A week into volleyball practice and the nicks from double-day practices are already showing, while coaches are making a dent in forming a starting lineup.
If Hawaii’s season started today instead of a week from Friday, four starters would be inked in. All-Americans Kanani Danielson and Brittany Hewitt, recently named captain and assistant captain, will be back on the left side and in the middle. Sophomore Mita Uiato is the setter in what, for now, is a one-setter offense.
Emily Hartong, another sophomore, will start somewhere … anywhere but setter or libero, basically. She moves too quickly, jumps too well — maybe 3 inches higher than last year — and hits too hard not to. And, she is always moving at warp speed.
"Hartong is going to start," UH coach Dave Shoji says of the 2010 Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year. "She could be middle, she could be right, she could be left."
Where she goes will have an impact on how the rest of the lineup shakes out. All-WAC senior Chanteal Satele is the incumbent on the right. Prized recruit Jane Croson is one of the others getting a look. Playing opposite the setter would let Croson focus on blocking and hitting her first year. On the left, her vaunted right arm would get more swings, but she would also have to focus more on ballhandling.
"Chanteal is playing well," Shoji says. "I want to see if we can get her to play better or maybe go with somebody that might give us more blocking and more offense. I know what she can do, but we need to upgrade that position, so she needs to give us more or we need to find someone who can."
Hartong played middle most of last year, but if she moves outside the second middle slot is up for grabs. Sophomore Kristiana Tuaniga has the most experience, but missed the past few practices with "leg problems" that have set her back. It could be an issue all season, and affect her exceptional quickness.
For now, that leaves freshmen Kalei Adolpho, already one of the team’s strongest players despite little time in the weight room, and Jade Vorster, who has made Shoji think twice about redshirting her with a block that can "bother a lot of people."
The libero position also remains open, with junior Emily Maeda in the lead.
While the Wahine worry about lineups and the daily damage two practices can inflict — Hewitt and Danielson are already limiting their jumping in morning practices — they were ranked 10th in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25 women’s preseason poll released Monday. That is five spots below where they started last year, when they rose as high as third, then plummeted 10 spots in the final poll after losing two of their last three.
Four-time defending NCAA champion Penn State is first and received 54 of the 60 first-place votes.
Hawaii starts Aug. 26 in the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational, opening against San Francisco. The only three ranked opponents on the schedule come in for the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic the following week. UH opens that tournament against No. 21 Ohio State (Sept. 1), then takes on No. 22 Long Beach State (Sept. 2) and No. 11 UCLA (Sept. 4).
San Francisco, Wichita State (Sept. 27), Arizona (Sept. 28), Cincinnati (Sept. 10), Pepperdine (Sept. 16-17) and Notre Dame (Oct. 17-18) all received votes in the poll.
