If college volleyball's future includes slow-motion in the sand, for once Hawai'i should be the NCAA's ideal destination. Who has more sand than we do?

When the NCAA added Sand Volleyball to its list of emerging sports for women last month, it joined a 15-year old inaugural group that included archery, badminton, bowling, rowing, ice hockey, squash, synchronized swimming, team handball and water polo. Bowling, rowing, ice hockey and water polo have since become NCAA Championships.

Sand Volleyball will become a varsity program beginning with the 2010-11 academic year. It needs a minimum of 40 schools before it can offer an NCAA Championship. It also needs a format, rules and regulations, and many very versatile volleyball players. The paperwork is for administrators, but versatile volleyball players — and sand — are a Hawai'i specialty.

"I think Liz (Ka'aihue) is a pretty darn good beach/sand volleyball player," Rainbow Wahine coach Dave Shoji of his junior libero who, with senior setter Stephanie Brandt, made up Hawai'i's No. 1 team at last month's Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship. "She and Brandt are our top two players. Kanani (Danielson) will be. By the time she's done she will be a very good beach player. That might be her best opportunity to make money after college. She has a chance to be a great beach player."

Danielson, a third-team All-American as a freshman, might be the ideal "sand" prototype, if there is such a thing. She has exceptional skills in every area, is quick enough to cover the court in doubles and, at 5 foot 10 and armed with a state high jump championship, is big enough to block.

She and setter Dani Mafua made up the Rainbows' No. 2 team last month. Amber Kaufman, a rehabbing Aneli Cubi-Otineru and Emily Maeda rotated at No. 3 and Jayme Lee, Brittany Hewitt, Catherine Fowler and Sarah Prather shared time at No. 4.

Hawai'i finished a very confusing format tied for fourth, with USC winning. Hewitt, Hawai'i's biggest player at 6-3, and Lee, its smallest at 5-2, were probably the most entertaining team and, according to Brandt and Ka'aihue, hinted at huge potential.

That hints at one of the reasons Shoji likes Sand Volleyball — the official name because Beach Volleyball was not expected to have broad appeal in places like Nebraska and Minnesota. With just a week of training on the sand for last month's exhibition he could already see players getting to balls they hadn't come close to before. Particularly big players like Kaufman and Hewitt, who rarely get defensive repetitions.

"It just helps our movement and ball control," he said. "That's why we accepted the invitation. Playing on the beach helped our team move better, besides it being an emerging sport that we might be involved in in the near future. I think it's good cross training for our team."

The purpose of emerging sports is to provide more athletic opportunities for female student-athletes since, despite Title IX (formally known as the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act), colleges are still not close to gender equity.

Indoor volleyball is the NCAA's second-largest women's sport after basketball. An estimated 400,000 girls play high school volleyball and, according to a 2007 report by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, participation in beach volleyball has increased 35 percent among "core participants" since 2006, compared to 2.3 percent for the indoor game.

Brandt has been playing on the beach since high school, and thrives on its emphasis on ball control over all else.

"I like that it's just the the two of us, you're in every play and you're focused," she said. "If you mess up, you know it's on you."

The format is expected to be similar to dual matches in college tennis. For example, schools could have five doubles teams play each other, with the first to win three matches victorious.

Ironically Hawai'i, surrounded by beach and beach volleyball courts, is looking into where to build courts. The site of the old basketball courts by the UH pool might be an option. The beach apparently is not because of the travel and time it takes to put up a court, which Brandt says can be up to 2 hours.

Initially it is expected many sand players will come directly from indoor teams, similar to the way cross country and track work now. The seasons will be different and with one scholarship a school will be able to count two "athletic opportunities" and help its gender equity percentage.

Brandt, who will be a senior in the fall, is disappointed she won't be around when it happens. Ka'aihue would have a year to play and is seriously thinking about it, particularly after getting help from former Rainbow Wahine Heidi and Hedder Ilustre, who have spent their post-college careers on the sand. They emphasized the sand's different tempo and a few details Ka'aihue hadn't expected.

"I never thought I'd need to determine which way the wind is going," Ka'aihue grinned. "I really enjoyed it."

The Rainbow Wahine open their 2009 season Aug. 28 against Western Michigan, in the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational. That will be indoors, minus sand, at Stan Sheriff Center.