More top teams ahead for Wahine
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
Last week's season-opening sneak peek in Stockton, Calif., was volleyball's version of a slap in the face.
"We learned," University of Hawai'i Wahine coach Dave Shoji said slowly, "we're not ready for prime time."
His teeny-bopper team's trial by top-ranked fire is nowhere near over. The Wahine play seven ranked teams in their next 10 matches, beginning with the 14th annual Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic Friday through Sunday at Stan Sheriff Center.
Hawai'i went into last week's State Farm Classic with a No. 5 preseason ranking. It came out with straight-game losses to No. 1 Nebraska and No. 4 Wisconsin, and in critical need of confidence.
Its first opportunity to find some comes Friday against 19th-ranked Kansas State, the Big 12 runner-up to Nebraska last year. The Wildcats have four starters back. Michigan has five, coming off yet another brutal Big Ten season.
Seventh-ranked UCLA also has five, including All-American Kristee Porter, fourth in the country in kills a year ago.
"It's not going to get any easier," Shoji says. "There's not a lot of difference between these teams.
"We just need a win. A couple wins. But we just need to start playing better."
His list of improvements took the five-hour flight home to compose. He was still adding more yesterday.
Shoji was particularly critical of his setting, switching between Jennifer Carey and Margaret Vakasausau opening night. His team also was frustrated by an attack that never reached the third dimension; sophomores Kim Willoughby and Maja Gustin supplied 70 percent of the offense last weekend, and hit .292, while their teammates were a combined .032.
Defensively, Shoji said his team appeared to be "stuck in cement" in the season-opening loss to Nebraska. And, UH managed just four blocks — one more than it averaged per game last year. Against Wisconsin, it was aced eight times .
"We have the talent, it just wasn't ready," insists Shoji, who has three first-year starters. "We were in a position to win a game against Nebraska, at 27-all, and Wisconsin, at 29-all. That tells me we're not completely outclassed talent-wise. We just didn't execute like we needed."
The Wahine will debut before their adoring, and spoiled-by-success crowds this weekend. They are on a three-match losing streak dating to last year's final four. Hawai'i hasn't seen this team lose four in a row since 1985. It hasn't lost its first three since 1980.
In the dog days of summer, the heat is on to produce, in a huge hurry. Shoji still isn't sure how long it will take, but he left California with one optimistic thought.
"The team is still determined to be a good team," he says. "Nobody is discouraged. They hung in there together. Everybody was disappointed in our performance, but they're not discouraged."
In other volleyball news, tickets for the revived WAC Volleyball Tournament go on sale Saturday. The 2001 tournament will be Nov. 15-18 at San Jose State's Event Center. Prices are $30 for adults and $15 for students for an all-session pass (nine matches). All 10 WAC teams will participate. The championship is 1 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets can be purchased at SJSU's Ticket Office or by calling (408) 924-SJTX (7589). Fans can obtain a special room rate at the San Jose Hilton & Towers by calling 1-408-287-2100 and requesting the tournament's group rate.
QUICK SETS: Kim Willoughby was named to the all-tournament team last weekend. She averaged six kills a game - nearly half Hawai'i's offense - and hit .329. ... The Wahine have won the last two Wahine Classics, and six in all. UCLA has played every year, and won five. ...Andrea Gomez Tukuafu, who played for the Wahine last season, will sing with Daniel Ho this Saturday at the 30th anniversary Celebration of Rainbow Wahine Athletics, at Klum Gym. ... UCLA coach Andy Banachowski needs two victories to become the first women's collegiate coach to reach 900.
