Catching up with Wahine coach Robyn Ah Mow

Hawaii coaches Robyn Ah Mow and Angelica Ljungqvist watching practice in 2019

Apologize for lack of content. Had a death in the family last week.

Chatted with Hawai’i women’s volleyball coach Robyn Ah Mow today (Thursday, Oct. 22). The team is finishing up their two weeks of limited practice (20 hours total). Monday they go back to being able to have three hours a day.

Ah Mow said the players are getting back into practice shape, adding that “you can only do so much on your own. It’s going to take some time.”

Transfer Mylana Byrd, the junior setter from Alabama, was here in spring, so is more familiar with the players than freshman Kate Lang. But both are “working hard.”

When asked if Hawaii would run a 6-2 offense, or a modified 6-2 as they did with Norene Iosia last year, Ah Mow said. “Whatever makes us work.”

The Rainbow Wahine only have 13 players and that includes freshmen Anna Kiraly, a 6-3 middle from Hungary, and middle-opposite Siena Springborn, a walk-on from Newport Harbor, Calif.

Ah Mow said she didn’t expect any additions for spring play and said that Big West Freshman of Year Hanna Hellvig would not be returning (for good).

“It would be nice to have more (hitting) arms,” she said. “We have two setters, two DS/liberos … that leaves us with nine. And three are middles.”

Ah Mow hadn’t looked at what the UH men’s and women’s basketball schedule — announced yesterday — was like or the impact it would have on the Wahine and Rainbow Warrior volleyball schedules. She had been told that the conference was going to take care of basketball first then look at volleyball.

There is HUGE impact as the conference has decided to take up every Friday-Saturday from Jan 8-9 through March 5-6 by alternating men’s and women’s basketball games. Which means NO volleyball matches can be played on Friday and Saturday for nine consecutive weeks. The only Fri-Sat open is Jan. 1-2.

I know that one proposal by UH was to ask for the conference to alternate men’s and women’s basketball with men’s and women’s volleyball every week so that one week would be only basketball and the next week only volleyball. That did not happen.

But with no fans currently being allowed in the stands, “It doesn’t matter what days we would play,” Ah Mow said. “I’m good with playing Mondays. I just want to be able to play.

“It’s hard for everyone, moving all of this to spring. It’s going to be a test, going to be hard on facilities, training room … with everyone in season.

“I think our slogan is good: Bows Together!”

She said she has not been able to schedule out of conference yet, everything being up in the air with COVID restrictions on travel, etc. She doesn’t know if there will more than just conference matches, adding “I was hoping to get at least two non-conference games in there.”

Also overlapping will be beach volleyball. With Jeff Hall being let go as the head SandBows coach, Ah Mow is overseeing both the indoor and beach programs with indoor assistant Angelica Ljungqvist becoming head beach coach.

Ah Mow said with Ljungqvist having to split her time that the rest of the indoor staff will split up some of Ljungqvist’s indoor duties. However, if the indoor team is on the road, Ljungqvist will be yielding the “head” beach duties to beach assistant Evan Silberstein.

Ah Mow expects to sign six players next month when it’s National Letter of Intent Day. She could not confirm those but the four that I have mentioned earlier are:

Mia Johnson, 6-0 OH, Clear Falls (Texas); Tayli Ikenaga, L, Moanalua; Colleen Temple, 6-2 MB/OH, Baton Rouge, La.; and Annika de Goeda, 6-2 OH, Netherlands.

Wahine also have an oral commit for ’22 in Jaclyn Matias, 5-9 S, Punahou, daughter of former UH baseball player John.

The stress of the COVID regulations have not left the Wahine unscathed. As Ah Mow put it, “There’s frustrations. We know they want to have a college life. But we’re making sure that they are staying in the bubble. These are college kids who have to grow up fast. We tell them, ‘Do you want to do what you want to do or do you focus on your goals?’

“Because this it not just about them. It’s about the coaches. They have kids, they have older parents. We need for them to think bigger than themselves. We tell them they’ll have their time. We’re trying to keep them on that path.”