Rainbow Wahine reach semifinals
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
RENO, Nev. — With Virginia Street Gym transformed into a little piece of volleyball paradise, second-ranked Hawai'i smoked Louisiana Tech, 30-13, 30-19, 30-16, yesterday in the opening round of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament.
Associated Press
The fact that the top-seeded Rainbow Wahine (26-1) won so easily and some 300 Hawai'i fans felt so at home in this Klum Gym-clone so close to so many casinos was hardly a surprise. But to see UH play what was essentially a home match — when aloha ball came, all but a handful in the crowd stood — 4,000 feet above sea level bordered on bizarre. Particularly with its crowd bundled up in green to fight off the frigid air and a cooler of bottled beer for sale just behind the server.
UH's Kim Willoughby winds up against Louisiana Tech. Willoughby had 16 kills in a 30-13, 30-19, 30-16 win.
The 'Bows go from bizarre to the semifinals tonight. They will play fourth-seeded San Jose State (14-14) for the right to advance to tomorrow's championship. The Spartans overcame fifth-seeded Rice (18-13), 30-32, 30-26, 30-28, 23-30, 15-9.
Second-seeded Fresno State beat seventh-seeded Southern Methodist, 30-21, 30-26, 30-28, to reach the other semifinal against third-seeded Nevada. The Wolf Pack beat sixth-seeded Texas-El Paso, 30-19, 30-19, 30-24, in last night's late match.
This tournament started on a weird note when the Rainbow Wahine, a few hours off the plane, walked into Thursday's practice singing Christmas carols. They followed that with a nearly flawless first game yesterday, racing to a 21-5 lead before eighth-seeded Tech broke a sweat.
"Perfect energy," was how Nohea Tano described Hawai'i's sizzling start.
"Expected" was the way LaTech coach Heather Mazeitis put it.
"Everybody expected them to kill us, dismantle us with ease," Mazeitis said. "Realistically, that's what we expect. But as a coach and an optimist I'm saying, 'OK, let's go, let's play hard and do everything we can.' ... We're always, always looking to better the level that we're at, but also understanding where we are."
Associated Press
Louisiana Tech (19-16), which loses just one senior, has proved itself all season. It finished its best year since 1996 with more victories than the past two seasons combined. In its second WAC season, it got its inaugural WAC win a month ago, then won three more to get in the tournament.
UH's Hedder Ilustre digs against Louisiana Tech. "They dig balls you never think they are going to dig," said Tech coach Heather Mazeitis.
That's where the dream season died. Hawai'i hit a phenomenal .495 to Tech's .065. Rainbows Lily Kahumoku and Kim Willoughby buried 16 kills apiece. The All-America complements made the most of their opportunities. Middles Lauren Duggins, Maja Gustin and Melody Eckmier hit .542 and added another 16 kills while Tano, making her first start since injuring her ankle a month ago, was 3-for-4 in two games.
"You do get anxious to hit," Tano admitted. "Once you get a set you want to put it away and it's not always a put-away-able ball."
Tech couldn't cope with what, for the 2002 Rainbows, was a balanced attack.
"Since we don't see teams like Hawai'i it's hard for the players to understand what they're supposed to be expecting," Mazeitis said. "The know what Kim and Lily are going to do. You can prepare a team for two players, but to prepare a team for six players is very difficult. Hawai'i comes at you from all angles.
"And they dig balls you never think they are going to dig. All season long these balls have been going down. Against a team that digs balls that are supposed to be down you think, 'OK, reload again ... we've got to go again ... and again ... and again.' Eventually the ball is going to fall, but usually it's going to fall on our side."
In Game 1, nearly every ball fell on Louisiana Tech's side. It had but four digs — to UH's 15 — and hit zero. But Tech stayed within a point of Hawai'i up to 10-9 in the second game. UH got five kills apiece from Willoughby, Kahumoku and Duggins — who only took five swings — to finish off Tech. LaTech never got over an early 9-3 deficit in Game 3.
"We focused on treating our opponent with respect," Willoughby said. "We have to respect every team here and go out and play our style of volleyball."
Hawai'i made progress in the areas Stanford exploited two weeks ago. It collected 10 blocks against a relatively quick offense, with Duggins in on six and Jennifer Carey five. It also had success swinging Willoughby and Kahumoku around to block on the right side, which was particularly vulnerable against Stanford.
The Rainbow Wahine are chasing their fifth consecutive WAC championship. They have won their last 72 matches against conference teams, a streak that goes back four years to BYU.
San Jose State is the last team currently in the WAC to beat Hawai'i. That came in 1993. Fran Pozzi and Kimberly Noble led the Spartans yesterday with 23 kills each. Pozzi also had 22 digs as San Jose out-dug Rice, 80-67. The Owls' Rebeca Pazo led all hitters with 28 kills and Briana Cook was in on nine blocks, including four solos.
QUICK SETS: Kim Willoughby is five digs short of becoming the fifth Rainbow Wahine with 1,000 kills and digs, behind Teee Williams, Suzanne Eagye, Tita Ahuna and Jessica Sudduth. ... Hawai'i remained first in the NCAA's West Region rankings. It is followed by UC Santa Barbara, Long Beach State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah, Cal Poly, Pacific and Nevada. The eight regional rankings are used by the committee to choose and bracket the 64 tournament teams.
