Robyn Ah Mow stayed true to her coaching identity for most of the media session following Friday’s loss to Oregon.
She thanked the University of Oregon administration and staff for hosting, and credited the Ducks for their performance.
She went through the reasons the Rainbow Wahine couldn’t survive another day after getting swept 25-23, 25-12, 25-17 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to a team with real national championship aspirations.
She stayed stoic until the end, when she was asked about what the last two weeks of this season meant to her.
“This team for us is real special,” Ah Mow said. “That’s why, I don’t know, there are no tears for me. This game and the ending of this season doesn’t define this group.”
Ah Mow would continue on, but the word “ending” was the one that started the release of emotions that filled both players and coaches leaving the arena together one final time on Friday.
From the first kill of a five-set thriller in August against Northwestern until the final point dropped versus the Ducks, this Rainbow Wahine season has been a roller-coaster ride on and off the court.
There were back-to-back wins against nationally ranked Southern California and a sweep of another Top 25 team in Florida State on a neutral court.
There were matches against Liberty and TCU in which wins turned into losses as the Rainbow Wahine fell apart down the stretch.
Off the court, there was a player dealing with a war that broke out in her home country of Israel, and a threatening email received by the UH coaching staff that was reported to the Honolulu Police Department in the middle of the first back-to-back home conference losses suffered in 30 years.
Through it all, there was a head coach, a three-time Olympian who knows what it takes to get to the very highest level of volleyball there is, pushing her team every day, coaching her team to the best of her abilities, challenging her girls to be the best versions of themselves they can be.
But in that moment Friday when the ending was at hand, that hard-nosed coach became the caring, protective, emotional leader of the group who not only has a deep love and appreciation for her team, but the school where she once starred as a player and now has coached for six full seasons with much success.
“The experiences that we’ve had with this group outweigh this game,” Ah Mow said as she got choked up holding back tears as much as she could. “Obviously, nobody wants to lose, like, in three and obviously we didn’t play the best game we could have played, but I’m not going to let that game define these girls and what they put into our …”
Not another word was said and Ah Mow, along with senior Riley Wagoner and sophomore Caylen Alexander, exited the interview room inside the lower level of Matthew Knight Arena.
Hawaii finished its season 24-9 and, thanks to the addition of a conference tournament this year, claimed a fourth straight Big West championship by winning both its matches in style, earning a 30th consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament.
There was a time it looked like those streaks were coming to an end. But in the biggest matches, in the biggest moment, with everything on the line, the Rainbow Wahine played their best volleyball of the season.
In a one-on-one interview just prior to the start of the NCAA Tournament, Ah Mow admitted it was the best feeling a coach can have.
“I’ll be honest, I was shocked,” she said. “I didn’t think it was going to happen. We try to coach the girls and teach them to play a certain way, and sometimes, yes, it can get frustrating, but to see them play like that, to understand the things we’ve been trying to coach them and put them to use and do it on the court, it’s just … yeah, there’s no better feeling as a coach.”
It’s not so much the words as it is the way they are spoken when she talks. There’s no second-guessing the coach when she speaks. Anyone who has ever spoken with her knows she lets her emotions be known, and how she’s feeling is exactly what she’s going to say.
Nobody understands this better than setter Kate Lang. The fourth-year junior, just like all of her teammates, knows the setter playing for Ah Mow is the one who’s going to hear it more than anyone else.
Any point, any timeout, before practice, during practice, after practice, the heat is always going to be on the setter — Lang, who despite winning the Big West Setter of the Week award eight times only made the conference second team this season after earning first-team honors as a sophomore.
That looked silly after the Big West tournament, as Lang set two amazing matches to get the Rainbow Wahine into the NCAA Tournament.
After answering a question during the postgame press conference following the title win over Long Beach State, Lang’s coach, unprovoked, leaned over the microphone to publicly tell her setter how proud she was of her.
“I’m going to have to interject, OK, because this girl, I’m a setter, and I get on setters. I get on her all of the time,” Ah Mow said. “For her to come out and play the game she did these last two. I am very, very proud.”
Those moments don’t happen often, but when they do, they mean something. The day before UH opened the NCAA Tournament with a win over Iowa State, Lang took a second to reflect on that moment.
“I get so emotional every time Coach Rob says something, because it’s not often, but when she says it, I know she means it, which means more than hearing it often,” Lang said. “Just having Coach Rob in my corner and knowing she believes in me and just being reminded when I achieve something or the team achieves something, any words mean so much coming from her. She’s going to get mad when she hears me say this, but her opinion is everything to me and I care so much. It means the world to me.”
The task moving forward is a daunting one. Hawaii loses six seniors, including Amber Igiede, the four-time All-Big West first-teamer, and three others starters in Wagoner, Kendra Ham and Kennedi Evans.
Opportunities for playing time will be plentiful for the players coming back, as well as any new additions to come.
One thing is for sure, however. Whether it’s a team full of returnees as this year’s team was, or an inexperienced group looking to make the most of every opportunity, which will be the case in the fall, how you practice will determine who plays, and that’s the one constant guaranteed in this program as long as Ah Mow is in charge.
“Every day you come to the gym is an opportunity,” Ah Mow said midweek between games at one point this season. “If you want to be here, show up to practice and be ready — otherwise don’t even bother.”
The message doesn’t get more clear than that.