Aven Lee had just started a foreign trip when she received the text that would lead her back home.

An assistant coach with Sacramento State, Lee landed in China in early June to start the Hornets’ two-week tour when former University of Hawaii teammate and first-year Rainbow Wahine volleyball head coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos shot her a message regarding a position on the UH staff.

“She told me the first night I got there,” Lee said. “It was very hard to turn down.”

The allure of returning to Manoa was indeed undeniable, and UH announced on Tuesday Lee’s addition to the Rainbow Wahine staff as director of operations, reuniting her with Ah Mow-Santos and assistant coach Angelica Ljungqvist.

“You take for granted the opportunities that you were given as a younger adult when I was playing here,” Lee said. “The idea is to be able to take from the program, but also to leave some things back. … This is my opportunity to give back to the program.”

Lee was a freshman coming out of Kamehameha when Ah Mow-Santos and Ljungqvist were seniors on the 1996 UH team that reached the national championship match. She’ll again follow their lead in the program’s transition after 42 seasons under Dave Shoji’s guidance.

Lee spent the past two seasons as an assistant with Sacramento State’s indoor program and director of operations with the Hornets’ beach program. She coached previously at Nevada (2013-14) and Pacific (2009-12).

“Aven is another very experienced UH alum who knows what it means to play for the Rainbow Wahine,” Ah Mow-Santos said in a release. “She is very knowledgeable in all the behind-the-scenes magic that it takes to make an NCAA D-I team function efficiently and effectively.”

Lee will handle many of the program’s administrative duties, including travel arrangements, game management and assisting with scouting reports. She’ll assist the coaches on the bench on game nights and move into the spot held last season by Kaleo Baxter, who remains on staff as an assistant coach.

“It’s everything besides being able to talk to those kids and tell them technically what to do and coach them up inside the gym,” Lee said.

“Robyn has a really direct view of what she wants for this program, and that helps me to know exactly where I’m going to fit in and what I need to help to be able to get this vision she has for this program where it needs to be,” Lee said.

After completing her collegiate playing career as an outside hitter and defensive specialist with a final four appearance in 2000, Lee coached at the club level and guided Kalani to the OIA championship in 2003.