StarBulletin.com

Familiar faces, foes dot Wahine schedule


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POSTED: Thursday, April 08, 2010

Mike Sealy will be back, wearing Bruin blue and gold. Deitre Collins returns with her rebuilding Aztecs.

And Mick Haley? The USC coach is just happy that the match against Hawaii doesn't have the potential to end his season for a third straight year.

The Rainbow Wahine volleyball schedule released yesterday is filled with names and teams familiar to those who have followed Hawaii the past few decades.

Sealy, the Wahine's associate coach until a few months ago, starts his first year at UCLA in the season-opening Chevron Classic. The tournament, one of three that kicks off Hawaii's season, also has Kansas State and San Diego; the Wahine open with the Toreros in the second match Aug. 27.

The Hawaiian Airlines Classic reunites UH with two teams it beat to open last year's NCAA tournament: New Mexico and USC. The Wahine have ended SC's season the past two NCAA tournaments, and three of the last four.

Also in the field is Michigan State, which ended UH's unbeaten season in the 1995 regional final.

The Volleyball Challenge has San Diego State, with Collins — one of the all-time Wahine greats — in her second year. Also competing are UC Irvine and Saint Mary's, with senior setter Kapua Kamana'o ('Iolani '07).

Besides Western Athletic Conference teams, coming in are former WAC member BYU and Hawaii Pacific.

“;I'm happy with the schedule,”; Wahine coach Dave Shoji said. “;We'll be challenged. We've got some holes to fill, but I think with the players we have back and our new ones, we should be just as good.”;

Hawaii (32-3) finished third nationally in 2009.