Hawaii women’s volleyball aims to keep momentum going

Even without playing on Tuesday, the University of Hawaii women’s volleyball team received a major resume boost.

That’s because SMU, the team the ‘Bows defeated to open their 2024 season last Friday, swept No. 2 Nebraska to improve to 2-1.

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On the court, the Rainbow Wahine will look to continue their momentum built from a set of impressive wins over the Mustangs and San Diego.

The ‘Bows will host Pepperdine, one of the top teams in the West Coast, on Friday and Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center, looking for another pair of nonconference wins.

Despite its 2-0 start to the season, the Rainbow Wahine had abysmal first sets in both matches, losing by a combined 50-18. Robyn Ah Mow knows there will be growing pains for a team that only has two seniors, but she’s pleased with the persistence her team has shown in the early going.

“Patience. I have no words for that. But I’m just glad that they’re fighting. And I keep telling them this whole season, you guys are going to have to fight. You can’t tell me that you’re going to come out and pummel teams like, you know, three to zero. It’s going to go up and down,” Ah mow said. “It’s going to go up and down because of what I said in the beginning. There’s older girls, but not really older. You know, some haven’t played. They’re not that experienced. And then you got some young ones and they just got to kind of figure out how to deal with each other on the court.”

At the end of each first set thus far, Ah Mow has pulled her team for heartfelt “Tunnel Talks” in which she challenges her team to be better. Although those talks have had a 100% success rate so far, she hopes she doesn’t have to keep going back to them.

“She gets us excited and gets us fired up,” freshman middle blocker Miliana Sylvester said. “She gets us going.”

Added freshman defensive specialist Victoria Leyva: “I think it shows the fight that we have as a team. Wahine volleyball is all about our grittiness and fight and keeping pushing. We always play with our heart. It’s the passion that we have for the game. So I think knowing that we have that, it doesn’t just translate to losing a whole first set, it translates to even being trailing behind one to three points. I think it just shows the fight that we have to continue and come back into the game at any moment that we need to come back.”