UH needs to keep winning, or else

What’s the motivation this week? Hawaii needs to keep winning in order to keep its postseason playoff hopes alive while the Rainbow Wahine’s opponents — out of the NCAA volleyball tournament picture — are playing for pride and to build on next season.

"It’s hard to say how either team is going to be, how motivated they are," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said before the team left Wednesday night for road matches at UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly. "Both teams will play better than last week because they’ll be at home. Both teams present problems and we are preparing for those."

Both UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly were swept in their two road matches at No. 20 Long Beach State and Cal State Northridge last week. Where their respective mind-sets are this week is as much of a question as that of Hawaii’s, which had a bye week since also playing Long Beach State (a five-set loss) and Cal State Northridge (a 3-1 victory).

For the first time this season, the Wahine’s travel roster had 15 instead of the usual 14. The only player not making the final regular-season road trip is junior hitter Keani Passi, who missed this week’s practices and "is not medically cleared to play," Shoji said.

Hawaii’s other question is the health of junior hitter Tai Manu-Olevao, who leads the team in kills (3.37 kps) and is tied with sophomore setter Tayler Higgins in aces (32). Manu-Olevao was held out of practice the past two days due to illness but said she is feeling better and is making the trip.

"A lot of what we will do will depend on Tai," Shoji said. "If she is unable to play, we have several options. One is moving Nikki (sophomore right-side hitter Taylor) to the left and having either Ginger (junior hitter Long) or (freshman hitter Megan) Huff on the right. And we’ll also have a lot of options defensively.

"Absolutely, there is a sense of urgency this week. Everyone knows this trip is crucial to our postseason hopes."

Hawaii also had a chance to think about its future beyond the postseason, receiving paperwork Wednesday from the last of three commits for 2015. Officially joining the Rainbow Wahine is 6-foot-3 Casey Castillo, a middle-hitter from Santa Fe Christian in Solana Beach, Calif. The paperwork was received last week from Punahou School’s McKenna Granato, a 5-10 hitter, and Annie Mitchem, a 6-2 sophomore middle at Irvine Valley (Calif.) College, who was the national junior college player of the year as a freshman last season.