HONOLULU — A new-look University of Hawai'i women's basketball team arrived for the official start of practices on Wednesday ready to run.
 
With a roster stocked with eight newcomers joining seven returnees, the Rainbow Wahine enter the 2025-26 season eager to pick up the tempo in the race for another Big West title.
 
"I think we're going to play really exciting basketball. I know we're going to get up and down the floor," 14^th-year UH head coach Laura Beeman said prior to Wednesday's session in Gym 2.
 
"We are going to pick up our pace, we're going to score more points, I think it's going to be a much more exciting brand of basketball. … Defensively with our length, we're going to be able to get after some things differently as well. Definitely some different looks, but how hard we play, that will be the same."
 
The 'Bows will look to build on a 2024-25 season that saw them finish with a 22-10 overall record and capture the program's sixth Big West regular-season title with a 16-4 conference mark. They reached the postseason for the fourth consecutive season and the ninth time in Beeman's tenure with a second straight appearance in the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament.
 
They enter the new campaign with a decidedly international feel to the 15-player roster with six players from Australia, three from New Zealand and one each from Canada and Italy.
 
Forward Imani Perez is the team's lone returning senior coming off second consecutive selections to the All-Big West second team and the conference's All-Defensive team. She finished second on the team with 32 blocked shots and was the hub of a UH defense that ranked among the stingiest in the nation last season. The 'Bows ranked seventh nationally in scoring defense in limiting opponents to 53.1 points per game and third in field-goal percentage defense at 33.5%.
 
"I'm pretty excited and I think everybody else on the team Is really excited just to get a fresh start and let people see a whole new team in the Stan," Perez said. "Being the older one it's a bit different, but I have a bigger role now and I would say I'm just really grateful to be in this position now to help out the younger ones."
 
Center Ritorya Tamilo also played a central role in the defensive effort while setting the program's freshman record with 41 blocked shots. The 6-foot-5 senior was named the Big West Freshman of the Year and earned a spot on the All-Freshman team.

Heading into her sophomore season, Tamilo said she's focused on "definitely working a lot more with the coaches outside of practice, just continuing to use my voice and be a leader and just pushing myself and the rest of the team."
 
Guard Jovi Lefotu, a redshirt junior, joins Perez as the longest tenured members of the roster. Lefotu was a key contributor off the bench last season in her return to action and earned the team's Most Improved Player award.
 
The incoming class includes two senior transfers in guard Izzy Forsyth (UC San Diego) and Saniyah Neverson (Northern Arizona), three freshmen from Down Under in guards Teyahna Bond and Ella Collins of Australia and guard Bailey Flavell from New Zealand, the program's first player from Italy in Fiamma Serra and guard Keiara Curtis from Washington.
 
"They're very competitive, very strong as well," Tamilo said of the newcomers. "Just good energy and lots of talent.
 
Flavell and Tamilo were teammates with New Zealand's national team in the FIBA Asia Cup in China this summer.

The run-up to the season will include two exhibition games. The Rainbow Wahine will make their debut in Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on Oct. 21 against Chaminade and also face Hawai'i Pacific University on Oct. 28. They open the regular season on Nov. 4 against Portland State and will play their first seven games of the season at home.

This team has unbelievable energy, unbelievable effort, they really like each other but they compete with one another," Beeman said. "That's what I'm looking for in the preseason and if that happens we will be a very, very good team come conference play.

"Right now we want them comfortable. We want them understanding the basic concepts of spacing, the basic concepts of chemistry with one another and then getting a real good grip on our defense."