HONOLULU — The University of Hawai'i women's water polo team announced on Wednesday a 22-game 2024 regular-season schedule that includes eight home matches and meetings with six of the nine teams that qualified for last season's National Collegiate Women's Water Polo Championship.
 
The Rainbow Wahine finished sixth in last season's Collegiate Water Polo Association poll and begin head coach Maureen Cole's 13^th and final season on Jan. 20 in Central California. The schedule includes matchups with defending national champion Stanford, 2023 runner-up USC and NCAA tournament qualifiers California, Princeton, Fresno State and UC Irvine.
 
UH opens the season the morning of Jan. 20 against Michigan at Clovis West High School in the Polo-Palooza hosted by Fresno State. Later that day, the 'Bows take on Stanford at the Fresno State Aquatics Center.  They close the opening weekend with an exhibition match with California on Jan. 21.
 
UH will make its home debut on Jan. 26 against Princeton at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatics Complex in the Rainbow Invitational. The 'Bows will take on Azusa Pacific and Fresno State the following day.
 
The 'Bows will play all eight of their February matches on the road in the Triton Invitational (Feb. 2-4) hosted by UC San Diego and UC Irvine's Barbara Kalbus Invitational (Feb. 23-25).
 
They open Big West play on March 8 at UC Davis and will also take on Cal during their stay in Northern California. They'll return to the DKAC for a four-game homestand which opens March 16 with a showdown with USC.
 
The homestand will also feature Big West matches with Cal State Fullerton (March 22), CSUN (March 23) and UC San Diego (March 29).
 
UH and UC Irvine meet April 5 in Irvine, Calif., in a matchup of the finalists of the last five Big West Championships. The 'Bows close the road trip at Long Beach State on April 7 and will celebrate Senior Night against UC Santa Barbara on April 13 at DKAC.
 
UC Davis will serve as host of the Big West Championship, set for April 26-28. The NCAA Championship will be held May 10-12 at Cal's Spieker Aquatics Complex in Berkeley, Calif.
 
The Rainbow Wahine closed the 2023 season at 21-6 and advanced to the final of the Big West Championship for the fifth straight year. UH's group of returnees includes sophomore center Bia Mantellato Dias, last season's Big West Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, and first-team All-Big West attacker Alba Bonamusa Boix. Mantellato Dias was a CWPA second-team All-American and Bonamusa Boix made the honorable mention list.
 
Cole has announced she will retire from coaching following the conclusion of the 2024 season.