Wahine, UCLA meet again
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Three months has been a volleyball lifetime for the University of Hawai'i and UCLA. Tonight, in an NCAA Championship West Region semifinal at The Pyramid, both will see how far they have come. Or not.
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On Sept. 2 in Honolulu, the Bruins (28-5) swept the Wahine (29-5). Ninth-seeded Hawai'i now hopes to remember nothing of that dreary night. Eighth-seeded UCLA, with a trio of four-year starters, is desperately seeking a sequel, and a shot at top-seeded Long Beach State (30-0) or 16th-seeded Northern Iowa (31-1) tomorrow.
UCLA's Kristee Porter avoided UH's Tanya Nikolic, middle, but had her spike attempt blocked by Melody Eckmier when the teams played in September in Honolulu. UCLA swept the Wahine in three games.
"I started to look at the tape from when we played them before, and saw a little of what they're doing now, and just thought it was a waste of time to go back and look at it because they really are a lot different," UCLA coach Andy Banachowski said of the Wahine. "The things that they're doing may not be as intricate, but their performance and execution are a lot better than they were early in the year."
Hawai'i universally agrees with that assessment, but isn't sure if "better" will be enough. The Bruins, like the Wahine, revolve around a dynamic hitter — senior All-American Kristee Porter. Unlike the Wahine, UCLA surrounds Porter with collegiate volleyball's version of a lifetime contract.
The Bruin core has been together three years, with setter Erika Selsor and hitter Ashley Bowles starting every match for four seasons. Hawai'i's starters haven't even been together three months. Nohea Tano and Jennifer Carey didn't start Sept. 2 and not one Wahine starter remains in the same position from last year's final-four team.
The wild cards tonight are just how far Hawai'i has come, and just how much Porter's NCAA-mandated absence has affected the Bruins. Porter, 16th in NCAA history with 2,225 kills, was ruled ineligible Oct. 19 for "inadvertently accepting extra benefits." She was reinstated Nov. 21 after losing half her season.
Without her, UCLA went 8-5. She returned for the NCAA Tournament, going for 17 kills and digs against Penn, and 19 kills as the Bruins blasted 17th-ranked Penn State Saturday.
"We're trying to take a little cram course and get it all put back together here," Banachowski said. "I feel like we're pretty much in the same spot we were last time we played Hawai'i. That was our third match of the season and this is our third match with Kristee Porter back.
"The team really went in a different direction without Kristee there for us. Now that she's back, I really feel there are a lot of similarities. There is a sense of starting over again."
That is not the sense in the Wahine world. Hawai'i's season has been one long growth spurt nurtured by Kim Willoughby and Margaret Vakasausau.
Willoughby had her worst match of the year against UCLA (16 kills, 10 errors, .113 hitting percentage). She is now on pace to become the fourth player in NCAA history to average more than seven kills a game.
"I don't think we need to change anything from the last time," Willoughby said. "The last time we played UCLA we had a different lineup, we were playing positions we weren't used to playing.
"We've had a whole season of practice. Everyone plays the same position in practice everyday now. I don't think we need to change anything. We just need to play the way we know how and we'll be fine."
That confidence might be the most dramatic difference in the Wahine of Sept. 2 and today. Sophomore Maja Gustin describes Hawai'i's radical in-season makeover as "crazy." There was Vakasausau's rise to starting setter, the less-is-more — and much quicker — look in the middle with Lauren Duggins and Tano, and the who-knew hitting skills of Carey, the former setter.
Tonight, the Wahine find out if their wild and crazy transformation is as remarkable as it has appeared.
"We beat up on the WAC teams as usual," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "I didn't think we would but we did so I've got to believe we're playing well. The other gauge would be the tough five-game loss at UOP and a good five-game win over Utah.
"I know we've improved. How much we've improved obviously will be determined tomorrow night because we weren't very good against UCLA that first week of the season. We feel we're a lot better now. We're hoping we can prove it."
QUICK SETS: KCCN (1420 AM) will broadcast all Wahine matches live. ... KFVE (5) will televise today's match live (3 p.m. HST), with the CNN/SI crew working the broadcast. Tomorrow's regional final (5:30 p.m. HST) will be shown live on CNN/SI (Oceanic 23), and also on KFVE if the Wahine are in it. ... The only other time Hawai'i and UCLA have played in the NCAA Tournament came in the 1983 championship. The Wahine won in three. ... Each team has won three NCAA titles, the Bruins in 1984, '90 and '91, and Hawai'i in 1982, '83 and '87. ... All 16 seeded teams advanced to the regionals.
