Coach Joshua Walker breaks down Rainbow Wahine’s winning formula

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - In Joshua Walker’s first season as head coach of the University of Hawaiʻi women’s volleyball team, the Rainbow Wahine are undefeated in conference play — a perfect 8-0 record — as they prepare to face UNLV this weekend.

Watch Hawaiʻi’s Team Thursday at 6 p.m. for more in-depth looks at UH Athletics.

Defense setting tone midseason

Walker said defense combined with serving has anchored the start, crediting his staff for helping to build an elite defense.

“Just with the preparation and knowing what’s coming and what they have to do to kind of slow them down, and then just being relentless in the execution,” he said. “Like you don’t get wary of doing the right things consistently over and over again and trying to force teams to adjust.”

Walker added that the early focus was not on wins and losses in the traditional sense, but on benchmarks and technique.

“We have only so many games on the schedule every year. We can’t define our winning based off of wins and losses,” he said. “What does our technique look like serving? What does our technique look like passing? And trying to continue to stack good technique off of good technique off of good technique to be able to get the chance to score a point.”

Despite the strong start, Walker said there’s room for improvement at the net.

“We definitely left some plays out there at the net that we probably got more blocks and digs that we probably could have been better at,” he said.

Offensive efficiency after Wyoming test

Walker said the team continues to seek more efficiency offensively and pointed to the Wyoming match, when Hawaiʻi hit over .500 in the first set and .600 in the last set, as an example of putting stretches together.

“We know we want to be consistent in that is continue to find ways to be more efficient offensively and scoring. And I think we’re getting to that point,” he said.

Hawaiʻi had swept its nonconference opponents before being tested in longer matches on the road, Walker acknowledged. According to Walker, Hawaiʻi made more mistakes than usual and Wyoming capitalized, though Hawaiʻi still outscored Wyoming by almost 20 points.

“We never go into a match expecting to sweep someone. We just expect to try to play our best ball,” he said. “For us to just kind of continue to find ways, like even though we know we weren’t playing our best, to still find ways to string plays together and still feel like we were in control.”

Depth and UNLV matchup ahead

With 15 players, Walker said the rotation is tight and training is structured so each player has a defined way to contribute when entering a match.

Looking to UNLV at home, Walker said the Rebels will bring serious power to the court with their players and head coach Malia Shoji, niece of legendary former Rainbow Wahine head coach Dave Shoji.

“They have some physical outside hitters. That’s pretty obvious,” he said. “I think we’re at the point in the season where teams realize like, okay, there’s one team at the top right now and they have a chance to come and have a chance to knock them off.”

Walker said the team’s focus remains on execution and steady improvement to withstand opponents’ best shots.

“As we continue to put ourselves and our best foot forward, we’re only going to see teams’ better efforts and that’s hopefully going to prepare us for opportunities for postseason,” he said.

The Rainbow Wahine face UNLV Friday and Saturday. Live coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. both days on K5.