Just when the soaring size of players and university athletic budgets threaten to transform Division I volleyball into the haves and have-nots, someone tiny and totally unintimidating like Jayme Lee appears and everything seems possible again.

The University of Hawai'i senior is everything All-Americans are not: small, not on scholarship, not even starting anymore. But since she took a leap of faith to try out after graduation from Hawai'i Baptist in 2005, she has become a vital part of the fourth-ranked Rainbow Wahine team that takes on Nevada tonight and San Jose State tomorrow.

In an age when coaches seek 6-foot liberos and the last 10 NCAA champions have been BCS schools — to say nothing of the three top-ranked, unbeaten teams ahead of Hawai'i in this week's ranking — Lee and her Rainbow Wahine teammates are an exception.

For those who fear the traditionally small Hawai'i players will not have a place on a top-10 team in the near future, Lee provides a solid argument based in big-time volleyball dreams and a huge amount of desire. She cloaks it in a "5 feet 7/8 of an inch," 103-pound frame.

"She's going to always have a place in the discussion when you talk about local players," said UH coach Dave Shoji, recalling former Rainbow walk-ons such as Ashley Watanabe, Stephanie Shota, Jaime Paet and Sista Palakiko. "She's got to be mentioned.

"I don't think her value can just be measured on the court. Just having a kid like this in our program ... everybody just likes her. She's a likeable kid who goes hard, has no baggage, comes every day with a smile. She's the kind of kid you want to be around."

Since her shocking ascent to starting libero in the middle of her first collegiate match, the 'Bows have gone to longer liberos to try and fill the passing lanes and cover more ground. Lee, who also suffered from shoulder and ankle injuries, is relegated to role player.

Her value has only risen because she never pouted or altered her upbeat, relentless nature. In a twist of fate, Lee might have learned more, and lifted more spirits, because of how her career played out. She would not have changed a thing.

"I couldn't have asked for more," she said. "It's definitely been a hard and tough five years, but I wouldn't have changed anything. It taught me more about myself than I could ever imagine. It definitely prepared me for life. My dad always told me sports prepare you for life. I never believed him.

"Now I look back and there could have been nothing else in this world that would have prepared me for life and what I'm about to go into — the real world — beside volleyball. It's basically tested me in every possible way — mentally, physically, spiritually."

Lee has always had a way of passing tests and following through on her precise plans for the future. The most intense of three athletic sisters, she knew as a child that she wanted to be a doctor. She will graduate in May with a degree in Kinesiology and apply to medical schools for 2011, forced to wait a year because of the time obligations for volleyball.

The 'Bows have traveled an average of almost 37,000 miles annually the past three seasons. Between that and perpetual practice, Lee has managed to deal with a full load of science classes and labs, work on campus and volunteer.

She studies during water breaks and bounces ideas off trainer Renae Shigemura. She took an Organic Chemistry final at NCAA Regionals last year. This is her first semester without a lab. Two professors have told her to drop classes because "there was no way I could keep up." She persisted, and prevailed.

Somehow she finds the 20 to 30 hours a week needed for academic obligations and still shows up at 6 a.m. practice smiling. Associate coach Kari Ambrozich will miss that work ethic most, and Lee's "spunkiness."

"I never saw her take a play off," Ambrozich said. "In the weight room, it's the same thing. She always runs as hard and lifts as hard as she can. Her idea is to lead by quiet example."

Straight to the operating room. Lee grew up dreaming of being a pediatrician. She has altered that and now wants to be a surgeon.

"It might be partly because of 'Grey's Anatomy,' " she admits. "I watch it ... it might not be realistic. And having had two surgeries added to it. I'm really interested in it. I'm not scared of the whole blood-and-guts ordeal. I kind of find it interesting. I like dissecting things, love cutting things open. I find it fascinating."

Lee's dreams are not like most. Hers always seem to come true. "She is very determined," said her dad, Leighton. "She's someone who just will have a goal and keep working hard at it. That's her real forte."

