Rainbow Wahine even stronger now
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
When the University of Hawai'i took a volleyball face plant coming out of the starting gate last year, it was tough not to think of what was missing.
Advertiser library photo • • • College volleyball • What: Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic • Tomorrow: UCLA vs. Colorado, 5 p.m. Ohio State vs. Hawai'i, 7 p.m. • Saturday: Colorado vs. Ohio State, 2 p.m. • Sunday: UCLA vs. Ohio State, 3 p.m. Colorado vs. Hawai'i, 5 p.m. • Monday: UCLA vs. Hawai'i, 5 p.m. • Where: Stan Sheriff Center
There was the all-conference middle (Veronica Lima) who gave up her final year to return to Brazil, and a high school All-American (Jennifer Saleaumua) who didn't qualify. The most glaring gap came when the returning All-American (Lily Kahumoku) did not return, taking a semester off for personal reasons.
Wahine Lily Kahumoku will make her comeback against Ohio State tomorrow night.
Several radical lineup switches later, the Rainbow Wahine began to blow by teams. They constructed a 24-match win streak and willed themselves into the NCAA regionals. When their season ended against UCLA, it was easy to wonder what might have been.
When fourth-ranked Hawai'i opens its 2002 season tomorrow against ninth-ranked Ohio State, those can't-help-but-wonder musings can finally be forgotten. There are no such surprises this season, aside from how much the Rainbows matured last season.
"When we started playing well last year, it made me think about what was missing less," senior setter Margaret Vakasausau says. "I started thinking we can take this team pretty far. Early, I was thinking if we make the NCAAs that it'd be great. I never expected to do so well and get to a regional.
"But once the final ball fell in the UCLA game, I looked at (senior) Tanja (Nikolic) and saw her crying and thought of next year and how I didn't want to feel that way next season. Then, with the season completed, I thought about Lily coming back and how we'll get back into it with her."
That time is now and that team that started last season so tentatively is gone. Vakasausau won't worry so much now when she can't find Kim Willoughby. She will again find the sight of Maja Gustin stuffing balls in the middle soothing.
Others found last year such a refreshing surprise they adamantly refused to wonder what if.
Willoughby, the heart to Vakasausau's soul last year, launched an outrageous seven-plus kills a game as a sophomore. She also broke the UH record for digs (3.66) in her All-America season.
Willoughby insists she "lived for the moment" in 2001, without regret for what was gone. It is a trait she traces to her independent mother, who lost her independence one day in a car accident that left her paralyzed.
"It's about what you have and how you use what you have," Willoughby says. "I thought we did great with what we had. At no point did I feel disappointed."
Even coach Dave Shoji, who saw his 2001 strategy shredded before his team even touched a volleyball, stopped himself from looking ahead, or back. After the first weekend, he was having too much fun.
"Once we knew we didn't have those players, I really didn't look back on it," Shoji says. "It never really crossed my mind. The kids we had were playing as hard as they could play. They earned that. I never doubted their abilities."
Their tenacity was most obvious in their groveling. After the first match — an ugly three-game loss to defending national champion Nebraska — the Rainbow Wahine were never again out-dug.
That tenacity was most visible in Vakasausau. After his team lost its first eight games, Shoji brought her in as setting relief. She dragged the 'Bows, stuffing and spiking, past Kansas State and never sat again.
"I was just the link," Vakasausau said then. "When everyone expresses that type of aggression and anger, you can't do anything but control it in a positive way."
Hawai'i would go 28-4 with Vakasausau as a starter. She was voted the WAC's first-team setter and finished with 13 double-double (10-plus assists and digs) matches, including the last six.
What Vakasausau and Willoughby most look forward to this season is watching the smaller "smurfs" play defense and the return of an imposing Hawai'i block. They call those phases of the game the key to this long-anticipated season.
There is another area just as crucial and much more difficult to realize. It can't be seen, only felt.
"We have to work even harder than last year," Gustin says. "Even though this will be a much, much better team, we have to work harder because the best team in the country has to work the hardest."
