Dave Shoji listened in agony last November as his wife, Mary, fed him telephone updates about his top-ranked University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team trailing late at unranked Utah State.

"It was really nerve-racking to not be there, and to not see it for myself," said Shoji, who at the time, just landed in Salt Lake City after flying from Honolulu following a funeral for his father, Kobe. "It was tough to deal with."

The Rainbow Wahine rallied to defeat the Aggies, 16-30, 26-30, 30-20, 30-21, 15-12 in the Nov. 23 match that still stirs emotions in Hawai'i players and coaches. Hawai'i improved to 27-0 after that match.

Tonight, Shoji will be back on the sidelines as his 11th-ranked Rainbow Wahine (13-6 overall, 7-0 WAC) and visiting Utah State (13-8, 5-2) reunite for a Western Athletic Conference match at the Stan Sheriff Center at 7.

"I think Utah State could definitely be a really good challenge here at home," Hawai'i co-captain and junior setter Cayley Thurlby said. "We definitely have a chip on our shoulder about letting them into the match last year. We're going to be fired up."

Last season, a road-weary and emotionally exhausted Hawai'i team played injury-decimated Utah State two days after winning the three-day WAC Tournament in Reno, Nev., and made a two-hour drive from Salt Lake City to Logan, Utah on the same day for the match. Hawai'i also played at Utah the next day, and beat the Utes.

"In hindsight, we should have probably taken another day off," said Shoji, who needed two additional matches before Thanksgiving weekend, and decided on the Utah State and Utah matches. "Our team was tired from the WAC Tournament. It was not an ideal situation for our team. I put our team in jeopardy by scheduling that match."

Hawai'i associate head coach Charlie Wade said he expected the Rainbow Wahine to be "a little rusty — and we were really rusty" last season against a Utah State team that had lost five starters to injury when it played as a member of the Big West Conference.

"Sometimes on the radio it sounds more nerve-racking," said Wade, who coached the team in Shoji's absence, and went 3-0 last season as an interim coach. "In Game 5, there was a little drama. But we played really good in Games 3 and 4. I wasn't really thinking about the (team's No. 1 ranking) at the time. We were just trying to find ways to play better."

Utah State returns six starters and nine letterwinners, including opposite hitter Zuzana Cernianska, who leads the WAC with 4.75 kills per game. The 6-1 senior from Prague, Czech Republic, has 394 kills on the season, which accounts for nearly 30 percent of her team's kills. Cernianska has 12 20-kill matches this season, including a season-high 29 in a five-game loss to No. 23 St. Mary's on Sept. 17.

"We really need to pay attention to where she is," Shoji said. "We'll try to put two blockers on her at all times, and not let her get isolated. She still may get a lot of kills, but we have to block their strength, and she's their strength."

Tonight, Hawai'i puts its 113-match WAC winning streak on the line, a fact not lost on Thurlby.

"We have a WAC winning streak that we're pretty proud of," Thurlby said. "When it comes down to it, any given night a team can win or lose. But I don't think the 'L' word is in our vocabulary."

NOTE

Kahuku graduate Monarisa Ale, a sophomore middle blocker, plays for the Aggies, and averages 1.35 kills, 1.16 digs and 0.76 blocks per game.

Reach Brandon Masuoka at bmasuoka@honoluluadvertiser.com.