Hawaii positive
despite 0-2 start

Shoji says the two tournament
losses will help the team

Two matches into the season and the thoughts are already on the hopes that there will be a 31st match to be played.

That would mean that Hawaii had qualified for the NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament and had a first-round date somewhere against someone the first week of December.

Provided that the Rainbow Wahine are successful the rest of the regular season, these early losses to high-ranking teams in the AVCA/NACWAA Showcase shouldn't affect their tournament seeding too much. But with Hawaii, one never knows what the NCAA selection committee will do come Selection Sunday on Nov. 27.

The Rainbow Wahine were 28-0 heading into last year's tournament, with a Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) of No. 3. Still, Hawaii was sent on the road for the first two rounds.

"Well, maybe now with two losses, we'll get to host," Wahine coach Dave Shoji joked. "I have no idea what (being 0-2) means in terms of the NCAAs. Somebody had to come out (of the Showcase) with two losses. I had hoped it wouldn't be us but ...

"I'm not concerned right now with our won-loss record. I thought coming to the tournament was worthwhile in every way. You want to play the best and we did. It almost felt like a final four atmosphere. This prepares you for the NCAAs and will help us down the line.

"I still think we're one of the teams contending for the national title."

Hawaii will find out quickly where it stands physically and emotionally. The Wahine play four ranked teams in their next eight matches, beginning with No. 7 Southern California on Thursday.

The preparation for this week's 18th Hawaiian Airlines Classic begins this afternoon when the team returns to practice after the trip to Omaha, Neb.

According to junior co-captains Kanoe Kamana'o and Cayley Thurlby, there is no need for panic nor a special team meeting. The players know what went wrong against No. 1 Nebraska on Friday and, particularly, No. 5 Penn State on Saturday. The latter had been looked at as a very winnable match.

The two setters were brutally honest in their post-Penn State analysis.

"Our team fell apart," Thurlby said. "On the court and on the sidelines, we could have been more supportive all around. There needed to be support from the bench instead of frustration, giving good, positive feedback and not questioning what was happening with the decisions on the court.

"Vic (senior middle Victoria Prince) made a good point in the locker room. She said that we were settling for what was happening, that we had lost the fire in our eyes. This tournament wasn't do or die but we needed to be flying around the court, playing like it was, playing Wahine volleyball.

"We (as captains) need to step it up and have got to be harder on our players. We weren't getting what we needed out of them."

"There's no need for a team meeting to pinpoint what went wrong," Kamana'o added. "We know what we need to do."

The two said today's practice will be different.

"Things that we had accepted in practice, the little things that we figured wouldn't happen in a game but did, won't be accepted," Thurlby said. "There has been a lot of ball-handling errors and not a lot of talking. That has to change. Some of the things that happened (Saturday) were silly errors."

But some of it was technical. That's what Shoji planned to concentrate on today.

"Our block was porous both nights," he said. "We need to work on blocking skills. And we've got to find another passer. Our ball-handling was very suspect."

Hawaii normally uses a three-passer system. However, injuries (Tara Hittle and Sarah Mason were both out with ankle sprains) and Shoji's desire to give his freshmen some playing time led to a change to a two-passer rotation, as well as confusion.

"I am very disappointed that we didn't compete better," Shoji said. "At times, we were outmanned physically. Against Penn State, we were outcoached and outhustled.

"We didn't want to be 0-2 but there was a good possibility, given the quality of the teams in the tournament, that we could be. But we've seen teams in our (HAL Classic) lose two or three to start the season -- like Minnesota and Texas -- and they got to the final four.

"I wouldn't bury us just yet."

Notes: Although Hawaii doesn't play until Thursday, the Classic begins with Wednesday's 7 p.m. match between Penn State and USC. Thursday's first match is between Penn State and Western Michigan. ... Saturday's win by Nebraska marked the first time in the 11-year history of the NACWAA tournament that the host team won the title. The event's champion has gone on to win the NCAA championship twice (Long Beach State in 1998 and USC in 2003). ... Hawaii associate athletic director Marilyn Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano said there would be a possibility of UH hosting the NACWAA again in the near future. UH hosted in 2003. ... Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano also said UH will submit a bid to host one of the pre-selected NCAA regionals in 2006. The regional sites for this year's tournament are Stanford, Texas A&M, Penn State and the Qwest Center in Omaha with Nebraska as host. ... The Wahine are 0-2 to start the season for just the fourth time in 31 seasons. The other slow starts came in 1976, 1980 (0-3) and 2001. ... Hawaii is on a three-game losing skid dating back to last season's final match. The longest slide is five, which closed out an injury-plagued 1984 season.