Sarah Mason spent Sunday with her Hawaii teammates watching the NCAA Tournament Selection Show. As the pairings appeared across the television screen, the Hawaii name appeared alongside Oregon.
“When it came up, I was just laughing to myself,” she said.
Two weeks earlier, Mason had joked around with her manager. “I was like, ‘What if we played Oregon in the NCAA Tournament because they’ve been doing so well.’”
For two years, Mason wore an Oregon uniform and helped try to turn the volleyball program around. She shared the same locker room with current Oregon players Kristen Bitter, Heather Madison, Erin Little and Karen Waddington. Toward the end of her sophomore year in 2005, Mason left, citing home-sickness, a lack of a fashion design major at Oregon and other factors she declined to reveal.
“My experience at Oregon was not one that I regret at all,” Mason said. “I have so many memories to take back from the girls and from the team and playing.”
Mason will be reunited with her former Oregon teammates when the University of Hawaii (26-5) plays Oregon (17-11) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Long Beach, Calif. on Friday at 5 p.m.
Mason, a 6-foot-3-inch left-side hitter, regularly followed the volleyball team online to see how her ex-teammates were doing. Mason called Madison and Waddington to offer congratulations on making the NCAA Tournament.
Oregon’s upperclassmen have remained tight-lipped on facing their former teammate.
“It’s about Hawaii, not Sarah Mason,” Waddington said.
“We’re going to play Hawaii and I think it would be foolish for us to get caught up in the whole, ‘she’s a former teammate’ thing,” said Madison, who was roommates with Mason for two years – one year in the residence halls at Barnhart and the other at Ducks’ Village. “Yeah, that’s a reality, but we’re playing Hawaii and not Sarah.”
Madison reflected on fun memories, including many dance parties. She says she “has no bad memories.”
At Sunday’s press conference, middle blocker Bitter focused on Hawaii’s team and when asked specifically about Mason, declined to comment.
“I’m excited to play Hawaii,” Bitter said. “They have a lot of tradition behind them and that just fires me up. They’re going to be a really good team.”
Mason’s ex-teammates do know what kind of challenge Mason presents on the other side of the net. Mason is second on No. 12 Hawaii with 396 kills. She leads the team with 58 service aces and is second on the team with 296 digs.
“She’s a good player,” Waddington said. “We’re going to have to be disciplined against her blocking and play defense well.”
Mason is an emotional player, who isn’t afraid to be loud on the court.
“She’s a feisty player,” Madison said. “She brings a lot of emotion and sometimes will yell in your face. It’s all in good fun – nothing like she hates you or anything.”
Many different factors – the losing, being far from family – went into Mason’s decision to leave Oregon, she says.
“My families always been a big part of my volleyball experience and they weren’t able to watch my games or come out very often,” said Mason, a native of Hilo, Hawaii. “The opportunity wasn’t available for me right out of high school to go to the University of Hawaii.”
The skinny high school senior evolved into an elite Pacific-10 Conference player in her two years at Oregon. As much as she contributed, Oregon struggled, only winning one Pac-10 match in her short career.
“It’s hard to lose so much because every single one of the girls worked so hard in practices and it’s like there’s no reward,” Mason said. “You even feel like you’re getting nowhere. It was pretty hard to take.”
Oregon raced to an 8-2 start in 2004, and Mason thought things were turning for the better, until a torn right anterior cruciate ligament sidelined teammate Lauren Westendorf. Without her, Oregon struggled to a 1-17 finish in the Pac-10.
“I think we had everything going for us that year then bad things happen and you face adversity, and I don’t think we were quite prepared for such a big blow as Lauren going down,” Mason said.
Mason exited the Oregon campus in the spring. Leaving early allowed her to participate in spring drills with her new Hawaii teammates and adjust to a quicker style of play.
“I didn’t get to say good-bye to a lot of my friends,” Mason said. “It was sad, but I think we all left on good terms. We still have good friendships.”
Mason had little contact with coach Jim Moore, who was hired that spring.
“I talked to him for a little bit,” Mason said. “He expressed that he wanted me to stay and I’d be a great help for the team and whatnot. But I hadn’t really built a relationship with him.”
“Very little,” Moore said of talking to Mason. “She had kind of made her decision before I got here.”
The move to Hawaii offered new challenges. Mason had to adjust to lesser competition offered in the Western Athletic Conference than the Pac-10. Mason did join arguably the best team in the conference with a history of winning.
“You’re playing at this elite program and there’s a whole bunch of hype behind it,” Mason said.
The Pac-10, with seven teams headed to the NCAA Tournament, is a whole different level.
“Everyday in the Pac-10 you’re playing against All-Americans and Olympic-status players and national champions,” Mason said. “It’s the toughest competition in the nation and you can’t get that anywhere else.”
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