HONOLULU — Once was enough.

That’s all the time that Hawaii water polo coach James Robinson dispensed to last year’s NCAA Tournament semifinal loss to California, in which the Rainbow Wahine scored only twice on 17 on power-play opportunities in a 9-6 outcome.

That hard-to-believe statistic, if it came up this week, won’t be mentioned again before the teams rematch in the NCAA quarterfinals in Indianapolis, Ind.

“We spoke about our last meeting with Cal last year, one time,” Robinson, the Big West Coach of the Year in his first season leading the program, said Monday moments before the team embarked from the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex for the airport. “It was really just where we fell short. Haven’t touched a whole lot on when we played them earlier this year. … It’s (about) being present right here, right now.”

Big West champion UH (21-4), the fourth seed in the nine-team field, faces MPSF semifinalist Cal (19-5) at 8 a.m. Hawaii time in a game to be livestreamed on NCAA.com. The Wahine were to fly out Monday for Chicago and catch a short connecting flight to Indianapolis.

BWC Player of the Year Bernadette Doyle has traveled long distances to get from her homeland of New Zealand to compete at UH and around the world for her nation, but this will be the senior’s longest career road trip from the islands to the mainland.

Robinson was confident his group would settle in quickly at IUPUI’s IU Natatorium, the largest indoor aquatic facility in the U.S. with a capacity of 4,700.

UH, which is coming off its first back-to-back conference tournament championships, is wary of Cal’s up-tempo attack in the Manoa program’s ninth all-time NCAA appearance. The Wahine edged the Golden Bears, 12-11, in a meeting in Irvine, Calif., in March.

For nonconference foes, the two programs are about as familiar as you can get, having gone 3-3 against each other over the last six seasons.

Robinson was around at UH as an assistant to Maureen Cole for the last two before taking over as her chosen successor this season.

“They have a lot of talent. They’re deep,” Robinson said of Cal, coached by former UH assistant Coralie Simmons. “I think they play the game at a very fast pace, so that’s difficult to keep up with over the course of four quarters. What they do is very effective. They push transition. Put a lot of pressure on you, so it is nice that our team has some experience against them. It’s not going to be such a surprise, you hope, at this time of the year.”

UH plays a decidedly more deliberate style. Doyle said it will be about finding a balance between counterattacking and not falling into the Bears’ preferred pace.

“We really need to go out there wanting to attack,” Doyle said. “I think we saw even in the Long Beach (Big West championship) game, that when we stopped attacking, our defense started to get worse. So we need to make sure that, obviously, we need to go out there firing, but being also patient with our attack.”

Robinson emphasized that it will take everyone to advance in the tournament, including his reserves. But he allowed that the 5-foot-6 Doyle, with her capacity to affect the game on either end as a disruptive defensive player and lethal counterattacker, is at the top of the list.

Doyle has 53 goals, 38 assists, 51 steals and 13 field blocks on the season.

“For her to be able to play defense like she’s been playing all season is going to be a massive part,” Robinson said. “Pushing in transition, pushing pace. Obviously, that’s where she is really, really effective, so she’s gonna have to do that, but that’s gonna take her and the rest of the team as well.”

Doyle is accompanied by her younger sister Gabrielle, who was named to the BWC All-Freshman team.

“Just go out there and give it your all and be fearless,” Bernadette Doyle said of what she’d advise Gabrielle. “Take your moments and yeah, give it everything you’ve got.”

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.