W. Kentucky has come long way in 7 years

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Western Kentucky's 20-hour trip to Hawai'i for tonight's NCAA Championship first-round match was only the latest leg in a volleyball odyssey.

Western Kentucky (33-4) has more victories than any team in the country now. It goes into tonight's match against the sixth-seeded and second-ranked Rainbow Wahine (30-1) having won its last 19.

"What's happened between the first year and now is we've found kids who can play the game a little bit," Hudson says. "And we've been able to find kids to come in and believe in what we're doing and who have seen the bigger picture. Which is being here in the NCAA Tournament."

By all appearances the Hilltoppers are tenacious (6-0 in five-game matches), unorthodox (utilize only two passers and an unusual alignment) and live and die by the dig.

They are undersized — WKU could qualify for a 6-foot-and-under league — and largely untested. Western Kentucky swept an injury-depleted Cincinnati team in its first home match. That was the only NCAA Tournament team it faced this year.

Hilo's Reed Sunahara, the Bearcat coach, remembers WKU as a "really a good ballhandling team." He also remembers setter Sara Noe, the Hilltoppers' sole senior and Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year the past two seasons.

She is the most compelling reason WKU is making its first NCAA appearance. Tonight, Hudson is depending on her and his team's defense to deny Hawai'i All-Americans Kim Willoughby and Lily Kahumoku and inspire what would be a huge upset.

"It's funny to think of it this way," Hudson says, "but the way we have to try and equalize their big athletic outside hitters is with the smallest kids on our roster. ... Our kids can play defense. We just want to make sure we're solid with our blocking and try and channel balls at the right kids in the back row."

It might sound like a strategy for volleyball suicide, but it has worked. The Hilltoppers have not lost since Sept. 21 despite a nightmare of a schedule.

With their court under renovation, they have played just 10 home matches — all but one at an alternate site where folding chairs were brought out. Some 3,500 fans have seen them play all year. Four of their five-game victories have come on the road.

"We're very young but when we've been in bad situations we never fell apart," said WKU libero Tracy May, the Sun Belt's Defensive Player of the Year. "No matter how bad the situation got we never let down."

That leads Hudson to believe his team won't "freak out" no matter how many people show up tonight and how many volleyball bombs Kahumoku and Willoughby send its way. He describes his team's attitude as "inner arrogance — no matter what the situation they believe we'll find a way to get it done."

They'll have nothing to lose tonight. The Rainbows, who have had the final four firmly in focus for a year, are at the other end of the expectation spectrum.

In what is probably their final homestand, they simply want to win. Any means will justify the end tonight, and tomorrow if they reach a sub-regional final against Washington or Colorado State.

They are using their No. 6 seed, which would most likely lead them to third-seeded Nebraska if both teams get through the weekend, as incentive. They hope to use the next two nights as a springboard into snowy Lincoln.

"At this point, just win and move on is the only thing on my mind," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "I could care less if we played poorly and won. You don't look back after these games, just look at who you got next."

"Next" is not in Western Kentucky's vocabulary. This match is what its program has wanted for a volleyball lifetime.

"We believe in what we do, a lot, and we're looking for some respect," Hudson said. "We understand the challenge we face, have nothing but respect for Hawai'i, but we feel like what we do is good as well. We're trying to make our name in this tournament."

QUICK SETS: Maui's Leahi Hall, a defensive specialist for Stanford, was named to the Pac-10 All-Academic second team. ... Western Kentucky and UH played here twice in 1987. The Rainbows won by an average score of 15-6. ... Some 5,600 ticket packages had been sold by yesterday afternoon. ... The NCAA will not announce regional sites until second-round matches are over.