Although nearly half of the 2025 Hawaii women’s volleyball team will be new players, most of the newcomers are already enrolled in school and eligible to practice this spring.
The Rainbow Wahine announced the addition of four transfers to the 2025 recruiting class on Wednesday who will be joined by Kahuku outside hitter Cha’lei Reid, who signed in the fall and is early enrolling for the spring semester.
The incoming group adds some height to the team with 6-foot-3 middle blocker Bri Gunderson, a fifth-year senior transfer from Eastern Washington, and 6-foot-3 opposite Lois Hansen, a transfer from UC Santa Barbara.
Gunderson led the Big Sky in total blocks last season with 156 and made the all-conference first team for the Eagles after making the second team the season prior. Her 135 block assists set a school record at EWU.
Hansen, who redshirted in 2023 for the Gauchos, played in 10 matches last season and had a career-high 19 kills in one match and seven block assists in another.
Gunderson will have one season of eligibility at UH after beginning her career at Brigham Young.
UH has also added Audrey Hollis, a 6-foot combo setter and hitter from UC San Diego, who was named to the All-Big West Freshman team as a setter last season. Hollis won two Big West Setter of the Week awards.
Hansen and Hollis will have three years of eligibility remaining.
Leilani Lopez, a 5-foot-8 libero transfer from Cal State Fullerton, also joins the team. Lopez, who has two years of eligibility remaining, is a second-generation member of the Rainbow Wahine program, following her mother, Krystal Attwood, who played at UH from 1990 to ’93.
“I am very excited for these five student-athletes to join our program this spring,” head coach Robyn Ah Mow said in a press release. “Bri, Audrey, Lois and Leilani add experience, depth and maturity at their respective positions and they will compete the moment practices begin. Cha’lei comes in a semester early and will gain valuable experience this spring which will lay the foundation for her career here at Manoa.
“All five student-athletes will get a small taste of Wahine volleyball in our spring matches this March and I can’t wait to see them add to the program’s culture that is set in place with the returners.”
They join a class that also includes incoming freshmen Makena Biondi, a 6-foot-5 middle blocker from Agoura High School in California, and libero Kahea Moriwaki from Punahou. Both are expected to join the team in the fall.
The seven players in the class will join eight returnees led by returning juniors Tali Hakas and Stella Adeyemi at outside hitter, sophomore Miliana Sylvester at middle blocker and sophomore Victoria Leyva at libero.
Hawaii has yet to announce the details of its spring exhibition matches.
