Rainbow Wahine volleyball's 2006 recruiting class got an early start on team chemistry this month. Amber Kaufman, who will be a senior at Branham High School in San Jose, met Hawai'i high school seniors Danielle Mafua and Careena Onosai at the Junior Olympic Championships.

All have verbally committed to play for UH in '06. Mafua is a 5-foot-9 setter/hitter for Mid-Pacific. Onosai, a 6-foot hitter for Word of Life, is also a state champion in discus and shot put and plans to walk on to both teams.

She and Kaufman better like each other's company. The 6-footer from San Jose is one of California's premier high school jumpers and also plans to participate in track at UH. She was named the San Jose Mercury's Horizontal Jumper of the Year after winning the Central Coast Section long and high jumps.

Kaufman was fifth in the state in high jump, where her career best is 5-10 — better than the current UH best. She took 10th in long jump, where she has gone 18 feet, 11 inches.

"Both sports definitely help each other," Kaufman said by phone. "In volleyball I'm jumping all the time. They are similar in the fact that both are fast-paced and you do a lot of jumping drills."

Kaufman was adamant about being involved in both sports in college, in part to follow in the high-flying steps of former track coach Ashley Ivey, who participated in volleyball and track at Stanford.

"I wanted to do what she's done," Kaufman said. "I've always enjoyed doing both. If I played only one sport I wouldn't know what to do with myself."

The highlight of her volleyball career was a runner-up finish at this year's Junior Olympics. Kaufman plays middle for her club and high school teams, but admits that she "might be too short" to play it in college.

No problem: "They can put me wherever they want," she says of the Hawai'i coaches, who can't discuss recruits until after the official signing date.

Jamie Houston, who will be a freshman at UH this fall, has been training with the USA Women's Junior National program in New York this month. The U.S. will make its third appearance at the FIVB Under-20 World Championships, in Turkey, starting Saturday. Only 12 of the 18 who have been training will travel, with the final team to be named tomorrow.

Punahou graduate Aneli Cubi-Otineru, who verbally committed to UH during her junior year, has decided to play for Southern Idaho junior college.

Cubi-Otineru is a 5-foot-9 hitter who was The Advertiser's All-State Player of the Year in 2003. She had to sit out part of her senior year because she was academically ineligible.

At CSI she will become part of a multi-national roster that has won seven National Junior College Athletic Association championships the past 11 years under coach Ben Stroud. He has coached 24 All-Americans and six AVCA players of the year.

Stroud said Cubi-Otineru will be joined by Punahou teammate Pohai Nu'uhiwa, the 2004 All-State Player of the Year who helped the Buffanblu to their second consecutive state title. Nu'uhiwa is a 5-2 setter who will help ease the absence of Moanalua graduate Ashley Gandauli, now headed to Washington State.

According to Stroud, Cubi-Otineru committed in June. He calls her "definitely an All-American-type kid for us. ... I think she gives us a legitimate shot at winning another national championship. I'd like to get No. 8 and she's part of that puzzle."

The coach says about 90 percent of his players finish their careers at Division I schools.

Dave Shoji is about three weeks away from opening his 31st training camp as Rainbow Wahine coach. UH's season starts at the AVCA/NACWAA Volleyball Showcase, in Omaha, Neb., Aug. 26.

Shoji has all starters back from a team that won its first 30 matches last year — after losing all but one starter from the previous year — and ended its season at the NCAA Regionals. It was just picked by opposing Western Athletic Conference coaches to win its 10th consecutive regular-season title.

Nevada was second, followed by first-year WAC members: Idaho, New Mexico State and Utah State.

"I think that the new teams got everybody's interest perked up," Shoji says. "Everybody thinks they will make an impact, make the league stronger."

The question is, will it be strong enough to help Hawai'i prepare for the postseason? The 'Bows haven't lost to a conference team in eight years.

"That winning streak is a problem," admits Nevada coach Devin Scruggs, whose team took UH to five games twice last year. "They don't know how to lose and that's kinda scary."