Rainbows, Gators in league of their own
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
| • | Streaking
Longest active conference winning streaks in Division I women's volleyball Florida 72 Note: Includes conference regular season and tournament matches |
 |
|
None of the players on the roster has lost so much as a conference match in their college careers.
They are regulars in the Top 10 of the USA Today/American Volleyball Coaches Association poll and perennial shoo-ins for the NCAA Tournament.
The University of Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine?
Well, they could be. But, for purposes of illustration, we're talking the University of Florida Gators, the only Division I women's volleyball team in the country with a more heavy-handed domination of its conference than the Rainbow Wahine.
For now, at least.
The Gators have won 72 consecutive Southeastern Conference matches — regular season and tournament — since 1998. In regular season conference matches only (Florida lost to Arkansas in the 1997 SEC Tournament), the Gators are on an NCAA-record 102-match roll.
That's something to think about as the undefeated Rainbow Wahine (12-0), who have the second longest active — regular season and tournament — streak, 60 matches and counting, continue to steamroll Western Athletic Conference foes.
And, maybe something to eventually shoot for, too. Women's volleyball, unlike basketball and most sports played by such a range of schools, more than 300 on the Division I level, is the rare one that can be completely dominated by a single power team in a conference. Witness Florida in the SEC and Nebraska, winner of 55 in a row in the Big-12.
With a serious lack of competition in the WAC, where UH hasn't lost since a 1998 match to Brigham Young, which is no longer in the conference, Florida's mark is something to chase, even if only to ward off the occasional boredom before the NCAA Tournament.
Consider, for example, that Sunday's UH opponent, Tulsa hasn't taken a game from the Rainbow Wahine since 1997 — 24 consecutive games and growing. On such nights, when the only real drama is whether somebody, anybody, can take a game from the Rainbow Wahine, Florida's streak might be something to take aim at.
If the Rainbow Wahine continue to run the table through the remainder of the regular season and the WAC Tournament, they're looking at 74 in a row. And, who knows, somebody in the SEC might yet take out Florida.
Meanwhile, you won't catch UH coach Dave Shoji publicly keeping count. "I don't think about those kind of streaks," Shoji says. "I know people get tired of hearing me say it, but we're just concentrating on taking them one match at a time."
Maybe all the way to 70, 80, 90...?
