Tomorrow's alumnae volleyball exhibition — which precedes the non-conference match between sixth-ranked Hawai'i and Utah Valley — provides an ideal backdrop to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Rainbow Wahine's most remarkable accomplishment.

In 1983, one of the tiniest teams in Division I became the first to win back-to-back NCAA championships. The 'Bows breezed, going 34-2 and blitzing UCLA, 15-13, 15-4, 15-10, in the final. Bruins coach Andy Banachowski called Hawai'i "one of the best teams — ever."

A year earlier, the Rainbows found redemption against USC, winning a frantic five-game comeback in the NCAA final. The Trojans had ended Hawai'i's previous season.

The seven 1983 seniors, and juniors Lisa Strand and Lee Ann Pestana, went 104-5 their three seasons together. The three losses in '82 and '83 all came in best-of-three matches at the UCLA/NIVT tournament. Even now — 21 years after the Rainbow Wahine's fourth and final national championship — they are still only sensing how special was that 1983 championship.

Back then, it seemed so ... simple. Pestana — now Satele, whose five children include four Division I athletes, characterized the team as "on cruise control."

"The second year everything seemed pretty easy," agreed Kori Pulaski, the 5-foot-8 hitter called "Hammer" who has worked for UPS the past 20 years in Dallas. "We got nervous a little, but that's OK. We kinda barreled through and then, 'OK, we're done.' We didn't even talk about the two-years-in-a-row thing. It never even came up, which is probably good."

Deitre Collins, the one imposing player on the self-described "last small team," was an Olympian, three-time All-American and first volleyball player to win the Broderick Cup, given to the premier female collegiate athlete. Now she is Cornell coach Deitre Collins-Parker and remembers UH coach Dave Shoji predicting the best thing about the '83 team would be that opponents would be forced to beat UH because the 'Bows would not make mistakes.

He was prophetic. Hawai'i barely let a ball hit the floor in 1983. In that warp-speed national final, the Rainbows outdug the Bruins, 69 to 43, with Joyce Ka'apuni, Marcie Wurts, Kori and Kris Pulaski and Strand sucking up double-digit digs.

Ka'apuni was 28 that championship night when she saw her first snow in Lexington, Ky. She saved the best of her 10-year "college career" for last. The setter/hitter with some of the sweetest hands in volleyball history went 10-for-15 in the final, hitting .667 to go with her digs, assists and four aces.

After helping Hawai'i to top-three national finishes in 1974 and '76, Ka'apuni took time off to get married and play for the national team, then returned to school in '82. She was the final piece of the puzzle, a calming influence with astonishing versatility. She remains the school's career leader in aces per game.

"Dave has had so many incredible athletes," said Strand-Ma'a, who married former UH men's player Pono Ma'a and whose oldest child, Misty, just won a state volleyball championship as a Kamehameha freshman. "It's not necessarily about the athletes. It's about the team. It's that passion and heart. Look at (5-foot-7) Missy Yomes and look at her heart and she's such a fireball. And Sista (Palakiko-Beazley) just wants it and worked hard.

"It was like a puzzle that ends up fitting together, and Joycie was just the right piece. Such a rock-solid unsung hero. Everybody knew Deitre Collins. Joycie was like the mom, the stability, the catalyst that brought everybody together."

This group ultimately thrived on the devastating loss to USC in 1981, and the bonding that began as they mopped Klum Gym on hands and knees as freshmen.

"It was pretty hard not to be confident because we were so good," said Marcie (Wurts) Nowack, whose son Logan won a state volleyball title as a freshman at 'Iolani last season. "Not in a cocky way. Losing in '81, that's what made us so good in '82 and '83. We learned how to not think we were too good."

Nowack, the Bone Health Coordinator for Kapiolani Women's Center, married Dean Nowack, Shoji's assistant for the '82, '83 and '87 NCAA championship teams. She was typical of the early '80's Rainbow Wahine — 5 feet 7 and here on a track scholarship, but so persistent she set the school high jump record in her one collegiate meet and graduated from Manoa with two national titles.

Hawai'i became the first college team to win a USVBA title a few months after that USC loss — in Hilo, winning a pool-play game despite a 14-2 deficit — then found Ka'apuni at practice in August. The rest was history — and chemistry.

"We were so close we just stayed on each other," said Palakiko, a probation officer. "Everybody hung out on their own, but when we came to practice we were close. It's why we won."

Added Pestana, who has worked for U.S. Customs and Border Protection since 1989: "We'd go our separate ways. We didn't do everything together off the court, yet we were still good friends. There were no cliques, no issues. Everybody accepted each other for who they were and what they brought to the team. It was a great bunch of girls. The kill leaders were humble and just played to win. Deitre could take over a game and still be the same person between points and afterwards. Kori would just hammer balls and still be the nicest person. Everybody was treated the same from the best player to the last sub."

Debbi Black Lippert and Pam Lawrence, freshmen from Southern California, vouch for that.

Black taught elementary school for 13 years and is now a stay-at-home mom who plays some beach volleyball and hopes her young children will one day understand what her older teammates taught her: "That it took all of us to reach that incredible achievement. Teamwork."

From Collins through sophomore middle Sue Hlavenka, the only other 6-footer besides Strand, and 5-foot-2 freshman Naomi Higa, Hawai'i's youngest.

Lawrence, who has a 14-year-old daughter and helped coach Long Beach State's 1993 NCAA title team, is now getting her masters in education. She still feels pride in that team's "you can achieve anything attitude — like Obama," and the lessons she learned from "seasoned" seniors like Collins, Ka'apuni and, especially, Yomes, who has a 22-year-old son, Kanoe.

"As a coach, it is sometimes very difficult to understand why every team can't be like the one we had at Hawai'i," Collins admits. "Then I realize just how special we were. Working hard was the norm, winning was expected but earned. You just don't find that everywhere."

To have found it two seasons in a row was remarkable. And while the 1982 and '83 seasons now blur together, with the exception of the finals, the 'Bows know the values they bought into and ultimately invested into two titles remain with them: Commitment, sacrifice, faith, trust ... they all use different words with the same conclusion.

As happy as they were that snowy December night in Kentucky, there was still a sadness, knowing that without the seven seniors it would never be the same. Yomes, now finishing her degree at UH-Hilo, recalls being "heavy hearted to be leaving my sisters," and Strand remembers wishing she, too, could end her career that night.

What they didn't know is how many people, particularly in Hawai'i, would remember them, even without the constant broadcast coverage now accepted as the norm. "I know they are really good fans if they remember me," Nowack grins, "because that was 25 years ago."

Their lives remain intertwined. Satele and Palakiko-Beazley's husbands — former UH football players Alvis Satele and Michael Beazley — work together as longshoremen. Nowack, Strand-Ma'a and Mary Shoji — Dave's wife — remain close friends. The Pulaski twins donate to the UH athletic program.

Kris, an artist who married her partner in California last month, believes those amazing 25 years ago still play a huge part in her life.

"I took from both championships that if you are passionate in what you do the rewards will come, and ours sure did," she said. "The teamwork that I took from it I still practice today in my work and life."

NOTES

Hawai'i officially announced the signing of Kristiana Tuaniga, a 6-foot-2 middle from Carson, Calif., yesterday. Tuaniga attends Carson High School and was ranked No. 37 on http://www.prepvolleyball.com's Senior Aces list. She averaged 4.30 kills and 3 blocks her senior season, with a .647 kill percentage.