Beth McLachlin fell in love with volleyball in fifth grade as a convenient backyard practice partner for older sister Cathy, who wanted to make the elementary school team.

That love was sustained through high school, while in college as a member of the inaugural Hawaii program and for nearly a decade with the U.S. national team.

The sport is reciprocating that love this spring when McLachlin, a three-time All-American for the Rainbow Wahine, will be inducted into the USA Volleyball Hall of Fame in Columbus, Ohio, on May 22. One of 25 inductees, she will receive the Flo Hyman All-Time Great Female Player Award, an honor made more special as McLachlin was a teammate of the late Hyman in the 1970s.

McLachlin, the retired athletic director at La Pietra, said she had an “OMG” moment when opening her notification letter last month.

“Wow, they remembered me,” the 1986 UH Sports Circle of Honor inductee said. “It was so long ago. But it is very, very nice to think I did enough to get this.”

Her resume speaks for itself. She was an alternate on the 1968 Olympic team that finished eighth in Mexico City; co-captain of the ’76 Olympic team that did not qualify for Montreal; and helped the U.S. medal at the NORCECA (bronze in ’69, silver in ’75) and at the World Championship (gold in ’70).

In McLachlin’s three seasons with the Wahine, they were second nationally at the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women championships in 1974 — the inaugural year of the UH program — and ’75 and ’77. McLachlin took 1976 off to be with the national team, and began teaching at La Pietra in 1977.

“I just loved the game,” said McLachlin, whose international playing career was cut short by knee injuries. “I wanted to play anywhere and everywhere.

“I’m grateful for how the AIAW rules were back then. That was before the NCAA (which took over women’s intercollegiate athletics in 1981). If it had been the NCAA, I wouldn’t have been able to play.

“In the AIAW, your (eligibility) clock didn’t start until you started playing for a school. I was 24 when I first played for the Wahine.”

Love and volleyball have long been entertained in McLachlin’s life. She met future husband Chris McLachlin at a volleyball tournament in April 1968; the couple were married in 1970. Chris McLachlin, retired basketball and volleyball coach at Punahou, currently serves as a broadcaster for UH women’s and men’s volleyball.

“It was love at first sight,” Beth McLachlin said, her feeling about her husband as well as volleyball.

Among the others to be inducted at the Dorothy C. Boyce Banquet in May are Misty May-Treanor (all-time great female beach player), Ron Von Hagen (all-time great male beach player), and Bryan Ivie (all-time great male player). The latter award is named for the late Tom “Daddy” Haine, a Roosevelt High graduate who captained the 1968 U.S. Olympic team and is an International and YMCA volleyball hall of fame inductee.