As 12th-ranked Hawai'i weaves its way to Reno, Nev., for this week's Western Athletic Conference Tournament, the Rainbow Wahine can contemplate a volleyball season unlike any other. They have been through the good, the bad and the broken in a seemingly infinite rotation.

The broken remain in Manoa, still reeling somewhat, rehabilitating endlessly and desperately trying to make the most of their new roles for a team that expected them to play a major part — "play" being the operative word.

Tara Hittle, the first starter Hawai'i lost for the season back in September, is still searching for what she feels will be the best solution for her bad right ankle. The stress fracture in her right fibula is healing, but she has talked to "every doctor in Hawai'i" and a few in Los Angeles to try and find the best way to fix her painful ankle. She is "leaning toward" surgery now and deciding between arthro-scopy, where holes would be drilled in the bone to promote growth, or a graft, where tissue would be taken out of the knee and put in her ankle.

It is much more than Hittle ever wanted to know about anatomy and physiology, but she realizes she is the most blessed of the three who found the end of their Rainbow season far too soon. Jessica Keefe and Nickie Thomas redshirted as freshmen and suffered their season-ending knee injuries later than Hittle. This year is lost to them. Hittle, who can petition the NCAA for a medical hardship, could get it back.

Besides, she can still walk.

"Nickie and Jess are having a harder time because they just had surgery," Hittle said. "They can hardly move. I feel bad for them. It's not bad for me now because my ankle doesn't hurt really. It's almost more frustrating because I almost feel like I can play. But I know if I did, it would hurt again."

So she goes to almost every practice, as do Keefe and Thomas. They try to help their teammates out, but feel awkward.

"I feel like I can tell them stuff, but only to a certain point, because you're not playing; you don't want to act like you know everything," said Hittle, an all-WAC hitter and Hawai'i's primary passer. "Sometimes you have to stop talking and shut up."

So mostly she hits balls against the wall in practice to work on her armswing and floats some serves. It doesn't even start to fill the void. Then she goes to rehab, for seemingly hours on end.

Thomas, who had surgery on her right knee Oct. 13, and Keefe, who had it on her left Nov. 6, are right there with her, working on "range of motion." Keefe found some consolation in the fact that her surgery produced the "best-case scenario" for her volleyball future, but she is still on crutches. Her near-term goal now is to walk.

"Then I'm free," said Keefe, who has already been through two surgeries on her right knee. "From here on out, 'rehab' is my middle name. ... The rehab process is very much the same as before. It's all about just having patience. You have to understand it's not going to happen overnight. It will happen through many days and many months. I have to look at the light at the end of the tunnel — being able to play again."

They feel each other's pain. All they know for sure is that they will never take playing for granted again. Keefe swears what she misses most are "hard, sweaty practices." Hittle hates to see people get frustrated when they are playing badly: "I think, 'Dang, I'd give anything now to be playing.' "

Hittle also worries that the team has lost its "light-hearted" side. It is a natural reaction when your most upbeat player — someone who can make the coaches laugh even as they finish scolding someone — goes down. She believes the focus starting tomorrow with the WAC Tournament's first round should start from inside.

"We have a lot of talent, but it can only take you so far, then you have rely on team chemistry," Hittle said. "It's not been that easy because they've had so much adversity. But it's OK because that builds character. They have it because they've been through a lot."

Keefe explains it as the Rainbows being "forced to mature faster than most teams" because of their perpetual problems.

"Not a single one of them doesn't understand the importance of going up to Reno and taking care of business at that tournament," Keefe said. "When all the matches are important, which they are at this point, you have to put all your emotion out there — do your best and put your whole heart into every game. There's no longer a time you can afford to make a lot of mistakes. They don't want to look back and know they could have given more."

NOTES

Tara Hittle was responsible for the mini-megaphones the bench players used at the New Mexico State match. "We were like, 'If they heckle us, we heckle them,' " Hittle said. "I went over and got the green things (megaphones). Our bench can get into it. It got pretty rowdy over there. We were yelling as loud as we can. Sometimes the crowd can be too nice. I almost felt like that kind of cheering should not be done on the bench, but it had to be done. It was a special occasion."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.