Shoji content with Sometimes being the headliner of the show isn't the role you want.
UH’s No. 2 ranking
Defending champion Stanford
tops the Volleyball Magazine
preseason pollBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comThe Hawaii women's volleyball team is ranked second in the Volleyball Magazine preseason poll. Defending national champion Stanford tops the poll released yesterday. USC is ranked third, 2001 final four participant Nebraska is fourth and Florida is fifth.
Hawaii defeated Stanford in a preseason exhibition match in April. The Cardinal are led by the All-American outside hitting combo of Logan Tom and Ogonna Nnamani.
"It's probably not a good idea to get No. 1 in the preseason," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "We want to be No. 1 in the postseason."
The Rainbow Wahine finished last season with a 29-5 record. Hawaii did not have the services of All-American Lily Kahumoku, who took the season off for personal reasons. Kahumoku's absence gave Kim Willoughby the opportunity to blossom into an All-American last year.
The slam sisters and Maja Gustin's return to the middle means the Wahine will pack plenty of offensive punch this fall.
"I think they know we've got two outstanding lefts. Our lefts are as good as anybody in the country," Shoji said. "It's so early that it's hard to tell who's going to be really good.
"(Among) all those top teams, someone can move up and obviously people can move down, so it's pretty meaningless at this point."
Last week, the Wahine were picked to win the Western Athletic Conference for the seventh consecutive season. UH's first match of the season is Aug. 30 against Ohio State in the Hawaiian Airlines Classic.
Most of the players have returned to Manoa for the start of the second session of summer school.
Carey hurt: Setter Jennifer Carey underwent an MRI yesterday. Carey hurt her knee while working out at home. Results of the test are expected later this week.
"We don't know anything yet," assistant coach Kari Anderson said. "We're kind of just waiting to see what the MRI shows. It's premature to think anything until we get the results back. It looks just fine, you wouldn't be able to tell. We're just not sure where it's at."
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