Wahine volleyball gets to work

Riley Wagoner didn’t need an alarm clock. She was up five minutes before it was set to go off.

Robyn Ah Mow was already getting ready at 4:15 a.m. after getting “like an hour of sleep.”

Excitement was met with a high intensity as the University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball team ended the first of two sessions on Tuesday to open fall practice 17 days ahead of the season opener against Northwestern in the Hawaiian Airlines Rainbow Wahine Classic.

The morning session was strictly about ball control and defense. The first hitting drills didn’t happen until the second session in the afternoon.

Instead, it was Ah Mow, beginning her sixth season as head coach, peppering players with balls hit from just a few feet away. A player wasn’t getting out of her way until the pass was exactly how she wanted it.

“I just wanted to see what it looked like,” Ah Mow said between practice sessions. “I wanted to do some ball control things to see where we’re at. Obviously, we’ve got a little bit more height and we’ve got arms and we need to put it all together to pass the ball.”

Hawaii welcomes back six players who played in all 29 matches during last season’s 22-7 campaign that ended with a first-round exit in the NCAA Tournament.

Transfers Paula Guersching, a 6-foot-2 junior outside hitter from Youngstown State, and Jacyn Bamis, a 6-foot-1 sophomore middle blocker from Clemson, join a roster that also includes incoming freshmen outside hitters Tali Hakas and Stella Adeyemi, who are both listed at 5 feet 11.

All got their first taste of an official practice in which Ah Mow set the tone right away, holding players accountable for their passing right from the start.

“I think we are a lot more urgent than other years,” said Wagoner, one of two fifth-year seniors with middle Amber Igiede. “Coming out with that drill on Day 1 is kind of something she likes to do to set the tone and kind of lay out her expectations of the defensive mindset that we have to have, especially playing in the Big West. It’s a very defensive conference and I think it’s just very typical of what we do, especially in the morning session of double days.”

Wagoner and Igiede, the reigning Big West Conference Player of the Year, are two of three returning first-team all-conference selections with junior setter Kate Lang.

Outside hitter Caylen Alexander is the returning Big West Freshman of the Year.

The pieces are in place to get back to the NCAA Tournament. Hawaii hasn’t made it past the first weekend of the tournament since Igiede’s freshman season in 2019, when the Rainbow Wahine advanced to the regional semifinal in Wisconsin against Nebraska.

“What we’re expecting out of this year is obviously a championship, getting better as a team and leading the younger girls to a good generation of Wahine volleyball,” Igiede said.

Igiede has been a difference maker for the UH volleyball team since Day 1 when she arrived on campus from Louisiana.

Her experience of that first fall practice back then was a bit different than what it was like Tuesday.

“I remember my freshman year I was super nervous, very scared and I think it’s really almost like a beautiful process to see how patient I am,” Igiede said. “Instead of using the word nervous, just more excited to play volleyball. It’s a great change for me.”

The team practiced together during open gym in the summer, but even someone as experienced as Igiede admitted the tone was completely different once the coaching staff entered the gym.

“It’s definitely a wake-up call. There’s nothing like the coaches coming in,” Igiede said. “As an older person, not really old in retrospect but, 22, fifth year, bones are kind of aching, but that’s the difference change. You’re not a young (human) being anymore but I think it’s definitely a change, but really excited mentally. Same thing, my brain still works the same.”

2023 University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball

Name Ht Yr. Hometown/Last school

Setters

Kate Lang 5-10 Jr. Keller, Texas/Keller H.S.

Jackie Matias 5-9 Fr. Honolulu/Punahou

Defensive specialists/libero

Talia Edmonds 5-7 Sr. Kalamazoo, Mich./Michigan State

Tayli Ikenaga 5-5 Jr. Honolulu/Moanalua H.S.

Middle blocker

Jacyn Bamis 6-1 So. Spokane, Wash./Clemson

Kennedi Evans 6-2 Sr. Twin Falls, Idaho/Utah

Amber Igiede 6-3 Sr. Baton Rouge, La./St. Michael the Archangel

Outside hitter/Opposite

Stella Adeyemi 5-11 Fr. Papilion, Neb./Papilion-Lavista South H.S.

Caylen Alexander 6-0 So. Alpharetta, Ga./Centennial H.S.

Chandler Cowell 5-10 Sr. Kula, Maui/St. Mary’s (Calif.)

Paula Guersching 6-2 Jr. Schwalbach am Taunus, Germany/Youngstown St.

Tali Hakas 5-11 Fr. Kfar Saba, Israel/Hof Hasharon H.S.

Kendra Ham 6-0 Sr. San Diego, Calif./Cal Poly

Riley Wagoner 6-0 Sr. Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Coffman H.S.