STOCKTON, Calif. >> If all goes well for seventh-ranked Hawaii on this Big West Conference road trip, Dave Shoji will come home with 1,100 volleyball wins.

A victory tonight at Pacific (20-8, 8-7 BWC) would make Shoji’s record 1,099-183 in his 38th season. The Rainbow Wahine (22-2, 14-0) had to dig out of an 0-2 hole to beat UOP at the Stan Sheriff Center last month.

Another win Saturday at UC Davis (15-13, 9-6) would give Shoji his huge, round number. It means little if not put into context. It is no longer about the number, as Davis coach Jamie Holmes took great pains to explain after her team went down in four at UH a month ago.

“I just want to say thank you to Hawaii for doing such a nice job with women’s volleyball,” Holmes said, in a statement she clearly had prepared. “The fans are just so great and so appreciative of good volleyball and so knowledgeable about the sport. And the community supports the program.

“I’ve been in this profession 18 years and you guys should be very proud to be a Wahine. If you’re going to play, you want to play against the best and that includes being in some of the best venues in the country. I just really appreciate this and want to give a shout-out to Hawaii for doing such a good job for our sport.”

No other place comes close in college volleyball.

The Wahine have led the country in attendance — by thousands — since moving into the SSC in 1994. It was a huge, historic step up from steamy, dreamy Klum Gym, “where the state of Hawaii fell in love with volleyball,” according to Shoji.

There have been 13 sellouts of 10,000-plus at the Stan Sheriff, for a team that televises all its home matches. Since moving to the arena full-time in 1995, Shoji has run the country’s only revenue-producing collegiate volleyball program, making more than $1 million for the athletic department some years.

It begins with the wins, and Shoji’s winning percentage is .857.

“Winning is probably 80 percent of our following,” he says. “No one’s gonna follow a program that’s not winning. You’re going to get your volleyball fanatics and people who love UH, but the other 80 percent just loves to see winning teams.”

This team has won its last 14 and has not dropped a regular-season conference match since 2008 — an NCAA-best streak that could hit 70 tonight. UH clinched its 19th conference championship two weeks ago.

But, since the Wahine won four national titles between 1979-87, it is always about winning the final match. Hawaii has had its chances most seasons, finishing in the Top 10 of the final rankings all but six years since the poll started in 1982.

Shoji was hired in Hawaii’s second season (1975). His part-time contract was for $2,000 and he needed two other jobs to get by. That was more than 40 All-Americans and five Olympians ago. He was named coach of the NCAA’s 25th Anniversary Team and is included in the Hawaii Sports and AVCA halls of fame, and among USA Volleyball’s all-time greatest coaches.

His teams, usually under-sized, have always been known for ball control and defense. Shoji’s reputation has been built on his ability to turn athletes into volleyball players and make radical mid-match changes that never faze his players but drive opponents crazy.

While he hasn’t won a national championship in 25 years, the fact that Hawaii still contends with its small budget, huge travel costs and isolation is unique.

“His team is good when it has good chemistry and not the best players,” says former Wahine and Olympian Deitre Collins.

“It’s the same when he has good players and not so great chemistry. He still has good players and he’s a good coach and it’s still Hawaii.

“There is a lot to be said for expectations.”

And winning many, many matches, most in front of an adoring following that Shoji knows is special.

“Hawaii is simply a very knowledgeable volleyball state and people enjoy high-level volleyball,” he says. “It’s part of people’s lives here.

“I think other coaches know the culture here. When they come here they can feel it. They understand us. … No one seeks us out to ask why. I think they know it’s just different here. They know they can’t create the same thing unless they establish winning all the time.”

Try nearly 1,100 times.

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