It wasn't exactly a surprise, but yesterday's news that the University of Hawai'i-Hilo volleyball team had been shut out of the NCAA Division II Championships — despite a 14-0 league record — was bitterly disappointing to the school's athletic director.

Under first-year head coach Bruce Atkinson, the Vulcan program staged a remarkable turnaround this season, winning the conference by five games and finishing 23-5 overall.

"It's unfortunate that the criteria that has been established rewards losses to ranked teams more than wins," said UH-Hilo athletic director Kathleen McNally. "Our student-athletes deserved to go. They earned it."

Because the conference will not be considered "official" in the eyes of the NCAA until next year, its member schools essentially are regarded as independents. That makes it difficult for PacWest schools to schedule games against schools in power conferences. In contrast, schools such as those in the California Athletic Association have little incentive to play outside their conference.

"We've been banged up in the seedings over the last couple of years," McNally said. "This was not a shock, but we were looking for a miracle."

The Vulcans were the story of the PacWest this fall, rebounding from last season's 3-12 conference record to a perfect record this year thanks to the precocious play of a young but talented team.

UH-Hilo capped its season on Saturday by sweeping HPU. The Vulcans were led by Hillary Hurley (16 kills) and Lauren Bayer (10 kills on .667 hitting).

"I feel sorry for our athletes and our first-year coach because you can't just expect (a season) like this to happen again," McNally said. "It takes a lot of effort, camaraderie and team work. It takes a bit of magic, and they had it this year.

"Thank heavens they have a chance to do it again next year."

And that, perhaps, is the most devastating news for Hilo's conference rivals.

The team returns its entire roster next year, including its stellar sophomore class of setter Desiree Agader, middle blocker Bayer, hitter Fabiane Seben and defensive specialist Laura Rodriguez.

Agader, Bayer and Seben each won conference player of the week honors two times this season.

McNally said new regionalization guidelines adopted by the NCAA Division II Presidents Council in May should help the Vulcans' cause next year.

The council agreed to modify regional boundaries so that all members of a conference would fall into a single designated region. All in-state games would count as in-region, as would games against teams in states bordering the region. This change would allow UH-Hilo and other PacWest teams to expand its pool of potential opponents to schools in Texas, Colorado and other states bordering the conference region.

And while that may be little consolation after what the Vulcans went through this year, McNally said she's confident Atkinson, the PacWest coach of the year, and his squad will take full advantage of its opportunities next season.

"I asked him, 'What's your encore?' "

CROSS COUNTRY

Brigham Young-Hawai'i cross country coach Norman Kaluhiokalani certainly wasn't griping about his men's team's No. 9 regional ranking this year, he just wasn't sure it was warranted.

"We were ranked there all year and I wondered why," he said. "We found out in the end."

The end came at the NCAA Division II West Regional Championships in Boise, Idaho, two weeks ago when BYUH's men's and women's teams recorded the best individual and team scores of the Hawai'i bloc.

Over the course of a long season, senior Golden Harper proved to be the top individual runner in the state, but the Seasiders couldn't catch rival HPU — until the regionals. BYUH placed ninth overall; HPU finished No. 12.

"We surprised ourselves," Kaluhiokalani said. "HPU is a great program, but I'm glad we could represent the conference the way we did."

The BYUH women's team, led by Amanda Whitford, placed 17th overall and tops among Hawai'i teams. The Seasiders lose Harper next year, but have a solid building block in rising junior Rivers Puzey.

"He's our top gun and we'll build around him," Kaluhio-kalani said.

The women's team is set with Whitford poised to dominate the competition in her senior year.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.