Hawai'i softball bucking foes, trend
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
The problem with too many of the sports in the Western Athletic Conference is that there has usually been a far-and-away dominant team at the top and, then, a huge dropoff to everybody else.
We're seeing this runaway phenomena in baseball, where there is No. 1-ranked Rice — and the five dwarfs. We've witnessed it in women's basketball where there is nationally ranked Louisiana Tech — and everybody else is a pretender. Likewise in women's volleyball, there is the national contender Rainbow Wahine and everybody else is left to compete for Miss Congeniality.
So much for drama.
But maybe, just maybe, there is a revolution afoot in softball where, barely a week into the 20-game conference season, the Rainbow Wahine have shaken things up.
With an eye-opening split of the four-game series at Fresno State, a place where they had gone just 2-23 over the previous 18 years, the Rainbow Wahine have both underlined the Bulldogs' vulnerability and given everybody else, including themselves, hope.
After the Bulldogs' iron hold on the championship with five consecutive WAC titles, there might actually be a race for something other than second place this year. Four games into the season the Bulldogs have already lost as many or more conference games (two) than in four of their championship seasons.
Suddenly, after 21 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and 10 College World Series appearances in the past 13 years, the once untouchable Bulldogs have been rendered beatable.
After five second-places in a row, one of them a frustrating percentage-points finish in 2001, the Rainbow Wahine have to like their chances this time. Especially with 12 of the 16 remaining games at home, beginning with Thursday's series opener against Nevada.
"To tell you the truth, that (2001) season still sticks in my (craw)," UH coach Bob Coolen said. "We played all of our games, were ahead of them in games-behind and had the better conference record (16-4 to Fresno's 13-3) but lost out on percentage points."
With six so-called "quality" wins against challenging non-conference competition, the 21-16 Rainbow Wahine could still earn an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament even if they don't win the WAC.
But, they've been that route five times before. This year, the combination of the Bulldogs' struggles UH's promising conference start has given the Rainbow Wahine the opportunity to do so much more.
This time around, if they can take care of business from here on out, the Rainbow Wahine could achieve a breakthrough and earn their first automatic berth by winning a conference title.
Opportunity knocks for the Rainbow Wahine, now we'll see what they do with it.
