Hawaii hopes to return from road with Big West volleyball title

Before departing on the final road trip of the regular season, Robyn Ah Mow called on a former mentor for some advice.

The sixth-year University of Hawaii coach has extensive experience competing at UC Santa Barbara, where the Rainbow Wahine face the Gauchos on Friday in a matchup of the top two teams in the Big West Conference women’s volleyball standings.

As far as planning a Thanksgiving get-together for the travel party in Santa Barbara, Calif., that’s where she could use some guidance from Dave Shoji, the UH coaching legend and UCSB alum.

“I said, ‘Dave, you know of any place we can take the girls?’ ” Ah Mow said earlier this week of the team’s still uncertain holiday plans.

“It’s sad that we can’t be (at home). Some of the girls don’t have family here, so we usually have a place to go that we can celebrate … Being together as team will be good for them.”

Already a tight-knit group, the Rainbow Wahine (20-6, 17-1 Big West) left for California on Wednesday with a singular focus, needing one win in the two-match road trip to secure a third straight conference championship and the program’s 40th NCAA Tournament berth.

Their first opportunity comes Friday against UCSB (20-9, 16-3) in the Thunderdome, where one lengthy streak will continue while another ends.

The Wahine then close the regular season on Saturday at Cal State Northridge (9-22, 4-15) in Premier America Credit Union Arena.

UH and UCSB finished 1-2 in the Big West race last year, with the Wahine clinching the title before UCSB managed to spoil senior night at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center to end the regular season.

This year’s UH team will seek turnabout on Friday in the Gauchos’ finale at the Thunderdome, where they are 11-0 this season.

The Wahine enter the rematch riding a season-high 10-match winning streak that began in Manoa with a sweep of CSUN on Oct. 21, followed by a four-set win over UCSB.

UH posted sweeps in five of the past six matches, led by a defense averaging 15.2 digs per set to feed the attack. After the Wahine posted 51 digs in a quick sweep of CSU Bakersfield last Sunday, Ah Mow noted the work the players — and coaches — have put in to honing their defense in practice in recent weeks.

“We have definitely been hammering defense. My arms hurt, my back hurts, but it makes me smile,” Ah Mow said of UH’s dig total after the senior ceremony.

“The ball goes off the block and they’re running balls (down). (Outside hitter Kendra Ham) goes and she’s diving one hand, we work on that. We’ve been working on that the last two weeks and it shows.”

UH’s defensive effort fueled extended runs throughout last weekend’s wins over Cal Poly and CSUB. After dropping the first set to Cal Poly on Friday, the Wahine put together service runs of at least seven points in each of the next six sets, including 10-…