Rainbows sweep past SMU, including 30-6 in Game 2
Advertiser Staff
Once second-ranked Hawai'i got through the first game, Southern Methodist and the inaugural road trip of 2002 was a cruise.
The Rainbow Wahine remained unbeaten yesterday with a 30-24, 30-6, 30-17 victory over the Mustangs. Hawai'i's 63rd consecutive Western Athletic Conference victory was watched by 601 at 9,000-seat Moody Coliseum.
The small turnout saw an ugly first game that clearly served as an eye-opener for the Rainbows (15-0, 5-0 WAC). They held SMU (8-12, 2-4) to just six points in Game 2 — the lowest UH opponent total in 1 1/2 seasons of rally-scoring volleyball.
"Game 2 was about as good a performance as you could expect," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "We had one hitting error and we blocked a bunch of balls and had a lot of digs. There were a lot of rallies — SMU is scrappy — but they couldn't put the ball down."
Hawai'i's final regular-season match against a WAC Eastern Division team didn't start so simply. It began early for both teams — 11 a.m. Dallas time, 5 a.m. in Hawai'i — with the Mustangs just home from California the day before.
Game 1 was a battle of attrition as both teams had 10 hitting errors. The difference was, the Rainbow Wahine would have three more the rest of the match while SMU never reached a positive hitting percentage. Katy Moffett, the Mustangs' leader with eight kills, was the only hitter in positive numbers.
Hawai'i held on to the first game by its blocking, amassing seven of its season-high 17 stuffs. Shoji called time at 13-13. His team scored the next seven points with Hedder Ilustre serving and SMU didn't get within five again.
"I had told them earlier that on the road you have to be more conservative and not make hitting and serving errors and get the crowd into the game," Shoji said. "But that's exactly what we did. We just needed to settle down."
Once they did, the rout was on. Lily Kahumoku had a sub-par hitting match (.171) and still nearly collected a rare triple double, with 11 kills, 16 digs and a career-high seven blocks. Kim Willoughby, her All-America counterpart, drilled 17 kills — a third of the Hawai'i total.
Karin Lundqvist was in on nine stuffs and Lauren Duggins seven as the Rainbows more than doubled their season average of 2.6 blocks a game. With libero Melissa Villaroman (18 digs) leading the way, UH was also far above average defensively, with 68 digs.
Hawai'i plays non-conference matches against Notre Dame tomorrow and Tuesday, at 7 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center.
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