NCAA DIVISION II
Leaner PacWest schedule makes every match critical

By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer

In addition to tussling with opponents, Hawai'i's four Division II women's volleyball teams now have to battle the schedule.

For the first time in the 10-year history of the Pacific West Conference, the number of volleyball conference matches that count in the standings has been cut from 15 to 10.

With the downsized schedule, coaches and athletic directors say teams can no longer afford to lose two or three conference matches and expect to win the highly competitive conference and the automatic berth to the NCAA II West Region Championship.

The new schedule was created to balance home-and-road matches and to ensure fair tiebreakers in the six-team PacWest, which is composed of second-ranked BYU-Hawai'i (12-0 overall, 3-0 in conference), Chaminade (9-2, 3-1), Hawai'i-Hilo (5-10, 1-3), 24th-ranked Hawai'i Pacific (8-3, 3-0), Montana State University-Billings (5-9, 1-3) and Western New Mexico (10-7, 0-4).

"I would love to have more games count because it's more forgiving," said HPU volleyball coach Tita Ahuna, who led the Sea Warriors to the conference championship last year with a 12-3 record. "Ten matches are more restrictive. But for now, we have to do what we have to do."

With the new schedule, Ahuna said a team would need a perfect or near-perfect record to win the conference.

"There's so much parity in our conference," Ahuna said. "I would think you would have to go undefeated or nearly undefeated to come out of the conference champions. Everyone is so equal this year. On any given day, anybody can beat anybody."

BYU-Hawai'i athletic director Randy Day agreed and said the downsized schedule provides little room for error and makes every conference game critical.

"You gotta be on," Day said. "You can't have a letdown. If you lose a conference match now, it could have real impact. No question."

Athletic directors make the final decision on scheduling with input from coaches. The decision to downsize the schedule was done to ensure fair competition and tiebreaking procedures, Day emphasized.

Last year, nearly every match against a conference opponent —15 in all — counted in the standings. But, teams played an uneven number of home and road conference matches.

This year, teams play the same amount of matches, but only two in each series — one home and one road — count in the standings.

"If you play once at home and twice on the road, that's really not an equitable distribution of home and away games," said Day, who added the downsized schedule makes it "a little easier when you start doing a tiebreaker and base it on head-to-head."

The PacWest basketball season still uses the 15-game conference format and requires Mainland teams to travel to Hawai'i twice at a cost of $1,500 per trip, Day said. In volleyball, Mainland teams travel to Hawai'i once, Day said.

"It's really a question of finances," Day said. "The basketball programs can afford to come twice to Hawai'i. The volleyball teams can only afford to once. It's really a cost issue for volleyball."

Honors

Lin repeats: BYU-Hawai'i's Chun Yi Lin became the first two-time winner of the Pacific West Conference Player of the Week award this season. The freshman middle blocker from Pingtune, Taiwan, posted a .448 hitting percentage and had 18 kills as second-ranked BYU-Hawai'i defeated Chaminade in five games Saturday. She leads the conference in hitting percentage at .488 and is ranked third in kills at 4.68 per game.

Academics

Prather cited: UH-Hilo's Scott Prather was awarded the Division II Commissioner's Award for Academics earlier this week. Prather, who was a senior at UH-Hilo last year, posted a 3.88 grade point average in business administration. The Kula, Maui native was a two-time Academic All-Conference selection and was also named to the conference first-team in basketball last year.

UH-Hilo and Chaminade ranked in the top 10 for student-athlete graduation rates for freshmen entering school in 1995, according to the NCAA. UH-Hilo tied for the top Division II graduation rate at 100 percent, while Chaminade ranked seventh at 88 percent.

Last week's volleyball results

Western New Mexico def. St. Mary's 30-25, 30-28, 30-25

Western New Mexico def. Incarnate Word 30-21, 30-28, 30-28

St. Edward's def. Western New Mexico 30-22, 31-29, 27-30, 30-22

Texas A&M-Commerce def. Western New Mexico 27-30, 25-30, 30-23, 30-17, 17-15

Chaminade def. UH-Hilo 30-25, 23-30, 31-29, 30-28

BYU-Hawai' def. Chaminade 21-30, 30-14, 30-26, 22-30, 15-9

Hawai'i Pacific def. UH-Hilo 23-30, 30-25, 30-20, 30-24

Rocky Mountain def. MSU-Billings 30-26, 30-23, 30-26

This week's schedule

Women's Volleyball

Friday

• UH-Hilo at BYU-Hawai'i
• Western New Mexico at Montana State University-Billings

Saturday

• Western New Mexico at Montana State University-Billings

Cross Country

Saturday

• Willamette Invitational at Salem, Ore.