Conference PacWest Nickname Vulcans | Location Hilo, HI | |
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University University of Hawai'i Hilo Head coach Gene Krieger (1st year) Home arena Hilo Civic Auditorium (Capacity: 3,000) | ||
The Hawaii–Hilo Vulcans women's volleyball team is the intercollegiate women's volleyball team of the University of Hawaii at Hilo. One of the original "traditionals" in the world of small schools volleyball, the Vulcans started out as National Runners Up right out of the gates in 1978. The 1978 AIAW Div.II team was led by Cheryl Ching, Kawehi Ka'a'a, Vetoann Baker and Lyndell Lindsey. Coach Sharon Peterson (a inaugural 1988 NAIA Hall of Fame honoree) was in fact coach back then, but she had been preceded by Coach Mike Wilton for partial foundations in some of 1977. On 6 March 2017, a UHH press release named Mr. Gene Krieger as the new Vulcans' Head Coach.
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In the first week of December, in 1979 (Orlando, FL), UHH won Hawai'i its first ever National Championship of volleyball. Later that evening, Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball would also win a national title for large national colleges (at Central Standard Time). All-American Cheryl Ching would go on to win the Honda-Broderick Cup in 1980, moreover, the first in the 50th State to do so. The program as a matter of circumstance would go from AIAW Division II to NAIA powers in 1981. Hilo is still the only multi-Champion, multi-Divisional program to win simultaneous collegiate championships in a single year (1981).
Head coaching
Throughout Coach Peterson's tenure, the Vuls as a sampling of series records would go: 2–0 against the Washington Huskies, 3–1 against the BYU Cougars, 0–1 against the Stanford Cardinal and, further, were solidly able to compete with a 1978, #4 ranked Pepperdine Waves WVB team touring the Hawaiian Islands.
History
From 1981–1984, UH Hilo was the first USA college team to win four consecutive national titles, regardless of divisional league.
In 1988 the program's zenith topped out with a dominant NAIA National Championship season. Hawai'i small schools' glory was epitomized with a starting six, of seven, being awarded All-American certificates. Florence Alo (MVP / 2x 1st Team AA (1987–88)), Jessica Strickland (1st Team), Debra Namohala (2nd Team (1987 AA)), Edna Togiai (1st Team), Hae Ja Kim (2nd Team) and Sheila Scott (1st Team) who would, the latter, complete this list.
In 1993, runners-up UHH would lose its final match of the NAIA in the National Championship game. In 1994, UH Hilo would once again return to the NCAA Division II league.
They went a winning 15-7 in the 2011-12 school's calendar year; a, one, Marley Strand-Nicolaisen, the Kau High School junior, recruited from Naalehu, HI also.