Meet the Team! Softball bios and photos are now loaded. Head to hiloathletics.com, go to roster, and learn something about each 2020 Vulcan player!

The UH Hilo softball team has won 30 or more games in four of the past five seasons, finished second in the Pacific West Conference in 2019 and has just missed out on qualifying for the NCAA postseason in each of the past two years.

You can dive a little deeper into the program history and see that the Vulcans have had 31 winning seasons in 33 campaigns—most of those under head coach Callen Perreira, who is 664-399-3 as the Vulcan leader, and has 800 collegiate coaching wins overall.

Still, with all of that success, the Vulcans are itching for an NCAA tournament bid and PacWest title. It has been since 2013 for either, a drought that the 2020 Vulcans would like to change.

"That is our goal," Perreira confirmed. "We have experience, including three starting pitchers and seven seniors, and our schedule is favorable this year because we get to play most of the conference contenders at home."

It is a reasonable goal, despite a couple of plot twists that appeared before the season even started. The Vulcans won't have the services of transfer pitcher Briana Wheeler, nor last year's PacWest Newcomer of the Year, Rayla Jacobs-Kea. Wheeler is going to redshirt, and Jacobs-Kea decided to sit out the season for personal reasons.

The Vulcans do have 14 returnees from the 2019 roster, plus they have added two players with previous starting experience—Kristen Ishii and Darian Obara. Ishii was the UHH starting left fielder as a freshman in 2017, hitting .313 with nine doubles and nine stolen bases. Obara started 33 games in the same spot in 2018, before redshirting last season.

Two-time All-PacWest selection Kiarra Lincoln anchors the infield at shortstop. In 2019 as a sophomore, the local native (Kamehameha-Hawaii) led the Vulcans in batting average (.333), home runs (five) and RBI (34). She also stole 10 bases. Senior Brinell Kaleikini is also a two-time All-PacWest pick, and can play almost any position on the field.

Kaleikini could play behind the plate, as will Markie Okamoto who started 43 games there last year and was fourth on the team with 24 RBI. Lauren Flores provides depth at catcher as well with 22 career games under her belt.

Junior Skylar Thomas returns at first base, where she has started the last two seasons. Last year, the Hilo native (Waiakea HS) had five doubles, five home runs and 25 RBI. Freshman Megan Johnson (Las Vegas) could serve as a back-up at first base or catcher.

Another freshman, Kenzie Fox (Mesa, AZ) is vying for time at second base, along with Obara (Kaleikini played there a lot last year). Chloe Domingo returns at third base, where she started 31 games last year. The sophomore hit .246 as a freshman but also had the highest on-base percentage on the team at .459. Alana Alvarez can play at either corner.

The outfield is loaded. Vevesi Liilii returns in right, after hitting .298 as a junior with four home runs and 16 RBI. Kimberly Olivas spent most of the season injured, but when she was healthy she started 10 games and hit .321. She will be in center field.

Others expected to see time in the outfield include Brandee Chinen (12 starts as a freshman at second base), Shiori Ubukata (redshirt last year), and transfer Kamalei Labasan (Mililani, Hawaii/Edmonds CC), along with Ishii.

In the pitching circle, the Vulcans lost No. 1 starter Isabelle Mejia to graduation, but return their No. 2 in Valerie Alvarado. The senior went 10-5 last year with a 3.12 ERA, and had a victory to her credit over PacWest champion Concordia.

Senior Leah Gonzales had 17 appearances last year, most of those out of the bullpen, fashioning a 1.89 ERA and a 6-5 record with two saves. Billi Derleth, who may also serve as the designated player on offense (she started 27 games in that role in 2017), worked around injuries last year to tally a 3-3 record with a 2.07 ERA. Freshman Malia Risdall (Santa Clarita, CA) could also work her way into the pitching circle.

The Vulcans will find out a lot about themselves early during a pair of tournaments on the road. They kick off the season on Thursday (Feb. 6) at the Dixie State Courtyard Classic, opening against Central Washington (11 am MT) and then the host Trailblazers (1:30 pm). Western Washington, Northwest Nazarene and Colorado Mesa are also on the Courtyard Classic schedule. All of those teams had winnings records a year ago, and Dixie State, Colorado Mesa and Central Washington were NCAA playoff teams.

After that, the Vulcans will play in Tucson at the Cactus Classic, taking on seven teams (Feb. 13-16) from Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. They then come back to Hilo to host a murder's row of PacWest opponents from Feb. 27-March 6, playing four games each against Azusa Pacific, Biola and Concordia.

"The team has good chemistry and work ethic," Perreira said.  "The two tournaments we are playing has strong teams that will have already played 5-7 games.  We have been playing against ourselves since Fall so they are hungry to get on the field against good competition. Playing very successful programs in the two tournaments will give us a good indication of what we do well and what we need to work on."

While Perreira likes his team, so do the other PacWest coaches, who picked the Vulcans to finish second in the conference. Defending champion Concordia is the unanimous pick to win the conference again, but the Vulcans won't go down without a fight.

"Our goals are to win the conference and go to regionals," Kaleikini told the Hawai`i Tribune-Herald. "We don't want to finish the year at home. We want to go out with a bang."

Lincoln echoed those statements. "The goal is to get to regionals, we've come so close in the past two years. We talk about it a lot."

Talk can turn into action, starting this week.