There is fascination with those who constantly flirt with greatness. For those who do the flirting, there is frustration when they come up short.

Ask Michelle Wie. Or Rainbow Wahine coach Dave Shoji, who begins the 32nd year of his love-hate relationship with volleyball's final four when Hawai'i opens practice today. UH was ranked No. 7 in yesterday's preseason poll.

The 'Bows start the season Aug. 25 and 26 against Pepperdine. Shoji (897-157) is Division I volleyball's winningest women's coach and could get No. 900 at the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic the following week.

Shoji has won four national championships, the last in 1987. Every year he expects Hawai'i to reach the final four. The frustration that follows if it doesn't is proportionate to Shoji's assessment of his talent.

If this team is not freezing in Omaha, Neb., Dec. 14, Shoji will be disconsolate.

"Not so much because it will be the third year in a row," he said, "but because with this team and this setter, I'd be very disappointed if we didn't get there."

"This setter" is three-time All-American Kanoe Kamana'o, the 2003 national freshman of the year. She is Hawai'i's best hope for national player of the year since Kim Willoughby in 2003. Coincidentally or not, that was also the last time the Rainbow Wahine reached the final four.

Kamana'o is the only similarity between this year's team and the 2003 version.

After losing terminators Lily Kahumoku and Willoughby — who practically clinched All-America honors on their approach to the net — the 'Bows made a memorable run in 2004. They won their first 30 before falling to Wisconsin at the Green Bay Regional.

Last year, with nearly the same team, Hawai'i lost three of its first four and two starting hitters to injury the first week. It got well against Western Athletic Conference competition — UH hasn't lost a conference match in nearly eight years — and played almost perfect volleyball to beat seventh-ranked Texas at Austin in a rare meeting of Top 10 teams in the NCAA's second round.

Then the Rainbow Wahine went as cold as the ice on the ground against Missouri at the Penn State Regional.

"Last year the frustrating thing is, we beat a better Texas team and then lost to Missouri," Shoji said. "That was kind of a buildup of being on the road so long and we didn't have any gas left at the end basically. That was disappointing. All things being equal I thought we should have won that match, but if you look at the circumstances leading up to that match it was amazing we were there."

Hawai'i has traveled some 50,000 miles each of the last two years. This season it should save on gas.

It will spend the final week of the regular season in Idaho and go back out for the WAC Tournament in Reno. In all goes well, it will then wait to see where the NCAA sends it for the first and second rounds.

If the 'Bows win there, they will be home for the Dec. 8 and 9 Honolulu Regional, in front of crowds that have led the country in attendance the last 11 years.

"That would be huge," Shoji said. "Just look where we were the last two years — Green Bay and Penn State. To be home would allow us to play our best rather than have circumstances where we just couldn't be at our best."

Now to get there. Hawai'i lost an All-American (Victoria Prince), its best passer (Susie Boogaard) and libero (Ashley Watanabe) from last year. Still, Shoji thinks this team is better.

He believes every returning player will be improved despite a fist-full of nagging injuries. He hopes for a stable lineup, blaming last year's season-long shifts on injuries and his own indecision.

Shoji has had this year's depth chart finalized seemingly since December. Starters are Sarah Mason opposite Kamana'o, Tara Hittle and Jamie Houston on the left, Juliana Sanders and Kari Gregory in the middle and Raeceen Woolford at libero.

The only glitch now is that Sanders is coming off a second surgery on her shin and will start slow. Even that doesn't worry Shoji, who believes Nickie Thomas has "made the greatest strides" at that position.

What does worry him is passing, with Hittle the only reliable returner. When there is a breakdown, he hopes his hitters can hammer it out. And, there is always Kamana'o.

"She is able to run down most of the passes and give the hitter something she can swing at," Shoji said. "That's the beauty of Kanoe. You're going to get a swing if she can touch it with her hands."

According to Shoji, anyone on this Hawai'i team can bury the ball with or without a perfect set. There is no true terminator like Willoughby, who was good every night on every inch of the floor. But ...

"That's not always a bad thing because we will highlight everybody's strengths," Shoji said. "Hittle will never be in the top 10 in the nation in kills, but she does so much more for us that she's invaluable. Houston is going to put up some unbelievable numbers hitting-wise, but we know she's not Hittle in the backrow. Mason can put up huge numbers blocking and hitting, but she's 6-3 and not going to make the defensive plays someone like Hittle is.

"But, if everybody does their part, then we will be pretty good."

NOTES

Former Rainbow Wahine Karin Lundqvist and her Swedish partner, Sara Uddstahl, are No. 47 in the Swatch FIVB World Beach Volleyball Tour. The team's goal is to represent Sweden at the 2008 Olympics. They have been coached by Brazilian Wesely Pinheiro since September. Pinheiro used to coach Juliana Felisberta Da Silva and Larissa Francathe, the world's top-ranked women's team.

Nebraska senior Christina Houghtelling, the 2005 AVCA national player of the year, had surgery on her right shoulder July 20. The 'Huskers' captain confirmed Monday that she will miss the season. Nebraska was ranked No. 1 in yesterday's preseason poll.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.