Unbeaten no longer: Stanford sweeps UH
| • | Ferd Lewis: Hawai'i hurt by lack of quality opponents |
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
Volleyball reality hit like a swift kick to Hawai'i's gut last night as fourth-ranked Stanford rocked the top-ranked, formerly unbeaten Rainbow Wahine, 31-29, 30-28, 30-24.
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Hawai'i's first look at a true top-10 team ended in utter frustration before a sold-out Stan Sheriff Center crowd. The nearly 10,000 in attendance for Senior Night never played a part in this one. The Cardinal (24-3) held on at the end of each of the first two games and simply let the Rainbows (23-1) unravel in the third.
Hawai'i's Lily Kahumoku threads one of her 19 kills between the defense of Stanford's Jennifer Harvey (21) and Logan Tom during the matchup of No. 1 vs. No. 4 at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The last three times Stanford has played here it faced a sellout crowd and unbeaten Hawai'i team. Each time, the Cardinal has clobbered the Rainbows, exploiting every weakness. Last night, those were obvious:
• Hawai'i had no right side attack.
"We got nothing out of the right side, they won that match-up big time," UH coach Dave Shoji said.
• UH also had no block, particularly against All-America Oganna Nnamani, who was spectacular with 19 kills. Hawai'i blocked her once — at game point in the first — and never got near her again.
"You just can't let somebody hit 63 percent," Shoji said. "If you're looking for one thing about the match, that was it. ... At times there was nothing we could do. She was just going over the block, down in front of the defense.
"It was pretty frustrating."
• Finally, and most frightening for the Rainbow Wahine, Stanford exposed its unbeaten record as a mirage of mediocre opponents.
"I think our schedule prepared us for this really well," said Stanford coach John Dunning, whose team has defeated nine ranked teams — including a pair of top-ranked teams the past week. "Sometimes you can schedule things with the best intentions and it can mess you up. But we've played in front of 10,000 people at Arizona, 6,000 at Illinois and Florida ... Those things helped us to not be distracted. This is the best setting in the country to play volleyball in, but it can still overpower you."
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The Cardinal did all the overpowering against a UH team that, aside from an exhibition match against Samorodok of Russia and a few minutes of confusion in a four-game victory over Washington, had not been challenged all season. Last night, it was not up to the challenge. Ultimately, this loss could cost them a home regional.
Lily Kahumoku, left, digs out a Stanford serve as teammate Hedder Illustre leans in. Stanford put an end to the Rainbow Wahine's perfect season with a three-game sweep.
Lily Kahumoku (19 kills) and Kim Willoughby (20) played like All-Americans for UH, which they are. But they had little help. Middles Lauren Duggins and Maja Gustin were effective when they were set, but could only come up with three blocks. The right side had one kill and three errors.
"The matchups in the middle and right, we lost that battle," Kahumoku said. "Kim and I did about how we were expected, I think. You hit 23 percent in matches like this you expect to win. But Oganna went off. We weren't able to defend her.
"We were discombobulated, so when your blocking is off it's very difficult to play back-court defense around it. ... But this was a good test for us. I don't think we should be discouraged by it at all. We got whipped by a great team, but we were in it the first two games. We made some adjustments. I can't say they were the right adjustments, but we made them and we've learned. Now we know what there is out there. It's a nice time to re-evaluate what we're doing on our side of the court."
Ironically, the only player Hawai'i slowed was Olympian Logan Tom. She had 16 kills and hit .216. Stanford, the defending national champion, was so much better everywhere else that all Tom had to do this night was keep her teammates composed.
She might be the best in the country at that. Nothing the 'Bows did bothered the Cardinal. That was something new for Hawai'i, which had not even lost a game since Sept. 7.
The Cardinal said hello by immediately ending the Rainbows' 54-game winning streak — fourth-longest in NCAA history. UH didn't go down easily, with Willoughby launching Stanford's first try at game point into the ground and Jennifer Carey and Gustin stuffing Nnamani on the second to tie it at 29.
But this game of surges — each team had 5-0 runs — would end with the Cardinal in control. Ashley Ivy's kill gave all five Stanford hitters at least three and brought another game point. This time, Anna Robinson and Sara McGee stuffed Willoughby. It was the Cardinal's fourth block and left Willoughby with a .077 percentage — some 300 points below her average.
She rallied in Game 2 and Kahumoku remained consistently excellent, but it was already obvious that Hawai'i could not match Stanford's balance. Other than the All-Americans, who each had double-doubles — the only Rainbow advantage was defense, and that couldn't score points, only prevent them.
UH would never get that close again, despite getting stuffed just two more times by the country's best blocking team.
There were seven early ties in Game 2, but the Cardinal put a three-point run together to forge ahead 21-17, then another that made it 24-18. The Rainbow Wahine rallied desperately, closing to 28-27 on Willoughby's eighth kill of the game. Nnamani put Stanford on the brink with her seventh. Willoughby delayed the end with a kill but it came soon after when she missed her serve.
After losing four of the first five points in Game 3, the Cardinal proceeded to put the Rainbows away.
The scary part was that Stanford did not have its best stuff.
"We played really well," Dunning said, "but we've got a ways to go."
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