That's what happened when she and former HBA teammate Rayna Kitaguchi —a tandem that was instrumental in little HBA's rise to big-time volleyball — decided to try out for the Rainbow Wahine after graduation.

"I was 90 percent sure I wanted to play volleyball at UH, and 10 percent thinking I'm not even going to make the team," Lee recalled. "How am I going to play for UH, D-I, at 5 feet?"

Kitaguchi was a huge help. Both were intimidated. Together, they grinded through 7 a.m. summer workouts and broke into tears when they made the team. Both hunkered down through a redshirt season when "touching" a ball almost always meant simply shagging.

Lee calls that year "surreal," but found a special ally in senior libero Ashley Watanabe, another small 'Aiea girl living out a dream.

"Ashley helped me feel a lot better, being as she was a senior and came from the same side of the island, played the same position — walk-on DS," Lee said. "She had a lot of the obstacles me and Rayna (who played two years) went through. She set the bar for us and helped us see what we really needed to do throughout the whole year. She helped a lot giving us insight."

Lee's insight now starts from her soul. What she has learned the past five years is that to prepare for what she has gone through takes total commitment. When Shoji told her to change into the libero jersey midway through opening night in 2006, Lee's initial reaction was "uh oh." As soon as she started throwing her body on the floor, life was good.

Lee has just kept on throwing her little body around, through that "crazy" freshman season, when Hawai'i won 16 of its last 17 to reach the regional final, and the last three seasons, when her body failed her a few times and she has moved from starring to supporting roles.

"That (freshman) year was crazy. I still can't believe I started," Lee said. "It was amazing, a dream come true. Even though I may not play as much now, that season in itself was the best thing that's ever happened. A lot of girls would kill to start for one season, or even to be on a top-10 team.

"There's definitely no regrets and no selfishness out of that. I should never ever say, 'Poor me, I didn't play after I started for a year.' There's no pity on myself because I'm definitely lucky to be here. It's an opportunity a lot of people would kill to have and I'm more than grateful for it."

She and her father have discussed the nuances of her career often. It is not a sore subject.

"It's not hard because we talk about it as a choice of how we view it," Leighton said. "We look at it as an opportunity to test her character. It's really easy to be all gracious and this and that when things are going your way. This is really an opportunity to see how you react when things are not how you planned. You have this choice and opportunity so you try to emphasize looking at it in this light. It's an opportunity to grow, test your character, see if you can maintain a positive attitude. I'm happy for her in that I think she has."

Lee's volleyball duties are to pass and chase down balls as fast as her little feet can carry — and throw — her. She is Hawai'i's quickest player and might be one of the most precise bump setters in the game (her hands are too small to set overhand). Lee never fails to give the crowd or team a spark.

She is ready for anything, even going in on one of Shoji's legendary whims. Lee says preparing now is 10 times harder than when she was a starter because "I could go in any time, for anyone, for any reason."

But in her mind, there is no mystery about how to prepare for what she's been through the last five years, if any of those 5-foot Hawai'i defensive specialists are listening.

"The No. 1 thing is, it's all about you," Lee said. "You are basically preparing yourself as best as you possibly can. When you get here you will feel a lot of it is outside your control and you feel like there's nothing you can do. You feel like you're being controlled by everything around you, you feel lost. Until you feel you deserve to be here, you should be here ... just believing in yourself is the hardest thing to do."

Is there still a place for the menehune at the top echelon of D-I volleyball? Lee has answered that the last five years. Her father, the lawyer, builds a solid case from the outside looking in.

"I'm certain this answer is yes," Leighton said. "The reason for that has a lot to do with attitude more than the physical aspects. So many people her age or a little younger have been very successful and they were all kind of her size. A lot of it has to do with this attitude that they can do it. It's not something you can back down from. You have to have no doubt in your own mind. If you're waiting for someone to tell you that you can do it, you're not going to make it. You have to draw from your self-confidence and drive. For Jayme, we never pushed her. It was something she just wanted to do."