In another Rainbow Wahine volleyball lifetime, a battered Hawai'i team found its way back Friday, Aug. 31 against Kansas State. After getting wiped out twice by top-5 teams to open the season, the 2001 'Bows lost the first two games against K-State in the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic.

UH coach Dave Shoji inserted Margaret Vakasausau at setter. Hawai'i won the next three games and rode the Vakasausau/Kim Willoughby wave to the NCAA Regionals, despite the loss of All-American Lily Kahumoku, who surprised her teammates and many others by taking the year off.

Whether Friday's four-game victory over Kansas State will prove to be such a defining moment might not be known for a while, but it was such a massive improvement over Sunday's loss to Oregon State comparisons are impossible to ignore.

"Things started to click like we thought they might," Shoji said. "The passing seemed to click in. Liz (Ka'aihue) and Aneli (Cubi-Otineru) steadied it out. And Aneli had a rough middle of the match and started hitting really smart in the end. She wasn't trying to power through. She was going over the top and she has good vision so that was one of the keys, when she started getting kills again."

After that match six years ago, Vakasausau said something very similar to what these Rainbow Wahine were saying all week: "Our team meshes well together. We're all happy, joyous children, but ... we need to perform tactically well and get angry and create a sense of urgency."

That urgency was evident often Friday and almost never last weekend. Maybe it will be gone again today when the Rainbows face unranked Louisville (3-1) in today's 5 p.m. Classic match (UCLA and Kansas State play at 2:30 p.m.). Hawai'i still struggled Friday, particularly on the attack where it hit just .145 — a number inflated by Jamie Houston's .306 with 25 kills. The middles were not effective, though the passing was finally good enough to get them involved.

Shoji attributes his team's .187 hitting this season, in large part, to adjusting to a new setter for the first time in four years. But he was optimistic that Otineru and Tara Hittle rallied late and Houston was able to lift herself out of some funks.

That was not happening in a disturbing opening weekend when Shoji tried three starting lineups a night and used a dozen players almost interchangeably. Friday, he stayed with transfer Stephanie Brandt at setter — maybe as much for her serving (four aces) as her setting — with Otineru opposite, Kari Gregory and Juliana Sanders in the middle, Houston and Hittle outside and Ka'aihue at libero.

His only subs were strictly situational. He expects it to be the same tonight against a Louisville team that looks an awful lot like Kansas State.

The Cardinals also have a huge European hitter in 6-foot-6 Jana Matiasovska, from Slovakia. She had half their kills in the loss to fifth-ranked UCLA Friday and was MVP at last weekend's Marriott East Invitational. The Cardinals were picked to finish second in the Big East after winning it last year, even with Matiasovska missing the last 15 matches because of injuries.

Tatyana Kolesnikova, from Uzbekistan — home of coach Leonid Yelin — took up the scoring slack and was named Big East Rookie of the Year and 2007 Preseason co-Player of the Year. Yelin's starters also include players from China, Russia and Latvia. He has taken four multi-national teams to the NCAA Sweet 16 since 1996.

Louisville is a challenge for Hawai'i, but so far this year Hawai'i's greatest challenge has been itself. Shoji hopes that Friday's huge turnaround is the beginning of the end of that.

"I've got to give the credit to the players," he said Friday. "They didn't get down on themselves. They worked hard in practice. They were determined to show people there were a better team and we made plays down the stretch when we had to. All three games we won, it could have gone either way."

He is hoping this season goes the way of 2001.

NOTES

UH freshmen Stephanie Ferrell, who had to return to Los Angeles to deal with a family crisis, hopes to be back for tonight's match.

A Hawai'i reunion broke out in Aland, Sweden, at last week's PAF Open, a stop on the Swatch FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. Former Rainbows Karin Lundqvist and Angelica Ljungquist (Sweden), Heidi Ilustre and Kimo Tuyay (Philippines) and Lauri Hakala (Finland) were all playing.

Hawai'i has won nine Classic championships. This is UCLA's 18th Classic and it has won seven titles, including last year's.

Kansas State was 46th nationally in attendance last year, averaging 803 a match in Manhattan — about 6,400 less that Hawai'i, which has led the country in attendance the past 12 years.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.