Tara Hittle has yet to meet her off-the-wall match on the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team. Amber Kaufman could give her a run for the offbeat money in Manoa.

The Hawai'i junior and freshman have formed a fast friendship that started at summer camp last year, in part because both were wearing braces at the time (neither is now). Now that Kaufman is here, the friendship is on a solid foundation. No one is quite sure if their bond is because they are so much the same or so different.

Hittle-isms will go down in Rainbow Wahine history, along with her imitations of coach Dave Shoji, which are comical without being cruel. It took her a matter of minutes to establish herself as team comedian two year ago. In a reality series, she would always be the Last 'Bow Standing, with Kaufman a worthy adversary.

After whiffing a spike early in her career, Hittle claimed she practiced the shot every day and called it her "change-up." When she ran out of her shoe last year, she asked no one in particular if they "smelled burning rubber." She left a can in a cooler once with a note that read: "Take my Red Bull and I'll steal your moped. Love, Hittle."

One of former 'Bow Melodie Eckmier's favorite memories was Hittle explaining to the team why she always looks so joyful: "Remember, when I'm on the court going like this it's not because I'm smiling or happy because I got a kill," Eckmier recalled Hittle telling the team with a straight face. "It's because my lips are stuck in my braces."

She particularly enjoys antagonizing Shoji. Two years ago she asked if his son, Kawika, had a date for his high school prom. Shoji's answer: "He is not available — to you."

Hittle knows precisely how far she can push Shoji without going too far. Teammates call her a calming influence, particularly in practice and on the road. Shoji shakes his head and admits no one puts off more "positive energy" than his all-conference hitter.

"If you're around her, good things happen to you. You will be a happier person," he said. "You can't be down and around Hittle. It's just not possible."

That's why he would like Kaufman to keep hanging out with Hittle, diplomatically admitting both popular personalities "are a little out there" and they came from very different high school experiences.

Hittle was the Doherty High School homecoming queen who took her 4-year-old nephew to the prom, was Colorado's 2003 State Player of the Year and never met an honor society that did not honor her.

Kaufman was a brilliant athlete at Branham High School in San Jose, Calif., where athletics were not all that important and Kaufman stood out for her breathtaking talent — and temper. Her grades were only mediocre until she was advised to improve the end of her junior year. Kaufman earned a 3.55 GPA as a senior.

She also averaged 19 kills, 10 digs, seven blocks and five aces and high jumped 5 feet, 10 1/4 inches, which would have won the 2006 WAC Championship. Her talent was so jarring coaches talked of her going to the Olympics in either sport.

The same coaches knew she could get so frustrated with herself she once KO'd a jumping standard with one punch.

"I just need to get it out and I'm fine," Kaufman said. "It's so frustrating sometimes, especially track because it's all me. Whatever I'm doing I can change it and I'm just not.

"I've learned how to control it a little more. Now I just get down. Before I'd get mad."

Kaufman took her obvious physical attributes and basically recruited herself to Hawai'i because of its obvious attributes. It helped that UH was one of the rare programs that would let her pursue track as well, the same as her former coach and role model — Stanford volleyball player/jumper Ashley Ivey.

"We never knew about her until they called and said would you be interested in someone who touches 10-6 or something," Shoji recalled. "We said yes.

"She's had issues in life, but I think she's gotten over a lot of things that might have dragged her down. She's in an environment now where I think she'll just blossom. She's so hard on herself. That has carried over in her personal life maybe in the past. Now, being around Hittle and being around older students, I think she's not going to dwell on those things like she did in the past. I don't know if she's ever been around serious athletes for any length of time."

In reality, Kaufman can touch "just" 10-4, and her athleticism has made her one of the early surprises this season as she tries to make an impact in the middle or on the outside.

She touches four inches higher than Hittle, who is a spectacular leaper, if unorthodox. Kaufman finds her new teammate's feet-flying approach and echo-inducing spike "cool" and unusual, but already realizes Hittle's most valuable attribute is that relentlessly upbeat personality.

Kaufman also has the ability to light up a room or lighten up a practice, something Shoji is trying to discourage so early in her career. "I told Hittle to stop too when she was a freshman," Shoji said. "I couldn't stop Hittle."

He might have more success in another area. Kaufman, who has a tendency to change her hair color on a whim, came here with her ears pierced in three places, another in her tongue and tattoos on her back and inside her lower lip. Hittle is intrigued by the lip tattoo.

"I don't want to know anything about it," Shoji said, closing his eyes. "I just told them I don't want to see any more visible tattoos and please keep the piercings to a minimum."