By Billy Hull
Copyright staradvertiser
The opening road trip of the Hawaii women’s volleyball season tends to be tough under coach Robyn Ah Mow.
This year is no different for the Rainbow Wahine, who have No. 4 Stanford across the net for the first of three weekend matches at Maples Pavilion in Stanford, Calif., today at 3:30 p.m.
Hawaii (4-4) will also play UCLA (4-3), which dropped out of the AVCA Top 25 this week despite winning all nine sets it played last week, and Texas State (4-4).
All three teams made the NCAA Tournament last year, with the Cardinal (6-2) coming off an appearance in a regional final.
Stanford’s only two losses this season are against No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 Texas.
“More intense that we’ve had so far,” freshman outside hitter Cha’lei Reid said before the team left campus Wednesday. “I’m just ready to compete. Obviously it is my first road trip, but it’s like a business trip for us, so taking care of business while we’re up there competing with the best of the best.”
Hawaii is playing Stanford for the first time since 2012. It’s the first time UH has played the Cardinal in Stanford since 1997.
It’s a similar scenario to last season, when UH’s first road trip of the season included matches at Texas and Baylor.
Libero Victoria Leyva, who was a freshman last season, said her first road trip as a Rainbow Wahine taught her a lot about how to prepare against top-ranked teams.
“It honestly tests the mental side of it,” Leyva said Wednesday. “I feel like when teams play bigger teams or teams that are higher in ranking, it can be a mental factor into they are so much better than us. But honestly we are such an underdog team and we have that mentality to us that we’re going to keep fighting. That’s one thing we took away from last year.”
The Rainbow Wahine have battled back from the first 0-4 start in program history to get to .500 before closing the nonconference slate with three away matches.
In Hawaii’s four wins, the ‘Bows are hitting .268 while holding opponents to a .111 hitting percentage. Hawaii, which leads the Big West in service aces and aces per set, holds a 39-24 lead in aces during its win streak as well as a 43-30 advantage in blocks.
“We’re smarter,” Leyva said after last Friday’s win over Portland. “A lot smarter. We’re a lot calmer. We’re more disciplined. We’ve been putting in the work each and every practice. Coach Rob has never taken it easy for us for a day in our lives, and that’s what we came to the University of Hawaii for.”
Reid, who who was dealing with a minor ankle issue at the end of the last match against the Pilots, said it’s nothing serious entering this week.
The reigning Big West Freshman of the Week, who was the conference’s Offensive Player of the Week the week prior, has passed all of her tests to begin her UH career.
In eight matches played over 15 days, Reid is averaging 3.71 kills and 4.5 points per set, which ranks third in the conference.
She leads the Big West averaging 0.68 aces per set, which has helped Hawaii rank 13th nationally in aces per set at 2.32 entering this week.
“It was super fast,” Reid said of the season-opening, eight-match homestand. “No breaks, for sure, throughout the past couple of weeks, but it’s also just been a huge learning experience for me, and I’m just grateful to be able to take everything in and continue to play.”
A live stream for all three Hawaii matches this weekend is available on the ESPN app to those with a subscription to a live TV streaming service or cable package that carries the ACC Network.
