A year ago, Hawai'i volleyball expectations were so low the Rainbow Wahine often dreaded talking to fans. They found a creative way to vent the frustration caused by such a rare slap.

The 'Bows didn't get mad, they got nearly unbeatable.

"You want to prove them wrong, it's just natural," sophomore Kari Gregory said. "We never were like, 'We can't believe they said that' because, honestly, we didn't know what to expect. But it was incentive."

After going 30-1 with six new starters, Hawai'i will have to find incentive from within this season, which opens at the AVCA/NACWAA Volleyball Showcase Friday in Omaha, Neb. Expectations have returned to extraordinary with 12 returning players, including all seven starters.

In other words, it's status quo for a program that has won four national championships.

"Fans hold us to that high expectation — that if we don't make it to the final four that's a bad year," said junior Cayley Thurlby. "That's a good feeling."

Last season is gone but hardly forgotten as the fourth-ranked Rainbows prepare to face top-ranked Nebraska in their opener. The shock of Hawai'i's 30-match win streak to open the season is still enough to bring smiles to the faces of the faithful, who squirmed through six five-game victories.

While the starters remained the same most of the season, UH coach Dave Shoji substituted liberally and often dramatically. Hawai'i tinkered endlessly during matches to find a winning hand. "All in" worked every night until the end.

The 'Bows' remarkable run concluded in an NCAA Regional in Green Bay, against Wisconsin. They fell after clawing back from a two-game deficit to earn two match points, and fight off four. The Badgers ultimately won the fifth game, 21-19.

Fans whose devotion dated to the muggy confines of Klum Gym were in awe. After losing NCAA Player of the Year Kim Willoughby, All-American Lily Kahumoku and their spectacular supporting cast, Hawai'i had found a way to win again, and with panache.

"I didn't even think that I would go to every game," recalled season-ticket holder Gaye Fujimoto. "I ended up going to every game — and coming home to watch it on TV afterwards — and listening on the radio when they were on the road. They kept me totally stressed, but I couldn't wait until the next week rolled around so that I could watch them all over again."

What Fujimoto saw was a team full of players fighting for playing time. It created a constant stream of heroes that ultimately gave everyone confidence, particularly in one another.

This season, thoughts of the final four are in the back of her mind as she wonders if Hawai'i can end its second-game slumps, and looks forward to watching the new players, the free-for-all for the second middle position and more Kelly Ong.

What a difference a year makes.

Before last season, when the players called fans to encourage them to renew season tickets, they often heard a litany of how bad they would be without Willoughby and Kahumoku. Thurlby worked at a Waikiki restaurant last summer and used to "dread" discussions with forlorn fans who were convinced Hawai'i would never threaten the top 10.

"I'd make them feel like they knew exactly what they were talking about," Thurlby recalls. "Then I'd smile and say come check it out."

The players weren't quite sure how good they would be, but they knew they wouldn't be as bad as most were saying. All the dire predictions, and liberal substitutions, created a common bond that helped them play to their potential — often past — and fight through every deficit until that final night.

"What makes this team good is that it's not who is out there necessarily, it's that the job is getting done," Thurlby said, blending last season into this. "The girls out there are good for a reason. If people were in the practice gym they'd see that. The 12 players that aren't playing every night, we have that attitude: The job is getting done and we're all here for a reason."

Their competitiveness on the practice court has multiplied with the addition of transfer Sarah Mason, freshman Jamie Houston and red-shirts Jessica Keefe and Nickie Thomas. Shoji will play lots of people again, and the players say they are mature enough to encourage it. They have weathered what Thurlby calls the "youthful pressure" of last year's unbeaten streak and look forward to more.

"There's more of an adult pressure now," she said. "Like Victoria (Prince) has been around. Everyone knows what to expect of her. If she hits one ball out in a night, that's a big deal. Now, that's pressure.

"To some degree we've gone from being girls to women. All of a sudden our faces are familiar, fans know what we do well and don't do well and you've got to make some changes. It's definitely a maturity thing. Fans will expect us to rise to a different level of play. It will happen."

Most intriguing now is how Hawai'i will do in the Showcase, made up of four of the country's seven top-ranked teams.

"We're looking at it as what it will be like in December, so our expectations are really high," Gregory said. "We're not going to take losing very well. We haven't learned how to lose yet."

NOTES

Approximately 5,000 volleyball season tickets have been purchased or given out, according to UH officials. Last year, the Rainbow Wahine sold 3,863 and distributed 5,068, including comps and part of booster packages. The year before they sold 4,337 and distributed 5,490.

Nearly 7,800 ticket packages have been sold for the AVCA/NACWAA Volleyball Showcase in Omaha. The 2-year-old QWest Center holds 15,500 and will be the site of a 2005 NCAA Volleyball Regional and the 2006 NCAA Volleyball Championship.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.