Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball

Hawaii Rainbow Wahine Volleyball
University	University of Hawaii at Manoa
Conference	Big West
Location	Manoa, HI
Head coach	Dave Shoji (42nd year)
Home arena	Stan Sheriff Center (Capacity: 10,300)
Nickname	Rainbow Wahine
Colors	Green, White, Black, and Silver[1]
AIAW and NCAA Tournament Champions
1979, 1982, 1983, 1987
AIAW and NCAA Tournament Runner Up
1974, 1975, 1977, 1988, 1996
AIAW and NCAA Tournament Final Four
1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009
AIAW and NCAA Tournament Appearances
1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
Conference Tournament Champions
WAC 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011
Conference Regular Season Champions
PCAA 1987 WAC 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Big West 1988, 1989, 1990, 1995, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016

The Stan Sheriff Center's capacity crowd during a routine NCAA Tournament Match vs. USC (2011)

The Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball team is the NCAA Division I women's volleyball team for the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. The Rainbow Wahine volleyball program remains the second-largest source of financial income for the University of Hawaii athletic department, second only to Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football. Since '94-97 the Rainbow Wahine have led the nation in home game attendance, with a cumulative average of more than 6,800 fans per match.^[2] That streak was broken in 2013, however, when the Nebraska Cornhuskers moved into the magnificent Devaney Center and began averaging over 8,000 fans at each home match. Since then, the Huskers have been the national annual attendance leader. On October 21, 1994 against the San Jose Spartans (an AVCA Receiving Votes, timely, team) the Wahine played their first match in the SSC.

The team has won four national championships: one AIAW title and three NCAA Division I titles. The Rainbow Wahine played in the Big West Conference from 1988 to 1995. They joined the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) in 1996 and clinched at least a share of the regular-season conference title each year until 2012, when the Rainbow Wahine re-joined the Big West Conference. Hawaii won the WAC Tournament (and the WAC's automatic NCAA Tournament bid) in 1998 and every year between 2001 and 2011 except in 2010, when Hawaii lost in the tournament's final round to the Utah State Aggies. All four National Championship squads have been team inducted into the UH Hall of Honor, of the Hawaii Athletics most prestigious, since 1981-82 (the NCAA's WVB birth).

On September 12, 2009 the program notched its 1,000th victory with a 3-0 win (27-25, 25-21, 25-22) over Stanford University. UH leads this series 19-13. On December 11, 2015 after five previously unsuccessful attempts, the Wahine was able to defeat 7-time national champions Penn State. Scores in this particular Des Moines, Iowa Regional Semifinal were 25-22, 27-25, 25-16.

In addition, the program has made 34 NCAA postseason appearances out of 35 years, only missing the 1992 NCAA tournament. The program has produced Olympians, All-Americans and five individuals named National Player of the Year since 1983.

As an incidental... Reyn Spooner attired Aloha shirts are duds enjoyed at each and every home match by the coaching staff.

Notable players

• Linda Fernandez: Coach Kang trainee (1972-4); superstar of the professional International Volleyball Association. Gifted athlete 'til the 1980s featured on ABC-TV's Superstars (U.S. Men, Women, Networks, Olympic).
• Suzanne Eagye-Cox: 2-time AVCA 1st Team All-American (1986-7) & '87 Nat'l Honda Award winner. Husband Tim is a pro motion picture's artist in the realm of blockbusting faith-based films. She was the 1987 PCAA/BWC P.O.Y.
• Tonya "Teee" Williams: 3-time 1st Team All-American (1987, 1988, 1989), 2-time AVCA National Player of the Year (1987, 1989). A member of the 1992 and 1996 USA Olympics Teams.
• Karrie Trieschman-Poppinga (1987-1990): 2-time 1st Team AVCA All-American (1989, 1990). Along with fellow Kama'aina Gabrielle Reece (w/4-person WBVL), she was a Nike, Inc. spokes model starring on the 2-person WPVA Tour (1992-7).
• Robyn Ah Mow: 2-time AVCA 1st Team All-American (1995, 1996), USA Olympics indoor women's volleyball team member (2000, 2004, 2008), assistant coach from 2011–2016.
• Heather Bown: 2-time 1st Team All-American (1998, 1999). Led the country in blocks in 1999, with over 2 blk/s. The 2-time WAC Player of the Year (1998, 1999) was also a 3-time Olympian at the (2000, 2004, 2008) Olympic Games as a member of the USA indoor women's team.
• Kim Willoughby: AVCA National Player of the Year (2003), 3-time AVCA 1st Team All-American (2001, 2002, 2003), 3-time WAC Player of the Year. 2008 USA Olympic Indoor women's team member. She is the all-time career kill leader at Hawaii and the Western Athletic Conference with 2,598 career kills.
• Victoria Prince-Federline: 2-time AVCA 2nd Team All-American (2004, 2005). Middle-blocker among those only at least twice recognized on all WAC teams for WAC All-Decade Volleyball team (2000-2009). She married baby-daddy (2013, Hard Rock Las Vegas) becoming step mother to Britney Spears' Sean Preston and Jayden James Federline.
• Kanoe Kamana'o: AVCA F.O.Y.; 4-time All-American (2003-6). Ranks in the top 10 all time of NCAA assists. Hawaiian ambassador fly girl, post David Ige and politics.
• Raeceen Woolford: 'Iolani School's c/o 2003; progressively to 2006 (in all 35 matches) she earned starting spots at libero & back-row specialists, while serving Most phenomenally. She was crowned Miss Hawai'i 2009; she made the final cut of seven in the 2010 Miss America pageant, there she'd win Miss Congeniality.
• Jane Croson: 2010 FIVB (U-19) Beach World Champion with partner Summer Ross, 2010 NORCECA (U-20) Women's Continental Champion; tournament MVP, 3-time all WACs & BWC selection (2011, 2012), 2012 AVCA Collegiate Beach VB All-American, 2015 South Pacific Games gold medalist (team American Samoa); Tahiti.
• Kalei Adolpho (2011-14): from Ho'olehua, Molokai to UHM's international European, multi stop, Summer '15 Tour.

