Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball

Hawaii Rainbow Wahine Volleyball
University	University of Hawaii at Manoa
Conference	Big West
Location	Manoa, HI
Head Coach	Dave Shoji (40th year)
Arena	Stan Sheriff Center (Capacity: 10,300)
Nickname	Hawaii Rainbow Wahine
Colors	Green and White and Black
AIAW and NCAA Tournament Champions
1979, 1982, 1983, 1987
AIAW and NCAA Tournament Runner Up
1974, 1975, 1977, 1988, 1996
AIAW and NCAA Tournament Final Four
1976, 1978, 1980, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009
AIAW and NCAA Tournament Appearances
1974-1991, 1993-2014
Conference Regular Season Champions
Big West: 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1995; WAC: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011; Big West: 2012, 2013

The Stan Sheriff Center's capacity crowd during a routine NCAA Tournament Match vs. USC (2011)

The Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball team is the NCAA Division I women's volleyball team for the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. The Rainbow Wahine volleyball program remains the second-largest source of financial income for the University of Hawaii athletic department, second only to Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football. Since 1997, the Rainbow Wahine have led the nation in home game attendance, with a cumulative average of more than 6,800 fans per match.^[1]

The team has won four national championships: one AIAW title and three NCAA Division I titles. The Rainbow Wahine played in the Big West Conference from 1988 to 1995. They joined the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) in 1996 and clinched at least a share of the regular-season conference title each year until 2012, when the Rainbow Wahine re-joined the Big West Conference. Hawaii won the WAC Tournament (and the WAC's automatic NCAA Tournament bid) in 1998 and every year between 2001 and 2011 except in 2010, when Hawaii lost in the tournament's final round to the Utah State Aggies.

In addition, the program has made 33 NCAA postseason appearances out of 34 years, only missing the 1992 NCAA tournament. The program has produced Olympians, All-Americans and five individuals named National Player of the Year since 1983.

Notable players

• Marilyn Moniz → University of Hawaiʻi Associate Athletics Director – Senior Women's Administrator who currently oversees, among other things, the women's volleyball program.

• Diane Sebastian → 2-time AIAW All-American (First to do so consecutively, 1978 & '79), program's 1st athlete to compete in the professional ranks with (Los Angeles Starlites) the Major-League VB League.

• Deitre Collins → 3-time AVCA 1st Team All-American (1981,1982, 1983) and the 1982 & 1983 National Player of the Year. 1988 USA Olympic women's indoor volleyball team member.Collins is currently the head volleyball coach of San Diego State University.

• Tonya "Teee" Williams → 3-time 1st Team All-American (1987, 1988, 1989), 2-time AVCA National Player of the Year (1987, 1989). A member of the 1992 and 1996 USA Olympics Teams.

• Kari Anderson → Member of the most highly touted recruitment class in the University of Hawaii's history (of 1991: Danielle Robins; Jenny Wilton; setter, Kari Anderson; Brandi Brooks), long time head coach's assistant/associate from 1997–2011.

• Angelica Ljungquist → The 1996 AVCA National Player of the Year, and the first ever 4-time All-American at UH (2-time Second Team All-American (1993, 1994) 2-time First Team All-American (1995, 1996)). She is the all-time career blocks and block assists leader at UH.

• Robyn Ah Mow → 2-time AVCA 1st Team All-American (1995, 1996), USA Olympics indoor women's volleyball team member (2000, 2004, 2008), assistant coach from 2011–present.

• Heather Bown → 2-time 1st Team All-American (1998, 1999). Led the country in blocks in 1999, with over 2 bit/s. The 2-time WAC Player of the Year (1998, 1999) was also a 3-time Olympian at the (2000, 2004, 2008) Olympic Games as a member of the USA indoor women's team.

• Kim Willoughby → AVCA National Player of the Year (2003), 3-time AVCA 1st Team All-American (2001, 2002, 2003), 3-time WAC Player of the Year. 2008 USA Olympic Indoor women's team member. She is the all-time career kill leader at Hawaii and the Western Athletic Conference with 2,598 career kills.

• Kanani (Herring) Danielson → 4-time AVCA All-American athlete, 3-time WAC Player of the Year (2009-2011), 2011 Lowes' Senior CLASS Award recipient, 2012 USAV Open Nationals Premier Volleyball League P.O.Y.

Program record and history

The SSC's gameday Wahine, with hanging Natl Chmps' Banners in rafters

Team facts

Head coach

• '72-1974: Alan Kang
• 1975–present: Dave Shoji

Dave Shoji has been head coach of the Rainbow Wahine Volleyball team since 1975. As of 2013, he is the winningest Division I women's volleyball head coach. He is a member of the NCAA Volleyball Division 1 25th Anniversary Team. In addition, he has been named the National Coach of the Year by the American Volleyball Coach's AssociationVCA twice--in 1982 and 2009. He was named Region Coach of the Year nine times and the conference Coach of the Year eleven times.^[2] In 2010, he was inducted into the AVCA's Hall of Fame.^[3]

League

• 1974–80: Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW)
• 1981–present: NCAA Division I

Conference

• 1985–1995, 2012–present: Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA) / Big West Conference
  • Overall record: 191-36, 44-6
• 1996–2011: Western Athletic Conference (WAC)
  • Overall record: 234-4

Home court

• 1975–1994: Klum Gym/Neal Blaisdell Center
• 1994–present: Stan Sheriff Center (SSC)

National championships

• 1979: AIAW by defeating Utah State, 8–15, 7–15, 15–9, 16–14, 15–12
• 1982: NCAA by defeating USC, 14–16, 9–15, 15–13, 15–10, 15–12
• 1983: NCAA by defeating UCLA, 15–13, 15–4, 15–10
• 1987: NCAA by defeating Stanford, 15–10, 15–10, 9–15, 15–1

Notes

1. ^ NCAA Volleyball Record Book (2005), p. 106–107
2. ^ NCAA Division I Volleyball 25th Anniversary Team
3. ^ "Assistant coach helped unite Wahine", Honolulu Star Bulletin, November 10, 1999
4. ^ The Big West Conference Volleyball Records Book, p. 43
5. ^ Hawaiʻi Pacific University Athletics Department, Tita Ahuna
6. ^ Hawaiʻi Pacific University Athletics Department, Volleyball history
7. ^ Cornell University Athletics Department, Deidre Collins
8. ^ (Honda-)Broderick Award winners
9. ^ NCAA Division I Volleyball 25th Anniversary Team
10. ^ University of Hawaiʻi Athletics Department, Marilyn Moniz-Kahoʻohanohano

References

• University of Hawaiʻi, Women's Volleyball page
• US Olympic Committee Includes lists of past Olympians
• American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I awards – Lists of volleyball award winners
• NCAA Division I Volleyball information page. The current NCAA Volleyball Records Book may be obtained (in PDF format) from this page.
• Big West Women's Volleyball page
  • The Big West Conference Volleyball Records Book (PDF)
• The Western Athletic Conference Women's Volleyball page
  • The Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Records book (PDF)

External links

• Honolulu Advertiser article about Allen B. Richardson, former team doctor, now deceased
• Wahine Volleyball News
• Wahine Volleyball Homepage
• AM 1500 internet radio KHKA
• American Volleyball Coaches Association