Hawaii women’s volleyball: Army’s Oglivie shines in loss to Wahine

Ana Oglivie received a loud ovation from the Hawaii-partisan crowd when her name was called for the Army starting lineup on Thursday night.

The 2017 ‘Iolani graduate made her return to the islands, and in front of a contingent of family and friends, recorded a match-high 22 digs for the Black Knights in a 22-25, 25-17, 25-19, 25-19 loss to the Rainbow Wahine.

Despite the defeat, Oglivie cherished the experience of playing her first official game in the Stan Sheriff Center. Over the past few years, prep volleyball teams in Hawaii generally play at other campuses or at the Neal Blaisdell Center.

“It’s a childhood dream come true. I feel like every kid in Hawaii who grew up playing volleyball, this arena is where that passion for it grew and seeing the women we could become,” she said. “Being one of those women now is really awesome.

“I did come to about two summer camps when I was 9 or 10 years old. Coach (Dave) Shoji was still here. I think I was at Kawika Shoji’s hip. It’s been a while.”

A vocal part of the 3,723 fans who showed up was a group sitting behind the Army bench, a mixture of what Oglivie described as “my family, teammates’ families that flew all the way down here, church family and some Army family as well.”

“It’s really special and I’m really happy and grateful that they made their time to come out and watch me play,” she said.

Both teams entered the contest 3-0. Army took the first set, jumping out to a 5-2 lead in the that prompted Hawaii to call its first timeout. Punahou alumna Nikki Lum, the other Hawaii native on Army’s roster, entered early when the Black Knights led 2-0. Despite the Rainbow Wahine rallying back from a 17-12 deficit to even the set back at 17, the visitors ultimately took the opening set 25-22.

Oglivie was a prominent figure in the Black Knights’ defense all night long. In the first set, she registered seven digs in the first set to go along with her two assists.

Lum added two assists and digs of her own in the opening stanza, and finished with 16 assists and eight digs.

Oglivie seemed especially involved in early parts of the second set, ramping up her dig total to 16, although the Rainbow Wahine evened the match by taking the set 25-17 and then winning the next two comfortably.

Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow acknowledged Oglivie’s defensive prowess afterwards but also stressed that the Rainbow Wahine have room to improve in their attack.

From the #HawaiiWVB postgame, coach Robyn Ah Mow talked about the defense of libero Ana Oglivie (‘Iolani) and her Army teammates in Set 1 and how UH turned it around as the match went.

Plus, middle Sky Williams talked about her career night. pic.twitter.com/GNmr4mgJoK

— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) September 6, 2019

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“She was good. I mean, she played good,” Ah Mow said. “All of them, they played really good defense. They either played really good defense or our hitters hit straight to the defense. They didn’t have to really move. It was hard balls, but straight to the defense. You know, that wasn’t our game plan. … So, hats off to them, they played really good, scrappy defense, like literally hardly anything touched the ground. But I think our team as well hit straight to the defense.”

Oglivie was a senior at ‘Iolani when it won the 2016 HHSAA title, taking over as the starting setter for the Raiders after Bailey Choy graduated the year before. Choy spent the first three years of her collegiate career at Utah before transferring back to UH for her senior season. Choy, who had 21 assists and 14 digs against the Black Knights, admits the on-court reunion was odd at first since the two were on opposite sides of the net.

“Oh my gosh, that was a long time ago,” Choy said of her days with Oglivie at ‘Iolani. “I can’t believe three years flew by. But I remember she was always scrappy and she never gave up and obviously that showed tonight. She did great.

“If the ball was about to fall, she was always there to get it up. I really admire that about Ana. And I was happy to see her. It was different seeing her across the court and not on my team.”

Oglivie’s younger sister, Elena, was the Honolulu Star-Advertiser state player of the year during the 2016 season as a freshman. She won the award again as a junior last season. Elena, now a senior, is set to play for Stanford next fall. She’s currently in Cairo, Egypt for the FIVB Girls’ U18 World Championships as one of 12 players on the USA roster. The US team won its first match earlier on Thursday, sweeping Mexico.

“She’s living out her dream and I support her from here,” Ana Oglivie said. “I really wish she could be here, but she’s doing really awesome things and I love her and miss her.”

Despite Elena Oglivie’s continuing list of accolades, her older sister has come to expect greatness from her.

“It’s really special. She’s three years younger than me but she doesn’t act like it,” Ana Oglivie said. “She’s very mature. I look up to her. We bounce a lot of things off each other but I support her in whatever she’s doing. I think they beat Mexico the other night and she led them in points. That doesn’t surprise me. She’s just a solid player.”

Some teams that visit the Stan Sheriff Center don’t know to remain on the court for Hawaii Pono‘i since the national anthem will have concluded at the time. Oglivie told her teammates beforehand to stay there.

“We were watching film today and I let them know, just a heads up,” she said. “I had to sing the words, it’s only natural.”

With one last favor done for the home crowd before taking on her hometown team, Ogilvie turned in one of her best performances of the young season.

“For me, that’s my motivation always, to just fight for my team,” she said. “But it was interesting to hear ‘Go ‘Bows’ and I wasn’t saying it with the crowd because it was against me. At the same time, it’s just noise and you gotta play.”