Rainbow Wahine sweep Tulsa

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Second-ranked University of Hawai'i hasn't found an opponent that can top its volleyball talent so far this season. What might be more impressive is that the Rainbow Wahine have yet to play a team that can match their passion.

Hawai'i's Kim Willoughby hits past Tulsa's Dana Weddle and Vanessa Thon. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Hawai'i hasn't lost a WAC match since 1998. Tulsa (16-6, 1-3 WAC) has won just a dozen conference matches in the same period. The only surprise last night was how Hawai'i could stay so focused.

"I told them in the locker room I really appreciated their enthusiasm to play the game and preparation mentally," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "They've just been outstanding. We really haven't been flat and tonight there was a chance we would come out not fired up. But they just have a true passion for the game. They want to be good and they love playing. Motivation has not been a problem at all."

For variety, the Rainbow Wahine embark on their first road trip tomorrow night. Shoji jokingly called his team's season-opening surge at the Stan Sheriff Center — 6,830 tickets were sold for last night's match — "the longest homestand in the history of women's volleyball."

It ends this week, with matches at Texas-El Paso and Southern Methodist, two of the Eastern Division's tougher teams. Hawai'i is looking forward to the change — "You know," Karin Lundqvist said, "hanging out with the girls" — after blasting its last seven opponents.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, Tulsa couldn't put up any more challenge than the rest. The Golden Hurricane wasted its best stuff before the match, throwing T-shirts and straw cowboy hats to the crowd and giving "Hawai'i Pono'i" a gutsy singing effort with the words written on pink sheets of paper.

Then the volleyball appeared, along with an impressively balanced UH attack. All-Americans Kim Willoughby and Lily Kahumoku launched 14 kills apiece, but middles Lundqvist (9 kills, 4 blocks) and Lauren Duggins (8 and 3) weren't forgotten. All but Kahumoku hit at least .400 while the Rainbow Wahine defense stifled Tulsa into negative .045.

It went exactly as most thought it would, even with the Golden Hurricane clearly better than last season.

"Hopefully, all the time we only think about our own side," Lundqvist said. "You talk about the other side and see where they are, but it's our game, how we play. We are our own worst enemy."

To Hawai'i's credit, the enemy has rarely appeared this season, while Tulsa saw it at every turn last night. After feasting on a preseason diet of weak teams — the average power ranking of its opponents was 242 — Tulsa got a quick glance at the other side. It came away humbled, but happy for the look and to play in such an appreciative atmosphere.

"It's a great opportunity to play against such talented athletes," said 5-foot-6 Tulsa setter Vanessa Thon. "It's a totally different kind of game, the caliber is ridiculously different. ... We expected we had to step it up. We didn't."

The night's sole surprise came in the first four points of Game 2. Tulsa scored them all, on a trio of Hawai'i miscues and Patricia Marques' kill. It took the Rainbows six serves to pull even and three more rotations — Hedder Ilustre served four points and Kahumoku and Duggins three each — to put the game away.

The match went from bad to worse in the third when Tulsa exposed a freshman setter to the onslaught.

QUICK SETS: UH coach Dave Shoji said he is not planning to take Maja Gustin, who has been out most of the season with a stress fracture in her foot, on the trip. Gustin could start practicing this week.

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