Posted on: Tuesday, September 3, 2002

Wahine must deal with weak schedule

By Ferd Lewis
Staff Columnist

Perhaps only at the University of Hawai'i can a women's volleyball team open by playing three Top 25-ranked teams in succession and then have its work cut out for it.

Not because the Rainbow Wahine schedule gets tougher, either. In fact, it is quite the opposite: the schedule gets marshmallow soft.

And therein lies the challenge for a team attempting to polish its game and be championship sharp come the NCAA Tournament in December.

After playing Ohio State, Colorado and UCLA in the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic — all teams that started the season in the American Volleyball Coaches Association/ USA Today Top 25 — the fourth-ranked Rainbow Wahine now don't figure to see another ranked opponent until Nov. 10.

Barring one of its opponents nudging into the poll in the interim, that's 10 weeks without ranked competition until the Rainbow Wahine confront defending national champion Stanford. Between now and then, one of UH's most challenging nights could come in an exhibition against the alumnae, Nov. 9.

What's more, based upon yesterday's AVCA/USA Today rankings, the Rainbow Wahine have only one ranked team (Utah) other than the Cardinal until the NCAA playoffs begin in December.

Making the playoffs isn't the challenge; being sharp for them is. While nobody wants a war-a-week schedule that grinds a team down, this one comes with a 2 1/2-month breather. The Rainbow Wahine's own scrimmages might be their toughest tests for weeks.he problem starts with a lack of competition in the Western Athletic Conference. The Rainbow Wahine play more than half their matches — 14 conference in the regular season plus the Nov. 22-24 tournament — against teams for whom it would be considered a high-fivin' accomplishment just to take a game from UH.

But while the WAC offers UH more yawns than challenges, the Rainbow Wahine's non-conference schedule has usually made up for it. This year, it seems, even a couple of those teams, usually scheduled two or three years in advance, might have hit a down cycle.

Four years out of five, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo is ranked. This just happens to be the "other" year. Notre Dame, one of the few good teams UH can get to travel in the middle of the season, was in the preseason poll but has since fallen out. Likewise, Brigham Young, a Thanksgiving opponent, has dropped out of the poll.

This year one of Dave Shoji's biggest challenges might come in just getting the Rainbow Wahine ready for the playoffs.