By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

It has been 27 years since Davidson, a 1,600-student liberal arts college near Charlotte, N.C., allowed women to enroll. A year later in 1974 its women’s athletics program was born. Last year, it had its first women’s team in an NCAA Tournament.

That team is back, and plays here tonight against third-ranked University of Hawai‘i in the first round of the Women’s Volleyball Championship.

Has their been a bigger match in the history of Davidson women’s sports?

“No,” first-year coach Tami Darwin says without hesitation.

Does her team know that?

“I sure hope not,” Darwin says with a grin.

In reality, her team’s state of mind is not a concern. It doesn’t take an SAT score of 1,300 — the average at Davidson — to realize the Wildcats have absolutely nothing to lose tonight. And Darwin has four seniors, including two-time Southern Conference Player of the Year Mara Mordini and Brooke Bentley, that she promises are “up for the challenge.”

It won’t hurt that their first postseason taste — a year ago in Lincoln, Neb. — was terribly bitter. Davidson scored just 11 points against Nebraska, hitting negative numbers before a few thousand fans who thrived on their frustration.

Tonight, there will be a few more thousand, on an island curiously hooked on their sport. They were recognized the moment they stepped off the plane, and again while shopping.

“We were just astounded at how well people knew the game,” Barton said. “In Charlotte, it’s more like, ‘Oh yeah, volleyball ... do you serve or what?’ It’s incredible the status that volleyball has in Hawai‘i. We feel very fortunate to be chosen to come here.

“As far as the crowd goes, our team really thrives on good defense and I think the crowd will help us to get excited and be motivated to dig those balls and feed into our offense.”

Mordini, a 5-foot-9 hitter, is the focal point of that offense. She will break the school’s single-season kill record the first time she tools a block tonight. She also anchors the country’s third-ranked defense, sucking up more than five digs a game.

“A lot of them are a little taller than us,” Mordini says of the Wahine. “We experienced that with Nebraska last year, too. We’re just going to be using our agility and our defense ... hopefully bring our match that will win it.”

Davidson’s second season of Southern Conference success has given them a swagger. Combined with the Wahine’s recently realized vulnerability — “We watched the Long Beach match,” Darwin said, “I think every team that comes here will watch that” — it is easy to believe in miracles.