.
With Rasmussen and Van Sickle, they were “signed”. Could be nothing but I just wonder if the wording mean something.
This could…let me change that…WILL be a huge year. With the talent of the incoming Freshmen plus the proven talent of the 4 transfers from Pac 12 and the returning supporting cast…WOW!
Wow ! Getting excited with this 9 new members. What is going on with the Ducks anyway.
Congratulations Hittle. Started at Portland went back East and now back on the West Coast.
Mags and Canadian team doing good.
Of course it wasn’t a surprise to you Cindy, you know everything volleyball, lol! And deservedly so! I’m still a little curious about the reasons for the transfers. Although it may not be a “mass” exodus from Oregon, it does seem coincidental. Did Oregon get a bunch of new girls too and some of them jumped ship? It just seems weird that we suddenly get this influx of potentially NCAA finals talent both in the freshmen and transfers. Or did we just happen to hit the wind in our sails at the right time this year? I’m guessing that when Robyn said she wanted to expand their recruiting other than the west coast, she wasn’t kidding!
The interesting problem Robyn has now is who’s going where. The competition for playing time will be huge between the existing team and the new team members. In either case, GO BOWS! Can’t wait!!!!
8l-9. just saying i am not sure of the scholarship situation.
12. didn’t mean to come off as knowing it all. but I do know the family. covered both mom and dad when they played collegiately.
11. as for the Ducks, they just got back from the same training trip the Wahine (and I) were on a few years ago. Italy, Austria, Slovenia.
Ulmer took over the program in April 2017, was on staff as an assistant three years prior so it’s not like the transfers weren’t familiar with his coaching style. Also the beach coach at Beach when they won the AVCA title in 2013.
Oregon incoming class ranked seventh nationally. The release dated May 8 still mentions Van Sickle as a returnee.
https://goducks.com/news/2019/5/8/womens-volleyball-incoming-volleyball-class-ranked-seventh-nationally.aspx?path=wvball
Just the fact that nine newcomers grace the roster makes it very exciting, but factor in the experience, quality and potential of these newbies and you can’t help but get a little giddy with excitement. The message in the bottle was a desire to get more physical talent and that is exactly what has come ashore. Now they need to coach them up and put in the work. Build the chemistry and they will come. Go Wahine!
Yea, not to blow up everyone’s excitement with these transfers BUT as CL stated, Oregon’s incoming recruiting class is ranked #7. So, maybe these former Ducks knew their playing time were going to limited over there.
Remember the days when our recruiting class(es) were ranked? I hope we get an chance to play Oregon in the postseason, if we get there. See how good we are…
I hoping we can regain our swagger.
Go Bows’!!!
Sounds like the Rainbow Wahine will be loaded for the next two years. I can see why Elena Oglivie chose to play in Stanford in 2020. With a bunch of graduating seniors this coming school year, they will have plenty of room for newcomers. Found that out from the USA website naming her in the junior roster and the school she intends to play in.
#15 Not sure why you would think that would temper anyone’s excitement. Oregon had a similar recruiting class last year. It doesn’t mean these wahine don’t want to compete and are not good.
Bottom line is they are all quality athletes with D1 experience and filled a big void in our class structure. All the transfers have a Hawaii connection. They all played in the Stan. They all saw the kane fill it. Then there’s the option to play on a top beach team. Lots of positives.
No sked, get excited!
Go Wahine!
So what’s the way too early predictions on the starting lineups for the Wahine?
12. Oregon has dealt with the problem of having too many talented players. Ulmer and staff are great at recruiting and the school sells itself but they tend to be too nice and overpraise playing time.
The Ducks saw five players transfer this season.
(1) Chandler Duff left right after season ended due to non-volleyball related issues, ended up at USC.
(2&3) Hanawahine and Tastad each left at the same time for the same reason, playing time. Hanawahine dealt with injury for most of last season but saw that it was hard to guarantee playing time with Nuneviller, Van Sickle, and Tastad all sharing playing time. Tastad wanted to be a libero and not just a DS plus like Hanawahine, wanted to be a little closer to home.
(4) Rasmussen left around the same time and wanted a new change after being injured a lot and wanted to rewrite her story.
(5) Van Sickle was injured in 2017 and wasn’t 100% in 2018. She missed the past beach season to heal but played all of spring indoor season. She got playing time but with the rising freshman coming in, it wasn’t a guarantee she would get to fully play. Her plan was to play beach to help her take it easy on her knees. She wanted to come to UH for beach but not sure how much money was available and there was an indoor scholarship available so she took it.
If it’s true that she wants to take it easy on her knees then it would eliminate her playing OH with all the jumping required.
I would like to see her in the same role at UO, which is play DS. Keep Kyra at Libero and put Brooke at DS. She could still attack but don’t have to jump to block.
Don’t count out Okino and Gong. They are definitely in the mix.
Yeah, speaking about being in the mix, I hope all this influx of talent will be motivation for Sibley to perform well to get some playing time. She actually didn’t look too bad when they played Texas. However, with Jolie and the other OHs, the competitions will be fierce. The next spot will be the middles. I hope Kamalei has healed up well enough to be able to be in the mix with Skyler. If all they say about Amber is true, she could be a force to recon with. We need a middle that has the speed and jumping ability like Amber Kaufman was. I do hope they work on their step out moves more this year.
Not meaning to, but Cindy always seems to be a little know it all with a bit of anger in some of her statements.
9. UH does not issue press releases for walk-ons. They were all “added” to the roster.
The first tournament will tell us just how good the Wahine are or can be with San Diego, St. John’s and Washington to start off the season.
#23 wow laulau. that wasn’t nice.
Excited for the season to start. It’s great to get these transfers but it’s sad that we won’t really get to know them. Will there be two setters on the court like last year? With all this experienced and talented players, it should be an awesome season!!! Go Wahine, Go Bows!!!
Kudos to Wahine Volleyball for being the first UH team to issue their 2020 roster. I appreciate it.
26. thank you.
In this line of work you do need to know what you’re talking about.
new thread up for Wednesday
https://www.hawaiiwarriorworld.com/?p=50077