UCLA spikes UH from NCAA tournament

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

LONG BEACH, Calif. — In their final match, the University of Hawai'i Wahine watched their entire volleyball season flash before their eyes: The halting first steps, a riveting rally launched by Kim Willoughby and the tearful realization that it was not quite enough.

UCLA's Kristee Porter scores a point over Hawai'i's Margaret Vakasausau during yesterday's fourth-round match of the NCAA Division I volleyball tournament. Associated Press

Unbeaten Long Beach State rolled past Northern Iowa, 30-19, 30-21, 30-14, in the other semifinal.

A Hawai'i season that started with so little promise ended in the Sweet 16 at 29-6.

"I've got mixed feelings right now," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "I'm disappointed in the loss but I just can't be disappointed in my team. They've had a tremendous year. They've been a great group of athletes to be around.

"Emotionally, it's hard right now but I think we can be real proud of what we've done this year and how we've played and how we've improved. We had a chance to win, we just couldn't convert tonight."

The Wahine went out by winning 26 of their last 28 after an early season characterized first by the loss of three crucial players, then a 3-4 start as Hawai'i revamped and regrouped.

Willoughby's spectacular sophomore season ended with 850 kills. Only three players in NCAA history have had more in one year.

"She was playing at the next level," Shoji said simply. "An international level."

UCLA's big block roofed Willoughby five times and bothered her into 15 more hitting errors. But Willoughby took 88 swings — and all 3,092 in The Pyramid knew the ball was going her way on about 80 of them — and still showered 35 kills over, off and in between the Bruins (21-8).

In what would be the high point of Hawai'i's semi-annual trip here, Willoughby buried six straight kills to give the Wahine a 15-9 advantage in Game 3, as flying UH defenders dug in around her to give her the swings.

"There was no doubt, wherever she is," UH setter Margaret Vakasausau said. "Pop it up to wherever that shadow is on the ground and she'll put it away. I have so much faith in her."

UCLA would tie it, at 18 and 19, but Hawai'i hung on, scoring four in a row on Jennifer Carey's serve and six more on Maja Gustin's. The suddenly-bumbling Bruins whiffed a serve to lose it and fell behind 10-6 in Game 3.

Then, with a composure only a trio of four-year starters can muster, UCLA finished the Wahine off. Seniors Kristee Porter (16 kills), Ashley Bowles (11) and setter Erika Selsor brought the Bruins back, with a huge assist from junior Angela Eckmier — whose sister Melody plays for UH. They relied on a balance Hawai'i could not match and served the Wahine so tough their passes consistently took Vakasausau six feet off the net.

Her only option at that point was to set high and outside for Willoughby and Gustin (16 kills, 12 errors), allowing UCLA to stack its block and minimizing the Bruins' most glaring weakness — the 5-foot-6 Selsor in the front row.

When Vakasausau couldn't chase a pass down, every other Wahine simply threw the ball to Willoughby, wherever she was. Hawai'i's left-side hitters had nearly 80 percent of its swings and kills.

"I'm supposed to hit every ball that comes my way," Willoughby said. "If she sets me 200 times in one match, then I swing it 200 times."

It just wasn't enough to beat the Bruins, who lost Porter half the season to an NCAA infraction, and are attempting to salvage what's left. They tied the final game at 10 on Selsor's serve and pulled away for good, at 22-16, when they scored five straight with Bowles serving.

"There were a bunch of differences between us," Shoji said. "One, they were able to set the middle enough and they were effective enough to keep us really off-balance. Eckmier had a nice night.

"The other factor was that they served really tough. We saw different kinds of serves and we couldn't put the ball close enough to the net to run our middle. Everything had to be high and outside to Kim and Maja and eventually they're going to wear us down."

The Bruins did that at the end of the first game and the very end of the second, despite a five-point UH surge that tied it at 28 with Willoughby serving. In Game 4, UH simply hit the wall.

"They have simplified what they did a little," UCLA coach Andy Banachowski said of the Wahine, who were swept by the Bruins three months ago. "That made them a little more predictable. It wasn't a matter of them out-foxing us, it was just a matter of execution. We were able to make some blocking subs, make it a little more difficult for them to execute."

Hawai'i's only substitution, other than the regular rotation of defensive specialists, was Tanja Nikolic, its only senior. She gave UH a lift in Game 2, then pleaded with her teammates to not let Game 3 be the last of her career.

The Wahine could give her that much, but no more.

"I have no regrets," Shoji said. "This team has done more than we asked them to do. We've been on the road four straight weekends. It's just been brutal on these kids, academically and physically ... I don't know how they can play at the level they've been playing.

"We've had more physical players, but we have never had a team that's fought as hard or competed as well. That team should not have won 24 straight matches."

QUICK SETS: UCLA's Andy Banachowski, the winningest coach in collegiate women's volleyball, now has 919 victories. He is 28-30 against Hawai'i. ... The Wahine are 43-17 in 20 NCAA Tournament appearances. ... Hawai'i's dinner Thursday was catered at the hotel by the families of Melissa Villaroman and Hedder Ilustre.