ohio and northern arizona were picked to finish 1st in their conferences. new mexico, utah st and san diego st were picked to finish 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively in the MWC (altho, san diego st may end up struggling with their young/injured team). st. john’s and usf were picked to finish middle of the pack in their respective conferences, but with a little luck, they’ll be competitive and rack up some wins anyway.

right now, only utah st and san diego st have losing records. utah st will turn that round in conference play. san diego st may be the only outlier with a losing record among hawaii’s non-conference opponents. but that’s fine, b/c the other teams’ win/loss records should be able to absorb it.

it’s hard to look at a few select teams that hawaii played last year to assess and compare where hawaii might land in the RPI this year. it may look stronger that hawaii faced (and won against) top 25 competition last year, but the win/loss records of hawaii opponents may not have been as strong top to bottom last year, as this year. for instance i think the big west is in slightly better shape this year than it was last year. and this year, hawaii’s non-conference opponents (though they do not “appear” as strong) have better win/loss records at the same point in the season as the opponents from last year. which is why hawaii’s RPIis currently between 4-6, depending on which unofficial RPI you’re looking at.

the 3 pac-12 school will start to sustain losses in conference, i agree. that’s expected. that’s also the side effect of facing 3 teams from the same conference. playing pac-12 teams toughens up your team, but you run the risk that they start to pile up losses in a very tough conference. that said, the 3 pac-12 teams hawaii faced (oregon, asu and ucla) look in pretty good shape. they’re going into conference play with great win loss records, 9-0, 10-2, 9-2, respectively. that should give them a lot of buffer even if they take some losses. in any case, all 3 of those teams look like they may be competitive and finish at least middle of the pack (or at least somewhere after stanford and washington. usc is struggling in a rebuilding year, it seems).

and overall, the pac-12 did amazingly well in the non-conference, which hawaii will get the benefit of. it’s a little different from the last time hawaii faced 3 pac-12 teams in a season (in 2012), where stanford and ucla had solid win/loss records, but cal (who hawaii lost to that year) limped to losing record.

I watched the men’s world championship match in Poland and noticed when the sets were above the defender’s out stretched hands, the hit was usually successful. Believe me, the the blocker’s arm pits were above the net, those were really high sets. Of course, the hitter’s chest was above the net so that gives you the height at which the player’s were jumping. With Magill’s ability to jump so that her upper chest is above the net and the blocker’s forearms barely above the net, you can see the advantage Magill has on high sets. Higgins seems to have no trouble setting high to the pins but she just doesn’t seem to be able to consistently set Magill high in the middle. To me, that will be the key to UH’s success as long as Magill is on the team.

With the other hitters not being able to jump as high as Magill, they will have to struggle hitting through or avoid the blocks and depending on the blockers’ abilities, succeed or fail as the season progresses.

I really don’t think Shoji has set his line up for the season. His insecurity will see him make numerous changes as the season progresses. I’m curious about Texas’ line up changes last season after their opening match against UH. Did their coach go through numerous gyrations after that loss? Or did his continually refine their play as the season progressed?

AVCA Division I Coaches Week #4 Poll: September 22, 2014
http://www.avca.org/divisions/division-one-women/poll-9-22-14di/