With the season-opening Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational five days away, seventh-ranked University of Hawai'i has more on its mind than Western Michigan, Santa Clara and UCLA. At this point, it is all about the 'Bows as they search to find themselves in their 36th volleyball season.

It starts Friday against the Broncos, the only unranked team Hawai'i plays its first six matches — and WMU has all its starters back from the team that reached the NCAA's Sweet 16.

The difficulty of the early-season schedule should give the Rainbow Wahine a great gauge of how good they are, or are not. The seniors and their coaches characterize two very disparate skills as the best barometers of the future: The 'Bows' ability to block and bounce back.

One is extremely technical, the other all emotional.

"One thing to watch will be our chemistry when things are not going well," UH head coach Dave Shoji said. "We'll get tested early, we'll be behind, there will be lost games. Every team has its own identity so we'll see what our identity is. Anybody can play when you are winning and everybody is happy. Adversity brings out the worst in people, and hopefully the best."

The breakdown of this team is intriguing. It has an unusually high number of seniors (five) and new players (six). In between are sophomore Kanani Danielson, a second-team All-American, junior setter Dani Mafua, an honorable mention All-American, and sophomore Stephanie Ferrell, who might take more swings than anybody.

The way the schedule is set up, it is as if the Rainbow Wahine start with finals the first month, downshift into fine-tuning mode for the Western Athletic Conference season, then take the leap into their thesis after Thanksgiving.

It will be a hectic semester that can only be calmed by good karma. Senior Catherine Fowler believes the 'Bows have history and time on their side, with bonding and fluidity appearing from the opening moments of two-a-day practices this year.

Seniors Stephanie Brandt and Jayme Lee are aiming for resiliency, particularly over the next month.

"We'll see if we can shake off mistakes and keep playing at a consistent level, or if we're going to let it get to us," Brandt said. "The other teams are going to get their kills and stuff. We have to be able to play on and not get frustrated and not give up, not be defeated. They're going to get crazy kills, but so are we."

Adds Lee: "It's about character and heart. Character in how we conduct ourselves when things don't go our way, when we're not playing our best volleyball. How we're going to react during those times and how we're going to bounce back, where we're going to find our strength.

"And that's going to come with heart — how badly we want it. How badly do we want to make it to final four? How badly do we want to win a national championship? Can we dig deep and find it in each other to ... if someone is not having a good game can we bring them out of it? Can we stay together as a team and not just be individuals?"

Technically, tactically and just flat-out physically, the Rainbow Wahine are most curious to see how they size up at the net. They reached the Elite Eight last year despite ranking 75th in the country in blocking, at 2.24 per set. Olympian Heather Bown averaged 2.25 by herself for Hawai'i a decade ago.

Kaufman, an All-American high jumper but admittedly small in the middle at 6 feet, is their best returning blocker at 0.83. That ranked 293rd in the country and one of her priorities in her final season is to average more than a block a set.

The 'Bows need to get their team average going in the right direction again. In 2006, they were the fourth-best blocking team in the country at 3.52. That was down 26 percent the following year and last year it dropped another 14 percent.

Hawai'i did out-hit opponents .283 to .157 last season — nearly double the gap of a year earlier. Some of the success started with the serves of Aneli Cubi-Otineru, Stephanie Brandt and Kaufman. That is another area coaches want to improve.

Kaufman is on a mission to widen the hitting percentage gap more, and senses she is not alone. "Right now our blocking looks better than it has since I've been here," she said. "It's been one of our weaknesses, the one thing we couldn't do, so I think it will be a big factor."

Now, if there was something more the Rainbow Wahine could do about their altitude-deficit syndrome. They have three first-year players who are 6 foot 4 in redshirt freshman Brittany Hewitt and sophomore transfers Alexis Forsythe — locked in a battle for the second middle position with Hewitt — and Corinne Cascioppo, someone Shoji says flatly "will help this year."

But more than half the starters are sub-6 feet and that's not counting Kaufman, who might be the shortest middle in a Hawai'i match, on either side, until the WAC season starts.

"We're small," admits the 5-11 — maybe — Cubi-Otineru. "You see Stanford and Texas and they are all over 6 feet. We have the smallest outside hitters, a smallish setter, Amber in the middle ... but I think defense and everything else will make up for it.

"The block just needs to channel the ball, get up there and take something away that makes it easier on our defense — give it less court to dig. We're working on it a lot in practice. In the drills I notice our blocking has gotten a lot, lot better. I know they make it harder for me and Kanani to hit."