Wahine sweep WSU in NCAA first round
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
PULLMAN, Wash. — On a snowy night, the University of Hawai'i and Eastern Washington sent a pair of Pac-10 volleyball teams into a long winter.
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Before 2,035 rowdy-as-advertised fans at Bohler Gym, the Wahine won their first-round NCAA Championship match over Washington State, 34-32, 30-26, 30-23. They will play Big Sky champion EWU today, at 2 p.m. HST, for the right to advance to next week's regional.
Kim Willoughby hits against the block of Adrian Hankoff (10) and Holly Harris. Willoughby had a match-high 22 kills for the Wahine.
The Eagles (21-5) defeated Oregon State, 33-31, 19-30, 30-28, 23-30, 15-8, in the opener. It was EWU's first NCAA victory in its four appearances. The Beavers (17-12) had not played in the postseason since 1983.
That 2-hour, 24-minute match meant WSU (17-12) and Hawai'i (28-5) didn't start until after 9 p.m. The Wahine, seeded ninth in the tournament, didn't truly start until 9:30.
They fought off two game points in the first game, taking their first lead at 30-29 and holding on for their volleyball life behind Kim Willoughby and their relentless defense.
"In the first game," UH coach Dave Shoji said, "I kept waiting for Washington State to make a mistake and they didn't. They played flawlessly. I was thinking, 'That's what Pac-10 volleyball is all about.' "
Hawai'i's rally started with Lauren Duggins and Melissa Villaroman combining on a spectacular dig that Willoughby tapped over, and WSU let drop. Duggins' ace tied it at 23, and the teams traded points to 27-all.
WSU, which returned all its starters from last year's NCAA second-round team, scored the next two to get to game point. The Wahine stifled it twice, with Maja Gustin getting a kill and Duggins and Margaret Vakasausau a roof. Gustin's sixth kill gave Hawai'i its first lead — at 30-29 — and serve for the game.
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It also brought Willoughby into the front row.
Maja Gustin spikes past Holly Harris (12) and Kali Surplus.
"If we had won the first game things could have been a lot different," WSU coach Cindy Fredrick said. "We had Kim in the backrow, up 29-27, and couldn't finish it. As soon as she came to the front row you probably knew what word came out of my mouth. Rats."
The Wahine would need four serves to get the game, on another spectacular defensive play. After Willoughby's 10th kill made it 33-32, Duggins dug a line drive in the back corner. The ball pinballed over the net and the astonished Cougars let it drop on the line.
"We were thinking do not die," Vakasausau said. "This was an awesome atmosphere. This is what volleyball is and this is the competition we were looking for. Those last points we looked at each other to find the answer. Melissa came up big with some big digs, we kept our serve in real tough and responded with good blocks and good communication. It worked out really well."
Willoughby and Gustin produced all but six of Hawai'i's kills in the game, and all-conference junior LaToya Harris (7) was responsible for nearly half the WSU offense. She would get just four more kills, hitting negative numbers the final two games as the soft Wahine block forced her to try and be too fine.
Meanwhile, Willoughby (22 kills) and Gustin (16) were finding just enough space to squeeze through the bulk of the Wahine kills. Shoji gave the credit to middles Nohea Tano and Duggins, who combined for 18 kills and hit nearly .500.
"Nohea has no hitting errors her last two matches," Shoji said. "That's what we've been asking of her and Lauren — just to be enough of a threat to take some pressure off Kim. And they did. Kim and Maja had little seams all night long and it's because Duggins and Tano go hard in the middle and create a little bit of space for the outsides."
Duggins had half her kills in a split-personality second game.
The Wahine scored six straight on Willoughby's serve to pull ahead 11-4. The advantage grew to 15-5 as the Cougars got sloppy. Then Kortney Jamtaas came in for an ineffective Chelsie Schafer and Willoughby rotated to the back row a second time.
It was a bad combination for UH. With Jamtaas serving, WSU scored seven straight, burning both UH timeouts and closing to 21-19. It closed to 26-25, but Willoughby blasted kills on three of the next five serves to help UH hold on.
"We came all the way back and then let it go," Fredrick said. "That was the knife that really hurt. All our points were scored with Willoughby in the back row. I'm going, 'More, more, more, keep her back there.' You have to. She is an amazing front-row player.
"Kim Willoughby played awesome. We decided she's better than anybody we've seen. She's an awesome player and pretty much all they had to do was set her the ball."
After WSU setter Kali Surplus admitted she found herself hiding behind blockers a few times as Willoughby approached, Fredrick said something few others have verbalized, but many thought.
"Without Kim, that would be a real average team, if that. With her it's an exceptional team," Fredrick theorized. "She takes control out there. You know where the ball is going to go, you should be able to stop it and you can't. We could not."
The Wahine also took control of Game 3 with Willoughby serving a seven-point surge to give them a 19-10 advantage. Tano, playing against last year's teammates, had three kills and a stuff in the streak. The Cougars had no comeback left.
