Wahine hit the road
with No. 3 ranking

New week. New ranking.

Same perfect record.

The Hawaii volleyball team leaves this evening on its second road trip of the season, packing a 14-0 record and a No. 3 ranking. The Rainbow Wahine moved up a spot from fourth last week in the USA Today/CSTV Top 25 Coaches Poll, receiving two first-place votes, to trail No. 2 Minnesota by 21 points.

Washington (14-0) remained at No. 1, receiving the other 63 first-place votes. The Huskies, Wahine, No. 8 Ohio State (16-0) and No. 9 Texas are the only ranked undefeated teams in the country.

Hawaii (4-0 WAC) puts its winning streaks of 186 against unranked opponents and 94 against Western Athletic Conference teams on the line with matches at Louisiana Tech on Thursday and Southern Methodist on Saturday. Distance-wise, it's the toughest trip of the year.

"We pretty much have the same goals that we do every week," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said prior to yesterday's practice. "Get two wins and continue to get better.

"Everything's new for a lot of our players. It's a learning experience for them, learn to win on the road and learn how to live on the road."

On paper, SMU appears to be the tougher of the two Eastern Division opponents. The Mustangs are 9-6 overall, 3-2 in the WAC while the Lady Techsters are 5-13 and 1-4.

However, SMU was pushed by LaTech earlier this month in Ruston, La., prevailing 30-27, 30-28, 22-30, 36-30.

Hawaii came out of this past weekend with two victories and no major injuries. The only player Shoji considered "a little banged up" was freshman Tara Hittle but it shouldn't keep her out of the lineup.