There are no bye weeks or offseasons when it comes to recruiting. That was evident on Wednesday for the Hawaii women’s indoor and beach volleyball teams.
The Rainbow Wahine and SandBows received official commitments on the first day national letters of intent could be signed by high school seniors. Hawaii indoor signed Trinity Castaneda, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter from Shadow Hills High in Indio, Calif., while the beach team’s commit is Kylin Loker, a 6-foot AAA-rated player from Carlsbad (Calif.) High.
As a senior, Castaneda led the Lady Knights (21-7) with 290 kills, hitting .471, with 102 digs and 11 blocks.
“Trinity is an athletic pin hitter with great potential,” Hawaii indoor coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos said. “Her ceiling’s very high and we feel she can develop into a high point scorer for us.”
Ah Mow-Santos has three scholarships remaining but said it is unlikely she’ll sign anyone during the early NLI period which ends next Wednesday. Anuenue School 6-1 senior middle Kamalei Krug is an invited walk-on.
Hawaii (18-7, 12-2 Big West) finishes out the regular season on the road at UC Davis next Thursday and at UC Irvine a week from Saturday.
Loker’s paperwork was not cleared by UH’s compliance department by Wednesday afternoon which precluded coach Jeff Hall from speaking about his lone scholarship recruit for next season. Loker confirmed to the Star-Advertiser that she had sent in her NLI late Wednesday, a day that began with her signing ceremony at the Petco Hall of Champions in San Diego.
“I visited Hawaii when I was a sophomore,” Loker said in a telephone call. “When I was touring the rest of the schools, I kept comparing everyone to Hawaii. Nothing was as good as Hawaii, the program, the location, the school. Everything about Hawaii is so amazing.”
The 17-year-old said she had considered USC, UCLA, Long Beach State and LSU. As a freshman, she and Rachel Nobel won the gold division at the San Diego High School Beach Volleyball Championships.
Hawaii, the two-time defending Big West champion, finished third last May at the NCAA beach volleyball championship. The SandBows will host the Big West championship tournament April 27-29 at Queen’s Beach, with the first two days a double-elimination dual event and the final day a 16-team pairs tournament.
The Hawaii men’s team is expecting to sign three during the early period, but coach Charlie Wade did not receive any paperwork so far. However, ‘Iolani’s Cole Hogland, a 6-5 hitter, participated in the signing-day ceremony sponsored by Education-1st Hawaii at the Elks Lodge in Waikiki, committing to the Rainbow Warriors.
