No offense to the San Francisco State player who had a volleyball ricochet off her head, but Randi Hunter rather enjoyed her facial.
No offense to the San Francisco State player who had a volleyball ricochet off her head, but Randi Hunter rather enjoyed her facial.
The UH-Hilo junior transfer leaped – not as high as she used to and not as high as she hopefully will be able to soon – swung and put down a kill, from an opponent’s face to the floor, just as she used to so many times before.
“I can do this,” she thought.
One point for the Vulcans and another step forward for their right side hitter, who until recently was a lifelong Texan.
Hunter took the long and painful route to Hilo, but she’s escaped what UH-Hilo first-year coach Gene Krieger described as the “Division I mentality,” and she has no regrets as she eases into a Division II state of mind.
“I was a homesick the first month I was here, and I called my mom crying,” Hunter said Tuesday before practice. “It’s pretty diverse here, so the (culture shock) isn’t too bad. I like it more than Texas.”
She’s here because of Krieger, and also because of a damaged left ankle.
As a standout at Clear Lake High School near Houston, Hunter was intent on avoiding the Division I route, hearing too many disparaging stories from people who would know.
“They described it as volleyball, volleyball, volleyball,” Hunter said. “You don’t have a life. You can’t experience college.”
She was set to join Krieger, who recruited her at Northwestern Oklahoma State before moving on to Anderson College in South Carolina, but Randy and Adrienne Hunter had other ideas, urging their daughter to stay closer to home.
Choosing the local route, her freshman season at Prairie View A&M was a beauty. She led the Panthers in kills (224) and total blocks (67) and was named team MVP and second-team Southwest Athletic Conference.
Her sophomore season turned ugly during a match when an opposing player came under net. Hunter landed on the players’s foot. She knew her left ankle was fractured the moment it happened, but it was during rehab that her worst fears about Division I came true.
“My coach, I feel, really didn’t care about my healing process and tried to force me back in there,” Hunter said. “I was supposed to be out six weeks and my coach rushed me back in three. That’s how I tore my ligaments.”
An aspiring dentist, she figured she’d give volleyball one more try before focusing on school full-time, so her first call in the spring was to Krieger, wherever he might be.
“Do you remember me?” Krieger, who had been on the job with the Vulcans for a handful of months, recalled of the conversation. “I want to come play for you.”
The only question was if and how soon Hunter would be able to contribute, and the early returns have been positive. Her breakout match came in a sweep Sept. 8 against San Francisco State in which Hunter tallied a match-high 14 kills.
“If she is the girl I recruited two years ago, she’s all-conference,” Krieger said. “Hoping to get her to resemble that sometime during this season. When you have a setback like that, you can’t just bounce back.”
During UH-Hilo’s 3-3 season-0pening road trip, the 6-foot Hunter was second on the team averaging 2.21 kills per set and hitting .181 while providing a much-needed complement to outside hitter Siera Green (3.15 kills per set).
Hunter estimated her ankle is 85 percent healed and for now Krieger prefers to play her at opposite. She’s switching from a jump-serve to a standing one to help keep pressure off her ankle, and as a hitter she feels at home in the Vulcans’ fast-paced system.
“I prefer faster balls than higher balls,” she said. “Faster balls make me think too much. That’s when I mess up.
“Me and (setter) Basia (Sauni) have really good chemistry. Before the season, started we got to play together and we could get adjusted.”
One of her biggest priorities as the Vulcans prepare to open their Pacific West Conference schedule (Friday at Chaminade and Saturday at Hawaii Pacific) is to get back into playing shape.
“Right now, I need to get some weight off before I can jump higher, so that’s also going to play a big factor,” said Hunter, a biomedical sciences major. “It’s more of let’s see how it’s doing now and just trying to rehab to make sure it stays to where it’s not bothering me.”
There were a few “scary” moments for Hunter in late August as she kept in touch with her family when Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey tore into the Houston area and hunkered down. Her parents evacuated to Port Author, Texas, which also was affected by the storm, and Hunter said she lost a BMW.
Her parents were once uncomfortable that their daughter would be just a short plane flight from home, so they can only laugh now that she is approximately 4,000 miles away away. They’ve already visited Hilo for a week and are set to come again in March, with a possible rendezvous with the Vulcans in California planned in between.
“It’s pretty great (here),” Hunter said. “It’s fun.
“I feel like everything is planned out how it was supposed to be.”