Rainbow Wahine volleyball preview: Middle Miliana Sylvester

By Billy Hull @ The Star*Advertiser

Photo by Jamm Aquino

For Miliana Sylvester, it’s all about perspective.

The junior middle blocker is one of three team captains for the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team this season.

First-year head coach Joshua Walker wasted no time announcing Sylvester, libero Victoria Leyva and hitter Tali Hakas as captains to start the opening practice of fall camp late last month.

They were three of eight returnees who went through a difficult coaching transition when Robyn Ah Mow stepped down in late April in part because of difficulties relating with the current student-athletes during the NIL era.

There was an opportunity for every player to enter the portal and leave during a difficult time within the program.

Each player would have had their reasons to leave, but Sylvester, who was adopted at age 7 and lived on her own during her senior year at University Lab School before attending UH, was an integral part of keeping the team together.

“I definitely try to be that (leader) for the girls on the team,” Sylvester said before practice Monday. “I think that just kind of my life perspective kind of helped the other girls, because maybe they haven’t gone through such a big adversity. So just to put it into perspective, and to also understand that this situation was not unique to us was kind of the message that I wanted to get to the girls.”

Leadership also comes in multiple forms.

Sylvester, who has 10 siblings, could talk all she wanted about her life experiences with her teammates.

In order to fully make her point, she knew she also had to lead by example.

Looking in the best shape of her career, Sylvester immediately stood out in Hawaii’s preseason scrimmage against Chaminade.

Her attacks in the middle seemed to have more power behind them. Her movement from one side of the net to the other looked fluid. However she viewed how her sophomore season went, it was clear right away she wants to achieve much more in Year 3.

“We have a pretty new team. When we knew (the returnees) were coming back, the focus of the offseason became more individual. How can I get my arm swing faster? How can I improve my blocking on trying to become a more all-around player? Can I serve and play defense? That was pretty much my focus in the offseason, and then to come out here and put my head down and just get to work.”

She missed only one set in her first two years with the Rainbow Wahine. She improved slightly on her kills per set average, moving up from 1.85 as a freshman to 1.93 last year.

She also increased her blocks per set average — from 0.73 to 0.91 — but her five solo blocks as a sophomore were nowhere near the 12 she had in her debut year.

Walker, who finally met Sylvester when she was hosting her first free youth camp at Pearl City High School, knows the story of her upbringing as a child.

He sees the results of it every day on the practice court.

“She just works so hard, and that’s part of like, people think they understand what working hard is, but when it comes to like, OK, what are you doing off the court and what are you doing rehab-wise to make sure your body is ready to go, she checks all of those boxes,” Walker said. “It’s constant leadership from her on the court. Constant questions, constant adjustments because she’s doing everything she can to make sure she is getting better every day.”

Sylvester will play with a third different middle blocker in three years this season. Rachel Purser, a 6-foot-3 freshman from Las Vegas, provides an offensive threat at the position.