Wahine out to dethrone Fresno St.
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
Imagine somebody in the Western Athletic Conference dethroning the University of Hawai'i in women's volleyball.
Picture somebody in the conference ousting Louisiana Tech from the top in women's basketball.
Do that and you'll begin to understand what makes the four-game Hawai'i-Fresno State softball series that starts tonight at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium such a big deal.
For when it comes to WAC softball, the 12th-ranked Bulldogs are the standard by which the field has long been measured — and often found wanting.
Until last year, the only softball race that existed in the WAC of late had been the one for second place. There is usually FSU and then there is Miss Congeniality.
The 38-13 Bulldogs have a national championship (1998), 20 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and college softball's winningest coach, Margie Wright (1,016-346). Since joining the WAC, the Bulldogs have won 82 percent of their conference games and, among the current WAC membership, all the titles.
So, you don't have to be a mindreader to know what the Wahine (29-17), 10-2 in the WAC and a game back of FSU (9-1), are thinking heading into this series. Or, why they have spent the week since their last game focusing on this weekend.
Here, on their home field, is the kind of opportunity the Wahine have waited for all six years of their WAC membership. Here is an opening to make good on the revolution they nearly pulled off last season. UH, which won three more games than Fresno State, nevertheless lost out on the league title because a rainout-forced difference in games played gave the Bulldogs the crown on percentage.
The pain of that one lingered for a while, especially after the Wahine, who had been 0-19 in games at FSU, had gone to Bulldog Diamond and split a four-game series.
Not that this series lacks any recent fuel for the competitive fire. WAC coaches made Hawai'i the preseason pick this season, a bold choice and one sure to have rankled FSU given the departure of UH pitcher Felicity Witt's decision to play for the Australian national team, and the loss through shoulder injury of all-WAC catcher Michelle Mumaw.
Then, there was UH's refusal to push this weekend's series back to a Saturday-Sunday schedule to ease the travel burden on the Bulldogs, who played in the West Coast-Midwest Challenge in Oklahoma City Tuesday and Wednesday. UH said an FSU assistant never explained the need and, anyway, the Bulldogs failed to accommodate Hawai'i in the past.
For one of the few times, the Bulldogs and the WAC crown they have come to dominate, might just be ripe for the taking. The question this weekend is can the Rainbow Wahine finally pull off the coup?
