Wahine softball reaches regionals
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
Good news traveled fast for the University of Hawai'i Wahine softball team yesterday.
The Wahine were the third team announced on the NCAA Division I Championship selection show, prompting many players to grab their cell phones and spread the news across paradise and the Pacific Ocean. They are the No. 3 seed in Region 1. UH leaves for Tucson, Ariz., tomorrow morning and plays 19th-ranked Southwest Texas State (52-10) on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. HST.
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"We couldn't be going to a sweeter place than Tucson," coach Bob Coolen told his team. "Congratulations."
Coach Bob Coolen's team will be playing in Arizona.
Top-ranked Arizona (57-4), a five-time NCAA champion, plays host to the regional, and takes on Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion St. Peter's (39-18) in the first round. Second-seeded — and 10th-ranked — Cal State-Fullerton (46-12) plays Texas Tech (35-22).
If UH beats Southwest Texas State, it meets the Fullerton/Texas Tech winner Friday. If UH loses its opener, it drops into the loser-out bracket of the double-elimination regional, and will play a second game on Thursday.
For some, Hawai'i's at-large selection was never in question: "My bags are packed and ready to go," UH senior Kristin Anderson said.
Other Wahine came to the team "viewing party" at Eastside Grill with trepidation.
Senior pitcher Desiree Duran thought of everything from the near-misses of UH teams past, to Saturday's bizarre Western Athletic Conference season ending: Fresno State's four-game series at Tulsa was washed out and the conference gave the Bulldogs the WAC title — and automatic NCAA berth — based on a better winning percentage. UH won its last 12 and finished a game ahead in the standings.
"I was kind of iffy because we haven't been ranked and things haven't really bounced our way this season," admitted Duran, who hasn't lost since March. "Even more so after yesterday. I was thinking maybe it wasn't our year. Now I'm so excited."
This will be the Wahine's fifth trip to the NCAA Tournament, all under Coolen. They lost in the regional final in 1994, '95 and '99. In 1998, in Tucson, UH went three and out, never getting a look at Arizona.
"It was kind of bad, we were shaky and a little nervous," Anderson recalled. "The next year, in Washington, we played really well. We had a lot of fun, that's all that counts. Our whole team is going to love it."
Southwest Texas has ridden the arm of Southland Conference Pitcher of the Year Jessica Chase to the tournament. In the last national rankings, she ranked eighth in earned run average (0.60) and 15th in victories (24).
Bobcat seniors Haley Gaddis, Sarah Kmiec and Stephanie Hughes also earned first-team conference honors. Freshman Nicole Neuerburg pitched the program's first perfect game a month ago.
The Wahine have never played Southwest Texas or St. Peter's. They are 2-0 against Texas Tech, 9-45 against Fullerton — including three losses this season — and 0-8 against Arizona.
Arizona enters the tournament with a 43-game home winning streak. Its eight seniors have won 236 games the past four years.
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SHORT HOPS: Kane'ohe's Malia Schoch, a senior at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, was named to the Skyline Conference's first team. Schoch hit .481 as a DP. ... Former Wahine Heather Williams (1993-96) graduated from the UH medical school over the weekend.
