By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

The eyes dart down the USA Today/College Sports Television Top 25 Coaches' preseason women's volleyball poll, checking off the usual suspects:

Southern California, Nebraska, UCLA, Florida, Stanford ... in the parade of the perennials.

Somewhere around No. 10, after wading through half the Pac-10 Conference membership (USC, UCLA, Stanford, Washington and Cal), it dawns on you the University of Hawai'i is actually missing, not overlooked. The Rainbow Wahine are conspicuous by their rare absence from the Top 10.

Only at No. 13, having fallen into unfamiliar territory, are the Rainbow Wahine finally located in their lowest appearance in six years. "It has definitely been a while," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "But we've been real, real good for a bunch of years in a row."

If "real, real good" meant All-American outside hitters as bookends and a strong supporting cast that annually filled out the all-Western Athletic Conference team, then what is it that awaits the Rainbow Wahine this year: "real good"? Or, merely "pretty good"?

That's what the Rainbow Wahine begin defining this week when practice opens Friday.

Clearly, this rebuilding situation is going to take some getting used to around the Stan Sheriff Center, where the players had been household names and it had been Final Four or Bust for the past four years.

But, then, that's what happens when you lose five of a record six all-WAC performers: Kim Willoughby, Lily Kahumoku, Lauren Duggins, Maja Gustin and Nohea Tano in one unmatched swoop.

It is why the vanquished around the WAC, where the Rainbow Wahine have won 90 consecutive matches, only 15 of them beyond the three-game minimum, believe they actually have a chance this season.

It is why somebody other than a Rainbow Wahine was chosen preseason WAC player of the year for the first time since UH came aboard in 1998 and people are suddenly and excitedly using words like "vulnerable" and "beatable" to describe UH.

Still, the Rainbow Wahine are forecast as a top-15 team thanks in some part to the return of all-WAC setter Kanoe Kamana'o and some promising, if untested, recruits and transfers.

Even Shoji, who can be a big-time sandbagger, admits to filling out his national ballot with UH "14th or 15th."

Yes, the Rainbow Wahine are forecast for what could be their lowest national ranking in years. But what is also interesting to remember is that 90 percent of the more than 300 schools that play Division I women's volleyball would take UH's version of "pretty good" — and the Wahine's place at No. 13 — in a heartbeat.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.