The University of Hawai‘i women’s volleyball team is still searching for its first win of the season after an 0-3 start, just the program’s third in over three decades.
The Rainbow Wahine will try to rebound this week with three matches at the Outrigger Invitational at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
Hawai‘i has dropped nine consecutive sets, including a five-set loss to Marquette last Friday in which the Wahine failed to convert six match points. Head coach Robyn Ah Mow acknowledged the missed opportunity may have lingered into the weekend.
“Definitely looked like it could have been the outcome from the first day,” Ah Mow said. “It kind of just took a toll going downhill. I don’t want it to be that way … but it just kind of looked that way from outside. Obviously fans and everybody else kind of look that way too. But it doesn’t really matter to everybody out here. It just matters to the girls and getting them comfortable with themselves and their ability to play.”
With four freshmen and sophomores in the starting rotation, Hawai‘i is leaning on its younger core to find consistency. Sophomore libero Victoria Leyva said the team is focusing on progress despite the early setbacks.
“We learn so, so much from this past weekend from the three losses that we had,” Leyva said. “But I can positively say that we were fighting the whole time. Each and every set, the fight was always there. It’s not that we don’t want to be here, but it’s the game inside our head, the emotional aspect, the mental aspect, the volley IQ. We’re setting a lot of film out there and honing in on our skills to make them as precise as they can be.”
In UH’s most recent 0-3 starts in 2017 and 2022, the program went on to finish 20-8 and 22-7 respectively, winning Big West titles in both seasons.
Hawai‘i opens the Outrigger Invitational on Thursday at 7 p.m. against former Western Athletic Conference rival San Jose State.
The Wahine will then face Utah Valley on Friday and St. John’s on Sunday.