Hawai'i moved up six slots in the offseason and is ranked No. 12 in the CBS College Sports Network/American Volleyball Coaches Association Preseason Top 25 Poll, released yesterday by the AVCA. The first regular-season poll will be Sept. 1.

The Rainbow Wahine, who came up a match short of advancing to their 10th straight NCAA Regional last year, finished the season 27-6 and No. 18 in the final ranking.

It was their lowest end-of-season ranking in a decade and only the fifth time they have finished outside the top 10 since the poll started in 1982.

Hawai'i opens its season Aug. 29 against defending NCAA champion Penn State. The Nittany Lions are ranked No. 1 in the preseason, receiving all but one of the 60 first-place votes. They return all starters from their 2007 team, led by first-team All-Americans Nicole Fawcett, Megan Hodge and Christa Harmotto.

The Rainbows will play at least six teams in the Top 25. They also face sixth-ranked UCLA (Aug. 31), ninth-ranked Washington (Sept. 13) and 16th-ranked Minnesota (Sept. 4) in the preseason.

In the Western Athletic Conference, Hawai'i will play 23rd-ranked New Mexico State twice (Sept. 27 and Oct. 12) in the space of 15 days. It also brings in 10th-ranked Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo) Thanksgiving week (Nov. 26 and 28).

Stanford, Texas and Southern California — ranked 2, 3 and 4 — all open at the Runza/AVCA College Volleyball Showcase, Aug. 29 and 31 in Omaha, Neb. The tournament's fourth team is seventh-ranked Nebraska, which received the other first-place vote. This year's final four is Dec. 18 and 20 in Omaha.