Hawai'i topples Nebraska to win Central Regional

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

LINCOLN, Neb. — With remarkable grace under unrelenting pressure, the University of Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine willed and skilled their way into volleyball's final four last night.

Hawai'i celebrates its 30-25, 25-30, 30-27, 30-21 victory over Nebraska in the Central Regional final. Hawai'i ended the Cornhuskers' 63-match home winning streak to advance to the final four, where it will play Stanford on Thursday. Associated Press

The Cardinal gave UH its lone loss in this 34-1 season that lives on. But that is a payback to ponder in a few days. Last night, Hawai'i took the hammer to their recent history with the Huskers — who blew UH out in the 2000 final four and the 2001 season-opener — in one of the most outrageous environments in volleyball.

In a red-and-rocking arena only a home team could love, the Rainbows ended Nebraska's season at 31-2, its winning streak at 29 and its three-year homecourt winning streak at 63 — second-best in NCAA history. The final home match for senior All-Americans Greichaly Cepero, Amber Holmquist and Laura Pilakowski was devastation instead of celebration.

"That's a huge win for our program," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "We've lost to them twice in the last two years, they've got great tradition here as we do. They've had the upper hand on us the last eight or 10 years so it was huge for us to get over that hump. I feel honored to beat Nebraska in Nebraska. I don't think many people thought we would beat Nebraska tonight besides our players and staff."

Nebraska’s Melissa Elmer, left, and Jennifer Saleaumua double-teamed Hawai‘i’s Kim Willoughby, who still managed 25 kills. Associated Press

"They are an awesome defensive team," Pilakowski said. "They do everything great and it gets to the hitters."

It was only the second loss for the Huskers in 39 postseason matches at the Coliseum. Hawai'i, ranked second to Nebraska's fourth, took control of this match in Game 1, lost it in Game 2 and grabbed it back for good at 24-all in the third.

Maja Gustin went deep to serve four straight points. Holmquist hit Hawai'i's 25th point into the net. Nebraska couldn't get a swing off Gustin's next two diving serves and Kahumoku, who had eight kills in the first game and just eight more until that point in the third, made them pay. She ended those two points and then another after a Margaret Vakasausau dig to get the 'Bows to 28.

The Huskers scored, but Kahumoku miraculously slapped No. 29 down with her right hand as she was crashing into the scorer's table on her left.

"The sets were pretty scattered all over the place and I'm fortunate enough to be able to detach my shoulder from my body and do a lot of creative things with my armswing," Kahumoku said, straight-faced. "That helped."

Pilakowski got the next two points, but Hawai'i wasn't backing off again. Kahumoku crushed game point over the Huskers' two freshmen.

Hawai‘i outside hitter Kim Willoughby, the Central Region’s MVP, puts down one of her 25 kills against Nebraska. Associated Press

"I told Lily that she played like she did when she was a sophomore against Nebraska and she was all we had," senior Jennifer Carey said. "She had them figured out. She knew to go high hands, knew to go to the deep corners because they were all just sucked in thinking they were going to block the ball. She just abused their block. She went into the 'Lily Zone' and that's scary because you do not know where that ball is going."

By then, even the Cornhuskers seemed to know Hawai'i had their number. They hit just .095 in the final game and .203 for the match, more than 100 points below their average. They were "smurfed" by Villaroman and Ilustre, angled to death by the All-Americans and soft-blocked into submission by middles Gustin and Lauren Duggins, who had three stuffs apiece (Carey had four) but spent most of the night simply touching balls the bigger Huskers hit to give the defense a chance.

Duggins joined Kahumoku and Willoughby on the all-region team; Willoughby was MVP.

The surprise attack from the right and unusually tough serving helped Hawai'i neutralize Nebraska's big block. The Rainbow Wahine got NU passers Jennifer Saleaumua and Pilakowski in trouble early, allowing the UH blockers to touch nearly everything the Huskers hit.

"We served just tough enough so they couldn't run every option in their offense," Shoji said. "That's when we play our best, when we can set up our block. We started to touch some balls and our defense started to play like it can. We put just enough pressure on them to take their middle out some of the time. That's when we made our runs."

Nebraska coach John Cook agreed: "Hawai'i is not that good a serving team but we just didn't get Greichaly the ball at the net in position for her to do her thing enough. Sometimes that's anxiety, being a little tight."

Hawai'i won Game 1 without a single stuff, groveling around the soft block for 25 digs to hold Nebraska's hitters to a .157 percentage. In contrast, the 'Bows hit .291 against the country's best block, despite Willoughby's .000 (7 kills, 7 errors).

That turned around in Game 2. Willoughby was the only Rainbow Wahine to consistently find her way around the Huskers wall. Nebraska took an early lead and never let up with all five hitters going for multiple kills. Four stuffs and three missed serves late by the Rainbows evened the match.

It stayed that way until deep into the third game.

When the Huskers hit out on match point, the Rainbow Wahine converged in celebration. Associate coach Charlie Wade grabbed Shoji and spun him.

"I was trying to be cool and Charlie picked me up and started twirling me like a rag doll," Shoji said. "I was trying to be like I'd been there before. I didn't really want to celebrate that much because we've got a lot of work to do. But we just felt like a lot of weight was off our shoulders at the point."

All-Central Region Team

MVPiKim Willoughby (UH). Laura Pilakowski (UN), Lauren Duggins (UH), Greichaly Cepero (UN), Amber Holmquist (UN), Lily Kahumoku (UH).

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