Smaller UH big WAC tourney favorite
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
No one appreciates Kim Willoughby's extraordinary artistry and Maja Gustin's brute force as much as teammates Lauren Duggins and Nohea Tano. Welcome to the University of Hawai'i's new Wahine volleyball world.
For two decades, Dave Shoji's top-ranked teams have featured large — or at least lanky — middle blockers flanked by mercurial hitters. This year, the trickle-down effect of an offseason of unexpected transition has been the downsizing of the middle.
Nohea Tano makes up for her lack of size with speed and ball-handling abilities.
Shoji characterizes his squad's morphed form as "unorthodox," a former "catalog-order team" gone provocatively crazy. And for the last 20 matches, no opponent has figured the Wahine out.
Hawai'i (23-4) takes its winning streak and No. 11 national ranking into the revived WAC Tournament, which starts for UH tomorrow (play-in matches are today) at San Jose State's Event Center.
All Hawai'i times • Today Tulsa vs. Boise State, 4 p.m. • Tomorrow Tulsa-Boise State winner vs. Hawai'i, 11 a.m. SMU vs. San Jose Sate, 4:30 p.m. Nevada vs. UTEP-Louisiana Tech winner, 6:30 p.m. • Saturday Hawai'i-Tulsa/Boise State winner vs. Rice-Fresno State winner, 3 p.m. SMU-San Jose State winner vs. Nevada-UTEP/Louisiana Tech winner, 5 p.m. • Sunday Championship, 11 a.m.
It is the overwhelming favorite to win Sunday's championship. The other nine teams have one victory over the Wahine in a decade.
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WAC Tournament schedule
UTEP vs. Louisiana Tech, 6:30 p.m.
Rice vs. Fresno State, 1 p.m.
This season's eye-catching streak has come on the arms of Willoughby and Gustin, and the grit and guile of those around them. That supporting cast has remained fluid.
Shoji doesn't start a player in the same position as last year. He replaced all-conference setter Jennifer Carey with Margaret Vakasausau — named all-conference Monday — four matches into the season. Carey, who never even hit in high school, has moved to the right side, which she shares with Tanja Nikolic, the team's sole senior. This week, Shoji plans to choose between the two.
But it is Duggins and Tano who make the Wahine makeover most compelling. They are four inches shorter than Shoji's "ideal 6-3 middle." Both are lean and look anything but mean. They are dwarfed by Gustin and in awe of Willoughby's chiseled form.
"Look at that," Duggins tells Tano in a low voice as Willoughby walks by. "Look at that back."
Willoughby's broad shoulders and rippling muscles are missing in the new-look UH middle. Shoji has already told Duggins and Tano — who gave birth to son Koby in March — they are "required" to gain 20 pounds before next season.
It is a shocking request from a coach more familiar with asking players to lose weight. It is also all but impossible.
"We can't do it," Tano says. "It's not in our metabolism. We eat like there's no tomorrow. We ate a whole pizza the other day."
In the WAC, small works. Tano and Duggins are rarely under-sized in conference matches. Outside the WAC, they admit to feeling "teeny weeny." They compensate with rare quickness and ball-handling skills those six inches smaller envy.
Shoji's not sure if they are the middles of the future or a retreat to retro volleyball. But Duggins and Tano have both come close to the elusive triple double (10-plus kills, blocks and digs). They have made this Wahine experiment work.
They pass more than their share of serves. Duggins — a second-team all-WAC selection — is second only to Willoughby in digs. And Shoji believes both close the block better than All-Americans of Wahine seasons past.
"I think because they're small, the other teams don't really have a lot of respect for them and try to hit their shots," Shoji says. "Then we close the block and get them. They're fast and when they are there, they can really take away the angle.
"When they're late, they close and there's rarely a hole. They get overpowered every once in a while, but I've really never had two middle blockers as similar as far as quickness and working really hard to close."
Opposing coaches have been convinced. Fresno State's Lindy Vivas still remembers Toni Nishida, a small middle blocker who nearly helped Hawai'i into the final four a decade ago.
For Vivas, who could face UH in Saturday's semifinals, Duggins and Tano bring back scary memories.
"The best team in the country always has the best left sides," Vivas says. "Add some quickness in the middle and you have a pretty diverse offense ... Defensively, quickness makes up for size. They touch a lot of balls and Hawai'i's defense chases everything down. It's not a bad way to go."
QUICK SETS: Oceanic Cable (16) will re-broadcast the Daniel Ho concert, with former Wahine Andrea Gomez-Tukuafu, on Saturday at 10 p.m. and Nov. 23 at 6:30 p.m.
