Born in Utah in the mid-1990s — long after the glory years faded — Siera Green can be forgiven for flunking a quiz on Vulcans volleyball history when she first arrived at UH-Hilo.
Sharon who? NAIA what?
“I knew nothing about it,” she said.
Sure, Green glanced at the banners and the mural at UH-Hilo gym, but that doesn’t mean she went out of her way to study them.
That changed a bit last season when the Vulcans made an increased effort at providing a history lesson, and those efforts will be ramped up this alumni weekend under first-year coach Gene Krieger, who has vowed to reconnect the program’s historic past with the present ever since being hired in March.
So if any first-year players – and there are more than a few – don’t know by now that UH-Hilo won six national champions under Hall of Fame coach Sharon Peterson from 1979 to 1988, they will have been well-schooled in those facts by Saturday’s annual alumni match.
“Now I know the signifcance of (Vuls history) and how awesome they were,” Green said. “(Coach) definitely wants everybody to know how important it was and hopefully turn the program around so we can do something like that again.”
Fair or foul, whether or not the Vulcans take any steps in the upward direction this season will largely depend on the play of Green, who enters her senior season as far and away the team’s most proven outside hitter.
“We’re going to need a fair amount of swings from (Siera), but we’re not going to need a mini-Marley, where she has to carry the whole load,” Krieger said.
When times got tough during 10-15 campaign in 2016 – such as when Green missed matches with a sprained ankle – the Vulcans turned to Marley Strand-Nicolaisen, a four-year contributer and a first-team all-PacWest selction as a senior, for swings time and again.
“That’s kind of what I’m gearing up for,” Green said Wednesday as she got set to practice. “I know those are big shoes to fill, but I think we’re going to be a lot more balanced this season.”
A transfer from Snow Colleg in Utah, she started in three matches in 2015 and expanded her role last season. Despite battling injury, the athletic Green was second on UH-Hilo with 173 kills (2.31 per set).
“I denfinitley feel the weight on my shoulders,” she said, “but I’m ready to step to the plate.”
Strand-Nicolaisen, setter Sienna Davis and middle blocker Kyndra Trevino-Smith were losses the Vuls expected. They hoped to have outside hitter Haylee Roberts, a former Division I player, back for another season, but after graduating Roberts couldn’t find the coursework she wanted so she moved on to Cal State Bakersfield.
Among the key players moving in are Basia Sauni, a junior setter from Oahu who was a second-team junior college All-American last season, and Lucee Fitzgerald, an outside hitter who transfered from Irvine Valley College.
“I told the team when we first met them, on paper the two best players last year are going to be in the alumni game, and that’s just a fact,” Krieger said. “The two highest-ranking players, Marley and Sienna, are not on the team. On paper, people are going to think we’re going to be down from last year. You can prove them right or wrong.”
On Saturday, a 4 p.m. contest will match the older Vulcan alumni. At 6 p.m., Green, retruning libero Mina Grant and company will face Strand-Nicolaisen, Davis and the younger alumni.
At 11 a.m. Saturday, UH-Hilo will host a introductory history class of sorts regarding the gym mural. The lecturers include the painter, Kathleen Kam, as well as Peterson and former athletic director Ramon Goya.
“It’s fantastic that we will have players here representing all decades of this great program,” Krieger said.
