HONOLULU – An old saying, credited to Julius Caesar, goes as follows: 

“Experience is the teacher of all things.” 

Hawai’i Rainbow Wahine senior libero Tayli Ikenaga has been the breathing personification of the axiom both on and off the floor throughout her life. From enjoying the successes of being a star at Moanalua to being a starter early on in her college career and then needing to fight for all chances she could get, Ikenaga has every experience a volleyball player could have. 

For someone who didn’t even begin her athletic career with volleyball, Ikenaga quickly picked up the sport. 

Originally a basketball player, a younger Ikenaga would get her introduction to the sport she would grow to love by tagging along to older sister Cobi’s club volleyball practices. While Cobi practiced, Tayli would play off to the side and field serves and tosses from their dad, Chad. 

Her love for volleyball rapidly grew as the younger Ikenaga sister joined Cobi in the sport and eventually overtook the title of “top volleyball player” for the family. By high school’s beginning, playing at the next level was on her mind. 

“My sister influenced me to play volleyball,” Tayli said with a smile about her older sibling’s role in the journey.  

Despite her love for family and her home, it did not mean that she wouldn’t hear out mainland schools calling. 

“[Originally in high school], I really wanted to move away, maybe stay on the west coast,” she recalled. 

Winning the 2018 OIA East Player of the Year award as a sophomore, Tayli helped lead Moanalua to an OIA title. With recruitment heating up and some showcases under her belt, Ikenaga continued conversations with schools interested in bringing her on as a libero.  

Taking visits and seeing programs on the west coast of the continental United States, nothing stuck out to persuade the Moanalua star in any school’s direction. With walk-on opportunities being offered, Ikenaga softly committed to Hawai’i as a walk-on instead for a chance to still play in front of friends and family. 

Her career continued to progress until a global pandemic derailed the typical development process for Ikenaga and others as the libero saw her senior season of high school volleyball snatched away for good. 

“COVID kind of messed up everything,” Ikenaga said. 

The Moanalua alum made the most of the situation, participating in the Zoom calls with coaches and teammates while preparing for college life as a student-athlete. 

Then a true freshman, Ikenaga joined Amber Igieide as the only two Hawai’i players to start all 30 matches in the 2021 season. Starting 107 sets at libero for the Rainbow Wahine, Ikenaga tallied a team-best 347 digs in her first year at the next level. 

Despite her success, Ikenaga knew that starting jobs at the college level are never promised.  

“My parents would tell me all the time that because you started in high school does not mean you will be starting in college,” the senior libero remembered. “Once I got that starting position, I knew that I had to keep working harder and harder every time I practiced just so I could keep that starting position.” 

While she started 26 matches in her sophomore season, the ironwoman missed the first three matches of her career in October of 2022 after suffering an injury right before a bout with UC San Diego. She missed three full matches for UH, a pair of wins against the Tritons of UC San Diego and Roadrunners from CSU Bakersfield before a four-set setback at Cal Poly. 

Heading into her third season with the program, more challenges were on the way. As her early childhood education program began to heat up, Ikenaga was forced to miss time for practices to complete her responsibilities as a student.  

“I think I had a funk going into [last season] with a lot of mental stuff going on between school and volleyball where I was missing a lot of school. [With the UH College of Education], I have to do student teaching so I would miss practices [for it] or miss teaching because of traveling [for volleyball] … It was a lot of mental stuff going on,” Ikenaga shared. 

Now watching from the sidelines at times, the Moanalua product made the most of her vantage point by watching intently to share insight with teammate Talia Edmonds and receive back information of what the Michigan State transfer saw. Together, the duo combined for 452 digs while providing what the 24-win Rainbow Wahine needed from the position almost every night. 

Luckily for her future students, Ikenaga should be able to provide everything needed and more as a teacher, too. With a plethora of knowledge to share from her life and having dealt with some of the most difficult situations student-athletes can face, her desire to give back and teach is a help for future generations.  

“I definitely want to become a teacher, starting off in like 3rd grade,” Ikenaga chuckled. “Anywhere, stay in the [public schools] for now and eventually maybe go private school. I just want to be a teacher and give back to the community.” 

Heading into her senior season with Hawai’i, Ikenaga and the Rainbow Wahine will lean on experience of players all around to make up for the graduation of all-time program great Amber Igieide and the loss of other talented (and productive) pieces from last year. With powerhouse programs like Baylor and defending national champion Texas on the schedule, any experience will be a calming experience. 

“We’re trying to prepare for the preseason knowing that it’s going to be very challenging with playing Texas and SMU, Pepperdine,” Ikenaga acknowledged. “I think this is going to be a really good challenge for us to see where we are and how we can use that to our advantage going into Big West [conference play].” 

Just because the team acknowledges the challenge ahead, don’t get it twisted: Hawai’i is ready to give the powerhouse programs a taste of volleyball from the islands. 

“Texas is for sure the one on our target,” Ikenaga said. “Knowing they’re the defending national champions, we can prove ourselves and prove to everybody else that we can keep up with them and showing them what UH Wahine volleyball is like.”