The Rainbow Wahine beach volleyball team was picked ninth in the 2024 AVCA collegiate beach volleyball preseason poll on Friday, the third straight year the BeachBows were ranked in the Top 10 entering the season.
The Rainbow Wahine are coming off a season in which they finished 27-9, made their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance and ended the season ranked 10th. Two-time defending NCAA champion USC was picked first. UCLA was picked second, followed by Florida State, TCU and Loyola Marymount to round out the Top 5.
Hawaii is led by two-time All-American Kaylee Glagau, as well as 16 returnees from last year’s squad. Returning to the team this year is former two-time Big West selection Pani Napoleon, who rejoins the program after spending the past two seasons at UCLA. Napoleon was a part of the Rainbow Wahine from 2018 to 2021 before leaving for the Bruins.
The BeachBows will open the season with the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic, which runs Feb. 22-24 at Queen’s Beach.
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2024 AVCA COLLEGIATE BEACH VOLLEYBALL PRESEASON POLL
First-Place votes in parenthesis
Rank, School……………………………..Points
1. USC (21)………………………………………….439
2. UCLA (1)………………………………………….412
3. Florida State …………………………………….393
4. TCU ………………………………………………….369
5. Loyola Marymount……………………………349
6. LSU…………………………………………………..321
7. Stanford…………………………………………….311
8. California………………………………………….. 297
9. Hawaii ……………………………………………. 247
10. Long Beach State …………………………246
11. Florida Atlantic……………………………….202
12. Georgia State…………………………………172
13. FIU………………………………………………….166
14. Grand Canyon……………………………….160
15. Washington……………………………………143
16. Stetson…………………………………………..103
17. South Carolina ………………………………….89
18. Arizona State ……………………………………53
19. Pepperdine……………………………………….39
20. Cal Poly …………………………………………….36
Others receiving votes: Tulane (29), Arizona (24), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (10), Coastal Carolina (3), FGCU (2), North Florida (2), Boise State (1), UT Martin (1), Texas (1).
