By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

For 14 years now, it has hung there, a silent, yet impossible to ignore reminder.

First in musty Klum Gym and now in the rafters of the Stan Sheriff Center, the 1987 NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship banner, the last of the University of Hawai'i's NCAA titles, has pointedly drawn attention to a lengthening drought.

Occasionally stirred to movement by unseen drafts from a nearby air vent, the banner at times has seemed to take on a mocking presence, almost as if taunting those who call the arena home.

Even Wahine volleyball coach Dave Shoji, who has had a hand in putting all four banners there, has said, "It is like it (the 1987 banner) has been up there dancing, asking, 'When are you going to get the next one? I've got nobody next to me.' "

No longer.

Thanks to yesterday's rousing 29-31, 31-29, 30-21, 30-24 NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship victory over Pepperdine in University Park, Pa., the longest title gap in the school's nearly 35-year NCAA Division IA history is over.

Officially and forever, 2002 is a banner year. And UH's championship past now has a rich link to the present.

With their stirring triumph over the heretofore No. 1-ranked Waves, these Warriors won the first NCAA title by a UH men's team. With a clutch win over Pepperdine after three losses, the Warriors accomplished a lot more than payback to a season-long tormentor.

When the last of tournament outstanding player Costas Theocharidis' 19 kills hit the floor, the Warriors had cut through years of pent-up frustration for UH teams and their fans. In the process of crafting a 24-8 record, they put a bold exclamation point on what has been a remarkable year for Manoa sports.

An excursion of nearly 4,800 miles to get to Penn State has ended what had begun to seem like an endless journey.

How many times had a UH team — Rainbow, Wahine or Warrior — had an opportunity for a breakthrough? How often had one of the teams in green gone to an NCAA tournament with high hopes but left without the championship trophy? How often had the magic deserted UH in the most crucial of moments?

Recall some of the bitter setbacks of the Wahine. And, who can forget a couple close-but-no cigar efforts by the men, when not even 47 kills by all-world Yuval Katz could deliver one?

The 1980 College World Series in Omaha, Neb., where the Rainbows, riding a miracle-like three-week run, had two chances to lock up a national title against Arizona. The 1996 men's volleyball championships at Pauley Pavilion where Katz and the Warriors came up shy in a three-hour, 11-minute, five-game match on UCLA's home court.

All of that was rendered ancient history yesterday. That this turnaround of fortunes should be accomplished by the men's volleyball team is altogether fitting. For it was the Warriors who, three points from victory against the Bruins in '96, had come the closest to breaking through the barrier and hoisting a banner.

Never mind that only the coaches, Mike Wilton, Tino Reyes and Aaron Wilton (then as a player), had been on the floor that night. A whole state and, indeed, the players culled from the corners of the globe, knew the historical score when they took up the challenge yesterday.

Only this time, the big one didn't get away.

Instead, it will soon fly from the rafters.

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