HONOLULU – Hawai'i Pacific University will face island rivals Chaminade and Hawai'i Hilo many times this season in all sports, starting with basketball, men's and women's soccer.
 
Pod schedules for basketball and soccer were announced today by the Pacific West Conference office. Conference teams will play games in their pod only to begin the season, with Hawai'i schools playing against each other, Southern California teams squaring off versus SoCal teams only, and Northern California schools playing in their pod.
 
Men's and women's basketball teams in the Hawai'i pod will play a total of 12 games each, six home and six away. For HPU, that means six games against Chaminade and six versus UH Hilo. As of now, basketball is still a championship sport, with the opportunity to advance to postseason play.
 
Men's and women's soccer will play a total of four matches, two each against the Silverswords and Vulcans. Soccer is an NCAA non-championship sport this winter.
 
Individual game times will be announced soon. Of course, like everything in this pandemic era, the schedules and game times are fluid. They can change and likely will depending on flight schedules and the latest COVID climate.
 
Basketball and soccer schedules for the remaining pods as well as the other 11 PacWest sports will be announced in the coming weeks as they get approved. The PacWest Conference is committed to pursuing intercollegiate athletics opportunities in a safe manner that is in accordance with local, state, national and NCAA guidelines.
 
This will not be the first time that the Hawai'i basketball teams will become very familiar with each other over the course of a season. During the 2005-06 PacWest basketball season, each of the Hawai'i teams in the conference faced each other four times each. The following year the teams faced each other three times over the course of the season as new members were added to the league.
 
Due to COVID-19 guidelines and protocols, no fans will be permitted in attendance. Only participating teams, officials and working personnel will be allowed into The Shark Tank.