Rainbow Wahine fall 2 spots in NCAA index

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Win two, lose two. So it goes for the Hawaii volleyball team.

The Rainbow Wahine (14-5, 6-1 Big West) won both conference matches last week but dropped two spots in Monday’s NCAA Ratings Percentage Index. The computer-generated RPI had Hawaii at 33 heading into this bye week, down four from last week’s 29; the Wahine opened at 21 in the first RPI on Oct. 3.

The RPI is used to help seed teams in the postseason based on a team’s record and its strength of schedule. The formula uses winning percentage, opponents’ winning percentage and the winning percentage of opponents’ opponents, plus bonus points for victories over teams in the top 50 of the initial RPI.

Should the Wahine not win the conference, and its automatic bid into the NCAA tournament, Hawaii coach Dave Shoji felt that an RPI of at least 40 would still be good enough for an at-large berth.

(The Wahine have missed the postseason just once in their history, the 1992 injury-plagued year where they finished 15-12).

“But you don’t want it left in the hands of the committee,” Shoji said earlier this season. “We need to keep winning and have the teams we played keep winning.”

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Although that didn’t happen for Wisconsin last week — the Badgers were swept at home by Minnesota — Wisconsin still maintained the top rating in the RPI. The Badgers are one of five Big Ten teams rated in the top 10.

Among the factors hurting Hawaii are the RPIs of the Big West teams, all of which are lower than UH’s. Long Beach State, which handed the Wahine their lone conference loss this season, dropped eight spots to 59.

This past week, the Wahine defeated UC Irvine (remaining at 146) and UC Davis (down 12 to 142). The RPI of the other conference opponents are: Cal Poly (down nine to 55), UC Santa Barbara (down 13 to 70), Cal State Northridge (down 13 to 132), Cal State Fullerton (down two to 266) and UC Riverside (up 21 to 261).

Also on Monday, Hawaii moved up four places in the AVCA Coaches Top 25 poll to No. 13. Defending national champion Nebraska (16-1) moved up a spot to No. 1, receiving 62 first-place votes, while Texas (14-2) went up two places to No. 2.