Hawai'i brings out best in road crowds
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
For those waiting to buy tickets for the Nov. 10 volleyball showdown between second-ranked Hawai'i and sixth-ranked Stanford, it may be too late. "About 100" tickets remain for the match, which will be played at the Stan Sheriff Center. The match begins at 6 p.m.
Thirty-one former University of Hawai'i men's volleyball players will compete in tomorrow's "Alumni Night" in the Stan Sheriff Center. The event will be punctuated with a ring ceremony honoring the members of the Warriors' 2002 NCAA championship team. There will be two matches between alumni teams, beginning at 5 p.m. After the ring ceremony, this season's Warriors will face an alumni team in a best-of-three match. The UH Men's Volleyball Booster Club is accepting entries for its seventh golf tournament Dec. 6 at Hickam's Mamala Bay Golf Course. For details, call Basil Sparlin at 623-8786.
Should the Rainbow Wahine sell all 10,252 tickets for their final regular-season home match, it would be their first sellout since the 1999 Stanford match. Hawai'i has lost three of its last four sellouts at the arena, after winning its first six.
Alumni boasts 31 ex-Warriors
The Rainbows (19-0, 7-0 WAC) are also drawing well on the road. SMU and UTEP had their biggest crowds when they hosted UH. Nevada hopes to sell out its 1,800-seat Virginia Street Gym tomorrow when it plays UH for first place in the WAC Western Division. Workers put in a second concession stand yesterday.
The Wolf Pack (18-3, 7-1) is off to its best start and has lost only one home match the past two seasons — against Hawai'i a year ago.
"Even though they are the No. 2 team in the country and they're hammering everybody, we hope homecourt advantage will help a little," Nevada coach Devin Scruggs said. "It will be the first time this season Hawai'i will play in a gym where the crowd and the loudness is not for them. They'll have quite a few fans, but the majority will be for Nevada and it will be very loud in there."
After Friday's sweep of Fresno State, UH coach Dave Shoji said his team might have lost if the match had been played in California. He believes his team has yet to be "tested" away from home and thinks that test could come tomorrow. So does UH captain Margaret Vakasausau.
"I'm taking Nevada really seriously," she says. "Fresno State and Nevada are really hard to play at home. Their gyms are very compact. And teams always seem to sell out when we play. They have Hawaiian Nights and all these activities and their teams tend to explode. They play the best volleyball they play all year. I have no doubt in my mind Nevada will play amazing volleyball.
"The big thing for us is are we going to play Hawai'i volleyball away? It's easy for us to play Hawai'i volleyball at home where we're used to everything, but can we maintain our focus, play with our skills, rely on each other to pull through and be a good team away?"
Shoji benched Vakasausau last Friday, saying she "needed to follow instruction better." Both say their differences are in the past.
"You've got to move on," Shoji said. "It's like Timmy Chang and June Jones. The quarterback takes the brunt of what happens out there. In my eyes, they have the hardest job. I'm trying to get both setters to see what I'm seeing from the bench and a lot of times that's not what they're seeing."
QUICK SETS: Today is the last day to buy WAC Tournament tickets at the UH Box Office. The tournament will be Nov. 22-24 in Reno and 150 packages have been sold so far at UH. All-session passes cost $30 (adults) and $15 (students). Tickets are also on sale through Nevada's ticket office (775-348-7225). ... Tomorrow's match at Nevada begins at 5 p.m. HST. It will be broadcast live on 1420 AM beginning at 4:45 p.m. ... Saturday's broadcast from Boise will begin at 3:45 p.m. and end at 4:30 so the station can run its Warrior Warmup football pre-game show. It will have volleyball reports during the Warmup.
