Wahine pound San Jose St.
Advertiser Staff
A month ago, San Jose State gave the WAC volleyball giant a wake-up call. Last night, the giant reached out and crushed the Spartans.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
In their most shockingly lopsided victory of the season, the 12th-ranked University of Hawai'i Wahine blew by SJSU, 30-13, 30-21, 30-11. It was so bad that, in the midst of an easy 10-0 third-game surge by the Wahine, a few UH fans began to root for the Spartans to simply keep it interesting.
UH's Nohea Tano stuffed the spike by San Jose State's Stephanie Pascucci in helping the Wahine to a three-game sweep of the Spartans last night at Stan Sheriff Center.
Hawai'i's domination was a surprise, despite a WAC winning streak that now stretches over three years and 54 matches. A month ago, the Wahine needed five games to win at San Jose, and the Spartans led 12-10 in the fifth.
Last night, before 4,383 at Stan Sheriff Center, Hawai'i (22-4) never trailed. Its first-game domination came complete with error-less hitting (14-for-30) and an 8-0 blocking advantage.
Then it got ugly.
"I was excited for a really good game tonight so that was disappointing," UH sophomore Nohea Tano said. "But I think we just played really good volleyball tonight. Everything went our way.
"When I came out in the third game I was watching their (the Spartans') facial expressions and they looked really frustrated."
The Spartans will probably win their 20th match, for the fourth straight year, in the next week. But they hit zero last night, with DH's Brianna Blair and Kimberly Noble combining for negative .031. UH middles Lauren Duggins and Tano were all over them and when the ball got through, Hedder Ilustre usually dug it.
"We've had that situation come up several times this year, where we're really ready to play and the other team isn't," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "Then, it will be like this because our team is showing a lot of maturity.
"As a coaching staff we always see positive things from the other team on the film. I'm just hoping our team doesn't think we're crying wolf all the time."
The Spartans (19-6, 8-4 WAC), who probably lost their chance at a No. 2 seed in next week's WAC Tournament, never knew what hit them. But it came out of everywhere.
Wahine outsides Kim Willoughby (19 kills) and Maja Gustin (15) again anchored the offense. Both hit .400 and used more than one Spartan for target practice.
Tano and Duggins dropped in on all but one of the 13 UH stuffs. Tano also ended the second game by kicking the ball up with her right foot so deftly it was set to Willoughby, who blasted yet another defenseless Spartan.
Even defensive specialist Melissa Villaroman launched her third kill of the season.
To add injury to insult, the Spartans lost senior setter Savannah Smith with a sprained ankle early in the second game. Coach Craig Choate said Smith's health is a concern for next week, but wouldn't have mattered last night.
"We got our heads handed to us, that's all," Choate said. "I think Hawai'i was better than us at everything tonight, and they weren't like that at our place.
"We just got crushed at everything."
Hawai'i moved to 12-0 in the conference with its 19th consecutive victory. The Wahine play their final home match tonight against Fresno State. They have already clinched the regular-season title and are seeded No. 1 at next week's conference tournament.
QUICK SETS: Tonight is Senior Night for Hawai'i. Tanja Nikolic will be honored after the match. ... Elmer Kapua'ala, father of former Wahine All-American Joyce Ka'apuni, sang the Star Spangled Banner and Hawai'i Pono'i last night. ...Tonight, Ka'apuni will play for the White team in the annual alumnae game, which begins at 5 p.m. Her teammates will include Mahina Eleneki, Linda Fernandez, Lani (Hayes) Elliazer and Cheryl Grimm. ... The Green team will include Heidi Ilustre, Paula (Gusman) Jenkins, Diana (McInerny) McKibbin, Marcie (Wurts) Nowack and Bobbie Perry. ... Nevada can clinch the WAC's second seed with a victory tonight at Boise State. ... SJSU is 4-42 against the Wahine, and have lost the last 18.
