The honors and accolades are coming fast for the University of Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team now.

In the span of a week, the Wahine have been picked to win their 10th consecutive Western Athletic Conference championship; setter Kanoe Kamana'o has been chosen as the preseason player of the year and four of her teammates have joined her on the preseason all-conference team. In another week, when the first USA Today/College Sports TV Top 25 poll comes out, the Wahine should be a top-four team.

All well in advance of the first serve of a season that doesn't begin until Aug. 26.

Coming off a 30-1 year with all the starters returning from a No. 8 finish in the polls, it is enough to pump up the egos and give a team a big head ... or is it?

Actually, you might be surprised to learn that word is their craniums still fit easily through the doorway of the gym where they have held voluntary workouts. That the egos haven't taken on the appearance of balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Then again, maybe we shouldn't be all that surprised. Perhaps, after recalling how what was pretty much the same team quickly found a chemistry and focus and stuck by it in a 30-0 run last year, perhaps the Wahine are picking up where they left off seven months ago.

That would be noteworthy and about the best sign to see this time of the year. For teams that have experienced lesser seasons have gotten carried away on a fraction of these headlines. Teams have gotten complacent — or "fat, happy and dead-skunk stupid rereading their clippings" as a former UH football coach used to say — with a lot less going for them.

"I don't think anybody wants to rest on what we did last year," said UH coach Dave Shoji. "It was a real nice (run) while it lasted. But I think right away the players felt we should have gone further last year. The main thought in everybody's mind was we should not have lost in the third round (of the NCAA Championships) and we want to go further this time."

Which is part of the reason that UH coaches say there has been 100 percent — 15 for 15 — attendance for most of the voluntary workouts in advance of the Aug. 9 official opening of fall camp. Another is that with some promising recruits and redshirts entering the picture, there is competition at outside hitter and middle, especially.

"I think this team, collectively, whether it is peer pressure or just individual pride, they want to be really good," Shoji said. "And they are willing to give up their summer, so to speak, and work for it."