Wahine volleyball team turns back Wolverines
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
Fifth-ranked University of Hawai'i warmed to more hot and cold volleyball, outlasting Michigan, 30-24, 24-30, 30-23, 30-14, last night in the second round of the 14th annual Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
UH will play seventh-ranked UCLA tonight for the championship at Stan Sheriff Center.
Michigan's Jennifer Gandolph tried to go over the Wahine block of Kim Willoughby, left, and Melody Eckmier.
A crowd of 5,501 saw Michigan and Hawai'i start nine underclassmen, with the Wolverines leaving two seniors on the bench in a concerted effort to look at its new players. The inexperience showed, as both teams went through truly terrible stretches.
The Wolverines' lasted longer. And, aside from an awful second game, the Wahine fought back.
"We couldn't get into any kind of flow out there," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "It was uneven, choppy. It wasn't real smooth. I'm not sure why. None of the phases of our game was good all night. Well, we did pass well."
And outsides Kim Willoughby (20 kills) and Tanja Nikolic (career-high 19) hit well, for the most part. But the Wahine again swapped setters constantly — "by design," according to Shoji, who does the same in practice — and the block that finally woke Friday went back to sleep last night.
"Hawai'i is still figuring it out," said Michigan coach Mark Rosen. "They look like they're getting better every game. Dave is very, very good at figuring out how to get the most out of his players and their system is starting to get more refined. None of us want to lose three players of that magnitude that late ... we wouldn't have survived it."
Rosen, who has taken Michigan to the NCAA Tournament both years as coach, has a dozen underclassmen on his roster. He started five last night, including Lisa Gamalski in her first match ever at setter.
The Wolverines (0-2) didn't have enough to stop the Wahine (2-2), but they often made them look bad. The second game was a Hawai'i nightmare, with the Wahine hitting negative .147, and Willoughby and Nikolic going from a near-flawless first game to a fatally flawed second.
"It was all us," Nikolic said in frustration. "I think we had, what, 13 hitting mistakes?"
No other UH attacker made a serious impact all night. But last week, in losses to No. 1 Nebraska and No. 4 Wisconsin, Willoughby had virtually no offensive help. Since Friday's third game, Nikolic has been with her kill for kill.
"The first two matches I wanted to hit the ball hard, not smart, so I got blocked," Nikolic admitted. "Even the first two games yesterday. Later on, I tried to jump higher and hit some hands, go around the block. Things changed.
"And, there's more energy when we play better."
In last night's opener, UCLA's Andy Banachowski became the first women's volleyball coach to win 900 matches when the Bruins defeated 19th-ranked Kansas State, 30-25, 25-30, 30-25, 30-16.
UH honored Banachowski with a short celebration following the match.
"I'm sure a number of those victories came here," Banachowski said. "I was pretty lucky. At UCLA we wouldn't have had so many fans. They weren't all our fans, but they were certainly appreciative. It was a little overwhelming."
