Nickie Thomas and Jessica Keefe moved to Manoa the same month, shed the same amount of sweat and fears as red-shirt freshmen and practiced the same patience as backups last season.

Payback was supposed to come now. Intertwined as ever, payback has taken a strange and sad form for both Rainbow Wahine volleyball players.

Thomas went out with an injury to her right knee in the ninth match of the season. She had surgery Oct. 13. Keefe was lost for the season when she injured her left knee on aloha point at Louisiana Tech less than a month later. Her surgery is scheduled for early November.

Both were starters, as was junior Tara Hittle, who played five matches before her injured ankle and leg forced her out. "If I could, I'd be the only one out right now," Thomas said. "If only we were that lucky. Everything happens for a reason, I guess."

As 15th-ranked UH returns to action Friday against Idaho, all are desperately seeking a way to help, even as they make peace with their physical problems.

"It is interesting how this all happened," Thomas said. "I can't even explain it. But we definitely have spent a lot of time together and will spend a lot of time together. Hopefully we'll be best friends by the end of this."

She grinned sadly and moved on, which was pretty much her reaction when she realized the seriousness of her injury.

"We're all pretty focused and dedicated toward all this," Thomas added. "We just want to get back to volleyball. We'll stay focused that way."

Keefe has been through it before. She injured her right knee in her final high school basketball game and showed up for her first collegiate practice five months after surgery. She has since had a second surgery on that knee to repair a meniscus tear.

Keefe knows what she and Thomas are in for, and is trying hard to keep it all in perspective.

"Most definitely you'll beat yourself up if you keep asking 'Why me?'" she said. "In the bigger scheme of things it is pretty minor. It's a good six or seven months of your life, but it's not the end of the world. You can recover from it. I have already. To me, the hardest part is coming to terms with having to do it again."

Their teammates also are trying to put it all in perspective. They see their friends go down and feel immense empathy. They are going through a different kind of rehabilitation, with players in foreign places and lineups that weren't even in the imagination a few months ago.

Freshman Amber Kaufman, redshirting until Thomas went out, is now starting in Keefe's right-side position. Kaufman is also the first backup in the middle. Reserve setter Cayley Thurlby is practicing with the hitters.

One more injury and liberos Raeceen Woolford and Elise Duggins, both 5-foot-7 at high altitude, might be taking swings.

"Cayley is really the only other outside hitter other than a backrow player," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "If we get down past that, it's not good."

Shoji's team took two days off last week after a stretch where it played seven matches in 12 days. Setter Kanoe Kamana'o and hitter Jamie Houston took two more to rest nagging pains.

Hawai'i has two more homestands and two more road trips before the Western Athletic Conference Tournament. Somehow, it needs to stay healthy.

Hittle, Thomas and Keefe are searching for ways to help — beyond cheering and moral support. It will take time to settle on the best course of inaction.

They have lots of time, and one another.

"You're not as isolated," Keefe said of the injury trifecta. "Others are going through as much as you are. At the same time, it's a huge detriment to the team. I feel bad in the sense I'm letting the team down because I can't be there and help out on the court. We didn't need a third person out for the season."

Hawai'i didn't need a first person out. But ... stuff happens, as Hittle, Thomas and Keefe will now be the first to tell you.

"I have no doubt every one of us will be back and ready to play and better than before," Keefe said. "I'm already excited. How long until that happens I don't know, but I can't wait."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.