Cardinal sweep UH, take on USC for title

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

NEW ORLEANS — In the end, which finally came last night for the University of Hawai'i, Stanford was simply too good. Kim Willoughby's return was not triumphant. Volleyball in the Big Easy was too tough.

Hawai'i's Lily Kahumoku tried to tip the ball over the Stanford block of Jennifer Harvey, center, and Anna Robinson in last night's semifinal match. Associated Press

UH hasn't defeated the Cardinal since 1991. A year later, Stanford won the first of its five national championships. It goes for a sixth tomorrow against top-seeded Southern California, which defeated fifth-seeded Florida in four games last night.

"I'm very proud of our team because we had moments when we were playing less than perfectly," Stanford coach John Dunning said. "But we all know we're not about playing perfect. We're about playing to win and at the key moments we did that tonight. That may be the most important thing to do when you're at this level."

This level came 33,000 air miles into the season for the Rainbow Wahine, who lowered the boom on every other opponent — losing just four other games all year. But Stanford brought out the worst in them with sweeps, before a sellout in Hawai'i last month and last night.

That was all it took to end the careers of UH seniors Margaret Vakasausau and Jennifer Carey, who were 123-12 the last four years, with two final-four appearances and not a single conference loss. Senior Hedder Ilustre played for the Rainbows two seasons after transferring from Cal State Northridge.

The Rainbows, ranked second but seeded sixth in this tournament, gave second-seeded Stanford half its points in Game 1 and still clawed within one at 26-25. The Cardinal scored the final four points, on Logan Tom's kill and stuff and hitting errors by UH All-Americans Lily Kahumoku and Willoughby.

Stanford's Ogonna Nnamani scored a kill past the block of Hawai'i's Maja Gustin. Associated Press

The Rainbows led 26-25 instead of 27-24. Six serves later it was over.

"We had to try and re-spark our energy after that," said Kahumoku, who said her bout with the flu the previous two days weakened her. "Stanford did a really nice job just cutting that off with the plays they were creating.

"It's not like we didn't go out and battle. They came out and played great. Losing to them, for me, wasn't like we could have done anything else. They played great. They beat us. That's how it ended."

Stanford scored seven of the last eight in a third game that was tied 15 times.

Hawai‘i’s Kim Willoughby, right, congratulates Ogonna Nnamani after Stanford beat UH in the NCAA championship semifinal volleyball game yesterday. Associated Press

"The last sequence of plays in the third game pretty much typified the match," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "They made some huge plays, great defensive plays and made the transition for some points. We just couldn't do that.

"I told you three days ago Logan Tom would take over the end of the match and she did. I was hoping that wasn't going to happen. You could see the quality of her play when the game was on the line."

Willoughby was about all Hawai'i had offensively by the end and Stanford knew it. It planted two big blockers in front of her and let Tom pick off whatever came through. The player much of the arena came to see went for a match-high 22 kills, but had 13 hitting errors and took nearly half the Rainbow swings.

"They played great defense and when you're hitting it to an Olympian what do you expect?" Willoughby said. "You're hitting the ball at Logan Tom. Of course she's going to dig it. You just have to be patient and consistent."

Kahumoku started strong but clearly faded. She still finished with her 17th double-double (10 kills, 14 digs) while Willoughby had her 20th. The rest of the Rainbows had 14 kills and hit .024. The .117 team percentage was Hawai'i's worst by more than 100 points.

"Our scouting report says the left side is going to get set a lot so they were waiting," Kahumoku said. "They did a great job at the net defensively. That's where they had a little advantage over us. And they played tremendous defense in the back court. Bodies were flying, the balls were coming up. They made the plays at the end."

Hawai'i made plays, particularly on defense where it out-dug the Cardinal 65-58. But it never made the play it had to have when it had to have it. Now it won't have that chance again for eight months. Maybe then UH will be able to deal with last night's disappointment. Shoji was already trying to console them minutes after the match.

"They did about everything we asked them to all year and certainly we'll look back on the year as a great one," Shoji said. "I know I'm real proud of my team."