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ABOVE all else, beyond height and speed and athleticism and power and strategy, ahead of coaching and numbers and even momentum, women's volleyball is a game of will. That is what makes it such a great adventure -- that six seemingly average individuals can somehow and suddenly band together and become unbeatable. Force strong in
Hawaii’s VakasausauYou've seen it before. This is a sport in which a single lightning bolt personality can put a team on her shoulders and drive it, wringing every ounce out of her teammates, willing them to win with nothing more than the power of pure desire.
Forget hitting, forget height, forget all the tangible, measurable qualities that you find on paper. No matter the stats, a team's best player is the one who wants it most and is able to take everyone along with her into the zone.
It's inexplicable, and it's wonderful, the way these captains emerge. Volleyball at its best is fists and dives and smiles and eyes and fire and hugs. And there's nothing quite like watching the woman in the eye of the storm who holds it all together. The rest of the team can do impossible things simply because she's there. She pushes and drives, scolds and cajoles. She won't let them lose. And they love her for it.
This is the beauty of volleyball.
"I feel it," Hawaii's Margaret Vakasausau said. "I feel it in my stomach and my heart."
The Wahine opened the season still searching for this player. With the loss of Lily and everyone else, leadership becomes more important than ever. In the first two games Friday night, UH looked rudderless, and the early leader for team MVP was the gaggle of intermediate school girls who scream when the other team is trying to serve.
"It is hard some nights," said Jen Carey, the setter, who tried with everything she had to make things happen. "You just try to get everybody clicking, you know. You make eye contact, you get people together, you're slapping hands." Leadership isn't easy, and no one works harder at it than Carey. But it can be an elusive formula. You have it or you don't.
Vakasausau had it Friday. The Wahine were suddenly more explosive, more organized, bigger, taller, better. They got to balls they had no business getting. They were alive. They were fighters. They were going to win, and they knew it. Margaret told them so.
They loved her. They hugged her. They raved about her. They played for her. There is no explanation for it. They just did.
The force is strong in that one.
"I've never not felt it," she said. "But it's hard to be on the bench and to lead a team."
We'll see if Vakasausau emerges as that player for the Wahine, if she is the one to lift them highest when things are worst. The season will tell. Carey is a proven starter, and Vakasausau is still super sub.
On paper, perhaps she shouldn't be able to do the things she does. But that's why we love volleyball. It's a game in which you don't have to be good to be great. Not if you've got something special. And maybe Margaret does.
Kalani Simpson's column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
He can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com