By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

The cheers are probably still ringing in their ears while the high-fives are still flying for the triumphant University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team.

You can bet the celebrations are just getting started for a team on such a high that it almost didn't need a plane to soar back home after the breakthrough NCAA championship.

So, is it too early to talk about doubling up on NCAA volleyball titles?

Is it premature to think about UH pulling off the rare double play of an NCAA title in both men's and women's volleyball in the same calendar year?

Nah.

It is not too early to wonder out loud — or in print — and, what the heck, dream a little.

With one piece of NCAA hardware already headed for the trophy case courtesy of the men and the Wahine — off a crisp four-game exhibition victory over defending national champion Stanford — showing potential to make a run of their own, you can't help turning the imagination loose a little.

What UH will be taking aim at is a feat that just two schools have accomplished in the 21 years that the NCAA has held national championships in both men's and women's volleyball.

Only UCLA, in 1984, and Stanford, in 1997, have bookended the volleyball calendar by scoring sweeps. No easy tasks when the men have to navigate a field of 81 teams and the women a 312-team obstacle course.

The closest UH has come was 1996 when its teams both finished as runners-up — the men losing in five games at UCLA and the women swept by Stanford in Cleveland.

For the first time since, there are reasons to think UH might be capable of the double play.

The Rainbow Wahine, off their final four showing of 2000, could have and, indeed, would have been back in the championship hunt last season if not for the sabbatical taken by Lily Kahumoku. As it was, they went 29-6 and to the Sweet 16.

The curious thing is that Kahumoku's absence might have made the Rainbow Wahine a stronger team for 2002, forcing some of the younger players to be thrown into the mix earlier and allowing Kim Willoughby to emerge as a force.

Now, with Kahumoku on the left side to form a one-two punch with Willoughby, and Maja Gustin back in the middle where she belongs, the Rainbow Wahine have plenty to build on. If they can keep the roster together, stay healthy and, most important, find in their rewritten roles a solid chemistry, who knows.

Two for the trophy case, perhaps?