IRVINE, CALIF. >> Hawaii women’s volleyball coach Robyn Ah Mow views the other three teams remaining in the Outrigger Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship much like her own.
“Any team can take it. Just up, down, up, down, that’s how the play in the Big West is right now with young teams,” Ah Mow said. “Any team, if you can get to show up and play hard and stick with it, can win it.”
That is every bit as true for the Rainbow Wahine, who enter tonight’s semifinal against UC Davis at 4 p.m. as the No. 2 seed looking to repeat as conference champion for the fifth straight season and second under the tournament format.
All four teams remaining in the tournament have similar records, ranging between 19 and 21 wins and eight to 10 losses.
No team matches Hawaii’s record against the semifinalists, however. Hawaii (19-9), which went 13-5 in conference play, is 5-1 against the other semifinalists, with the only loss coming in mid October to the Aggies (19-9).
Cal Poly (21-8) and Long Beach State (19-10), which played each other only once in the regular season, are 2-3 against the other semifinalists. UC Davis is 2-4.
“I’ve said it time and time again, (the girls) already know what they have to do,” Ah Mow said. “They’ve seen it. They’ve done it. They’ve beaten good teams. I think the mindset just needs to be on the how. I’ve said from the beginning of the year this is a young team with young minds. They’ve just got to manage the slight dips and be able to adjust.”
Ah Mow put the team through a tough 90-minute practice on Wednesday before going two full hours early in the afternoon on Thanksgiving Day inside Bren Events Center.
The Rainbow Wahine were scheduled to have an “early” Thanksgiving dinner with plenty of time to digest food and get to sleep before tonight’s match.
By the time UH takes the floor in the tournament for the first time, three of the other five teams will already have been eliminated.
Hawaii overcame a four-set loss to UC Davis by beating the Aggies in four sets earlier this month.
UH had half as many blocks in the win as in the loss and put up similar numbers otherwise in both matches.
The big difference came defensively. UH allowed 19 fewer kills by the Aggies in the second match and UC Davis hit 94 points lower for a hitting percentage of .193.
UC Davis served 11 errors in each of the two matches but had eight aces when it won and three when it lost.
“They obviously beat us the first time, but the last meeting didn’t go well for them and they kind of went down a little bit once we got going,” Ah Mow said. “That is kind of what you see in the conference. Same thing with us, too. Once you kind of shut down a little bit, then whole teams shut down.”
That is when Ah Mow can be seen getting after her team on the sideline and during timeouts the most. She understands not everyone is going to have their best hitting day or passing day or serving day, but where she gets frustrated is when one aspect of a player’s game starts to struggle, they let it affect them in other areas.
“For me, that’s the biggest thing. The mindset when things are not going their way or how they want things to go, how are they going to stop it?,” Ah Mow said. “Are you going to come out and play balls-out Hawaii volleyball or be timid and let those guys run around the court and hustle and make the plays we want to make? That is how we play better.”
Hawaii closed the regular season leading the Big West and ranked 21st nationally with 13.95 kills per set and also led the conference in assists per set (13.04) and digs per set (15.79).
UC Davis ranks second to UH in digs per set (14.66) and kills per set (12.98) and is second in aces with 182, while UH ranks 10th with 133.
All matches in the Big West tournament are streamed on ESPN+.
