No. 2 Hawai'i gets No. 6 seed in women's volleyball

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

A lone loss and a suspect schedule combined to give the 30-1 Rainbow Wahine a No. 6 seed in the 2002 Division I Volleyball Championship. The 64-team field was announced yesterday by the NCAA Committee.

The Hilltoppers (33-4) have more victories than any team in the country and a 19-match winning streak. They have not played a ranked team this season. This is their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Washington (19-10) and Mountain West regular-season champion Colorado State (22-9) play in the other first-round match Thursday. The winners meet Friday for the right to advance to the Central Regional.

The NCAA will announce regional sites following the second round. Hawai'i's chances of hosting are negligible with third-seeded Nebraska in its region. The Cornhuskers (27-1) beat UH in the 2000 final four on their way to a second national title. They are second in the country in attendance, averaging 4,464 — about 3,000 less than Hawai'i.

"We're not going to host," UH coach Dave Shoji said flatly. "I hope that our team will relish something like that (going to Lincoln, Neb.). Really good players enjoy that scenario. You've got to just make everybody be quiet, tune the noise out. It will be tough for us, but I'm hoping we can respond."

First, Shoji and his players are focusing on this week.

They were unanimous in their disappointment at what they considered a low seed, but immediately moved on.

"It really doesn't matter," Kim Willoughby said. "It's about how we perform. We can't control it, we just have to deal with it. We just want to play hard the whole tournament. It's not about where you play and who you play, it's about how you play."

Shoji, who thought his team should have been No. 3, attributed the seeding to his team's "strength of schedule — definitely." It was apparently too weak to earn a top-four seed. UH played nine teams that are in the tournament. Its only loss came against defending national champion Stanford, which was seeded second with four losses.

Southern California (25-1) is first and Northern Iowa (32-2), which upset Florida Saturday in five games, is fourth. The Gators (30-2) are seeded fifth.

The Rainbow Wahine know nothing about Western Kentucky, but Washington gave them their best match of the year at home — aside from Stanford — back in September. They saw just how athletic Colorado State is last week when they watched scouting video to prepare for BYU and Utah.

Shoji said the second-round match here might be one of the two toughest in the country. The Rainbows' focus is to take all they have learned since their loss and turn it into a regional appearance — wherever that might be. Traditionally, Hawai'i has played well away from home.

"I really don't think it's a bad thing to go away," Shoji said. "The home team has more pressure. Two years ago, Nebraska barely beat South Carolina at home. There are a lot of things you have to deal with at home and a lot of that is pressure. They will definitely have pressure and they'll be the favorites. I like that."

So does Willoughby.

"This is just going to make our trip to New Orleans shorter," she said. "If we're in Nebraska, it's just down the road for us now. I'll visit my family a little earlier."

The final four will be Dec. 19 and 21 in New Orleans Arena. It is hosted by the University of New Orleans and Sun Belt Conference.

QUICK SETS: UH freshman Susie Boogaard, who sprained her right ankle during warmups at Utah, is "questionable" this week. ... Western Kentucky and UH played here twice in 1987. The Rainbows won by an average score of 15-6.