Eastern Washington, tomorrow's season-opening opponent, brought in five transfers this season, but its best move might have been administrative: After winning the Big Sky regular-season championship the past two years and getting left out of the NCAA Tournament, the Eagles placed Associate Athletic Director/Senior Woman Administrator Pamela Parks on the Division I Women's Volleyball Committee, which picks the tournament teams.

San Diego, Friday's opponent, has all seven starters back from its NCAA Tournament team and received votes in the coaches preseason Top 25.

Arizona, the 17th-ranked UH roadblock on Sunday, has all but one player back from last season. The Wildcats also might have the country's most lethal left-side hitter in Kim Glass, but she is broken. Glass is expected to miss at least the first two weeks of the season because of a shoulder injury.

At this point in the Rainbows' rebuilding, it might not matter.

"The thing about this tournament is there is just no guaranteed win," UH coach Dave Shoji says. "In the past, there have been one or two teams we knew would be a win. We can't say that about this field. Everybody is good."

And Hawai'i, despite its No. 13 ranking, is a complete mystery. Shoji is not sure of anything yet, aside from his starters.

Those will be Kamana'o, middle blockers Melody Eckmier and Juliana Sanders, hitters Susie Boogaard, Alicia Arnott and Victoria Prince, and libero Ashley Watanabe.

The last time they played Easter Washington, the Eagles' sophisticated offense gave Hawai'i all it could handle in the 2001 NCAA Tournament.

EWU has been frustrated since, more by the NCAA format than the opposition. It went unrecognized for a 22-8 season last year. The Eagles lost their setters from that team, but return all-Big Sky senior middles Megan Kitterman and Keva Sonderen.

In stark contrast to Eastern Washington, San Diego got into the NCAA Tournament last year after finishing fifth in the West Coast Conference, and going 17-13. It is picked fourth this season, behind Pepperdine, Santa Clara and Loyola Marymount.

The Toreros have been in the postseason the past three years and have five all-conference players back. The most prominent is senior hitter Devon Forster, who averaged more than five kills a game last season.

Arizona proved here last year that Glass wasn't its only weapon. The Wildcats started their surge into the 2003 postseason by taking Hawai'i deep into a fifth game in October. Glass, a second- and third-team All-American her first two seasons, had 28 kills but hit just .128.

Jennifer Abernathy added 20 kills that night, and hit .295. Middle Bre Ladd also rattled the Rainbows and helped stuff UH into a horrible hitting night. Both all-Pac-10 players are back and the Wildcats, 17-15 last year, are picked to finish sixth in the country's toughest conference this year.

NOTES

• Two-time defending NCAA champion Southern California swept Georgia Tech and outlasted Minnesota in five games to win last weekend's NACWAA Classic at Colorado State. In other matches, fifth-ranked Minnesota beat No. 11 CSU in four and the Rams took third place with a four-game victory over No. 12 Tech. USC, which hasn't lost since 2002, is ranked No. 1 in the USA Today/AVCA preseason Coaches Top 25.

• The 2004 regionals (Dec. 9 to 12) will be at Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville; the Sports Pavilion in Minneapolis; Bank America Arena in Seattle; and the Resch Center in Green Bay, Wis.

• It looks like 10th-ranked Cal will be without All-American Mia Jerkov when it plays here Sept. 17. According to the Daily Californian, the Croatian Federation announced Friday that Jerkov would continue her training with the national team instead of playing her final year.