At the end of a 2015 season that hadn’t gone well, UH-Hilo volleyball coach Tino Reyes began to look for transformational talent he might be able to recruit to the Big Island and his search took him to a couple
At the end of a 2015 season that hadn’t gone well, UH-Hilo volleyball coach Tino Reyes began to look for transformational talent he might be able to recruit to the Big Island and his search took him to a couple of players in Bulgaria.
From Bulgaria to Hilo sounds like a bit of a stretch and, in the end, it was for Reyes, who got the school down to the final two in consideration for a pair of lanky twins — 6-foot-2 and 6-0 — that could have made a major difference in the program.
“It was one of those things that, when you see the kind of talent they have, you think you should reach out just to see if there’s a chance,” Reyes said. “Then, I could tell there was actual interest, they liked the idea of coming here, and I knew it was an extreme long shot, but as it went along, I didn’t sense the interest going away.
“They were the highest level players I’ve ever recruited,” he said. “They were both all-conference first team in ability, at the least.”
At the end though, the twins settled on a school in Florida and Reyes was left without a recruiting class to speak of, though some walk-ons have showed him some surprising potential.
“It’s not depressing (to lose out on the twins), because we have a pretty good group and our issues last year weren’t so much a lack of talent as they were just giving away points like we did,” Reyes said. “The unforced errors killed us, you give away four or five of those and you lose a game by three points and it kind of sends a message.”
The Vulcans finished with an 11-12 record that suggested a break or two here or there could have resulted in a winning season.
Another way to judge a season is on a pass-fail basis, which gets back to the common sense proposition of whether a team played to its potential, never mind the record.
The first is the customary method of appraisal, the second, perhaps, a more enlightened view, but neither one sits well with the leaders of the 2016 team.
“It was really discouraging,” said outside hitter Marley Strand-Nicolaisen, the senior from Naalehu who led the Vulcans with 328 kills. “We had talent but we could not come together, we couldn’t jell and play together. Discouraging, frustrating, all that.”
At the end, UHH lost its last four matches at a time it had an 11-8 record and a chance to take a step forward. Instead, the last four defeats were so convincing — the Vulcans won only two games in those matches — it left a sour taste to chew on all offseason.
“It’s bad to think about,” said senior Sienna Miller. “The chemistry was bad and it just got in the way and kept us from being as good as we could have been. There were cliques away from the team and whatever the personalities were, it was just the case that not everyone had the same responsiveness to each other, it just made it all tough.”
Distasteful memories are quickly replaced when present moments become agreeable and that seems to be the case at UHH, which opens the season at home a week from Monday with a non conference match against Cal Poly Pomona.
“It’s definitely a better feel (this year),” said Strand-Nicolaisen, “the chemistry is good and it seems like people are ready to be accountable, ready to get better.”
Part of that process comes from accepting leadership from the seniors, something Strand-Nicolaisen is geared up to provide. She was the conference’s freshman of the year and now she would like to close out her Vulcans career as a comprehensive leader and contributor to a winning team.
“I like being a leader,” she said, “we all need to be responsible to each other and ourselves, we need to understand how to play together and leaders need to hold everyone accountable. I’m pretty excited about our team, to be honest.”
Miller also senses a more conducive environment for the tasks ahead.
“This is the best feeling I’ve had (starting a season),” she said, “I think we have the talent to compete hard, everyone seems open to learn and grow — even the seniors — and that sort of puts us all together, it makes everything feel better.”
Yes, they both heard stories about the Bulgarian twins.
“I didn’t know if it was real or what,” said Strand-Nicolaisen, “but yeah, that would have been great.”
“I was totally open for it,” said Miller, “they obviously would have been a big help, but you can’t feel bad about it not happening, because we have a good team here, working together.”
That’s about as good a place to be as you can ask for with the start of the season right around the corner.
