Guided by new leadership and competing under a unifying theme, the University of Hawai‘i athletics department produced a historic 2025-26 season highlighted by championship moments, including a statewide celebration of a national title.
Epitomizing the message of “Our Team, Hawai‘i’s Team” — introduced shortly after Matt Elliott’s appointment as athletics director in June — UH teams delivered moments that resonated throughout the state over the course of the sports calendar.
A Christmas Eve miracle to capture the Hawai‘i Bowl title highlighted the fall season and the men’s basketball team claimed the program’s first Big West Championship title and accompanying NCAA Tournament appearance in a decade in March. UH dominated in the pool with the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams sweeping the Big West championships while the Rainbow Wahine water polo team went undefeated in conference play for a third straight year.
The Rainbow Warrior volleyball team then asserted its claim to dynastic status by capturing the program’s third national championship within the last six years. The title run included the program’s first NCAA Tournament match on its home court at a sold out Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center and culminated with rousing victories over Long Beach State and UC Irvine.
Along the way from the soccer team’s opener in mid-August through the NCAA Track and Field First Round in late May, UH student-athletes continued to rack up national and conference honors, including Kansei Matsuzawa becoming the first consensus All-American in the football program’s 109 years of competition.
The department also bid aloha to three longtime coaches with Robyn Ah Mow (women’s volleyball), Laura Beeman (women’s basketball) and Andy Johnson (sailing) stepping away from their roles. The 2025-26 campaign also marked the farewell season to the Big West for 14 teams before joining the UH football team in the Mountain West effective July 1.