Program record and history

Vikiviki Vahine Volleyball World, A-Z

National championship banners hang in the rafters at the Stan Sheriff Center

Team facts

Head coach

• '72-1974: Alan Kang
• 1975–present: Dave Shoji

Dave Shoji has been head coach of the Rainbow Wahine Volleyball team since 1975. As of 2013, he is the winningest Division I women's volleyball head coach. He is a member of the NCAA Volleyball Division 1 25th Anniversary Team. In addition, he has been named the National Coach of the Year by the American Volleyball Coach's Association twice—in 1982 and 2009. He was named Region Coach of the Year nine times and the conference Coach of the Year eleven times.^[3] In 2010, he was inducted into the AVCA's Hall of Fame. He co-authored with Ann Miller, Wahine Volleyball: 40 Years of Coaching Hawaii's Team (2013). ^[4]

League

• 1974–80: Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW)
• 1981–present: NCAA Division I

Conference

• 1985–1995, 2012–present: Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA) / Big West Conference
• 1996–2011: Western Athletic Conference (WAC)

Home court

• 1975–1994: Klum Gym/Neal Blaisdell Center
• 1994–present: Stan Sheriff Center (SSC)

National championships

• 1979: AIAW by defeating Utah State, 8–15, 7–15, 15–9, 16–14, 15–12
• 1982: NCAA by defeating USC, 14–16, 9–15, 15–13, 15–10, 15–12
• 1983: NCAA by defeating UCLA, 15–13, 15–4, 15–10
• 1987: NCAA by defeating Stanford, 15–10, 15–10, 9–15, 15–1

In film

The formation of the first Rainbow Wahine volleyball team is chronicled in the documentary film Rise of the Wahine, directed by Dean Kaneshiro.^[5] Rise features the struggles of these first teams after the passing of Title IX and highlights the roles of coaches Alan Kang and Dave Shoji, first female Athletic Director Dr. Donnis Thompson, Patsy Mink, and players from the first teams, including Diana McInerny, Marilyn Moniz-Kaho`ohanonaho, Joyce Ka'apuni, and Joey Akeo.

In print

Wahine Ball: The Story of Hawai'i's Most Beloved Team, by Dean Chadwin, details the evolution of a once-genteel game born one hundred years ago in a Massachusetts "Y" and the University of HI. By telling the story of one of the most popular collegiate teams in volleyball history, Chadwin comparatively links the timeworn establishments in his publishing dated April, 1997.

NCAA representation

On November 1, 2005 for immediate release, the NCAA Press issued for the public and media relations a NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball 25th Anniversary Team.^[6] The team featured Middle Blocker Deitre Collins and Coach Dave Shoji as head coach, of seven total honorees. Tonya "Teee" Williams had also been further named to the 1980s NCAA all-Decade team for accolades. The NCAA no longer awards athletes with All-American recognition as they once did in the one and only year, 1981 (Diane Sabastian-Pestolesi).

Notes

1. ^ NCAA Volleyball Record Book (2005), p. 106–107
2. ^ NCAA Division I Volleyball 25th Anniversary Team
3. ^ "Assistant coach helped unite Wahine", Honolulu Star Bulletin, November 10, 1999
4. ^ The Big West Conference Volleyball Records Book, p. 43
5. ^ Hawaiʻi Pacific University Athletics Department, Tita Ahuna
6. ^ Hawaiʻi Pacific University Athletics Department, Volleyball history
7. ^ Cornell University Athletics Department, Deidre Collins
8. ^ (Honda-)Broderick Award winners
9. ^ NCAA Division I Volleyball 25th Anniversary Team
10. ^ University of Hawaiʻi Athletics Department, Marilyn Moniz-Kahoʻohanohano
11. ^ Rise of the Wahine Documentary Film.

References

1. University of Hawaiʻi, Women's Volleyball page
2. US Olympic Committee Includes lists of past Olympians
3. American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I awards – Lists of volleyball award winners
4. NCAA Division I Volleyball information page. The current NCAA Volleyball Records Book may be obtained (in PDF format) from this page.
5. Big West Women's Volleyball page
6. The Big West Conference Volleyball Records Book (PDF)
7. The Western Athletic Conference Women's Volleyball page
8. The Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Records book (PDF)

External links

• Official website