Willoughby lifts Rainbows to Imua title
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
With unranked Washington giving fourth-ranked University of Hawai'i all it could handle — and often more — the Aston Imua Wahine Volleyball Challenge finally lived up to its name last night.
Hawai'i (6-0) won its seventh Challenge championship, 26-30, 30-22, 30-27, 30-28, last night before a crowd of 6,047 at Stan Sheriff Center. The fans gave the Huskies (5-1) a standing ovation when they returned to the arena after the loss, appreciating their talent, tenacity and the simple fact that they came after Hawai'i every moment while its five previous opponents had backed off when it mattered most.
Washington lost three starters from last year's 11-16 team, but had not lost a game going into the match. It was easy to see why.
UW stifled UH All-American Lily Kahumoku early. It scored its 15th point of the match on Kahumoku's third hitting error; she had but two the first two nights of this tournament. The smaller Huskies also shut down Hawai'i's middle attack, holding Lauren Duggins without a kill until the third game and forcing UH to finally miss the injured Maja Gustin — their most imposing offensive threat inside.
That left it to Kim Willoughby, Hawai'i's other All-American and the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. She rose to the occasion, and far over the Washington blockers. Willoughby blasted 38 kills — breaking her own UH and WAC four-game record — to more than double her teammates' combined effort.
The rest of the Rainbows dug in behind her; their 93 digs also shattered the school record for the rally-scoring format.
"Kim is big-time," Washington coach Jim McLaughlin said. "She does everything well. I think she's the next great USA player. I also think the Rainbows get good swings, they have the ability to just better the situation. When there's chaos, somehow they sort it out. I like 'em. They're my pick to win it.
"There are ebbs and flows to every game and Hawai'i is more mature than we are. I don't think they're affected by those ebbs and flows. We are."
After a tentative start, Washington took control of the first game by doing something no other team had done to Hawai'i this season i hammer the ball back ferociously and contain Kahumoku. While a stream of jump servers threw off the Rainbow passers, UW setter Gretchen Maurer — who was recruited by UH — isolated Paige Benjamin and Kaitlin Leck.
Both launched six kills in the game and, along with the Huskies' block, held off Hawai'i. Washington never looked surprised at its supremacy.
"They never stayed to watch us play this week," Willoughby said. "But they gave us attitude like, 'I don't care what you do on your side, we're going to do what we do best.' And that's the same mentality we have. That's what I like about their team."
UH coach Dave Shoji sensed his team did not show enough respect for the Huskies. He blamed that — and Maurer's brilliant offensive orchestration — for the thrill-a-minute closeness of the match.
"I told the team before the match that a win over Washington is good because their RPI is going to be very good," Shoji said. "I don't think our team took any of the scouting reports seriously. That's based on people telling them that this tournament was weak, our schedule was weak. I tried to warn them. We had everybody basically saying you don't have a game until Stanford. I knew that wasn't true. But they hear people talk."
Willoughby was all the Hawai'i offense early, blasting 11 of their 17 kills in Game 1 and a dozen more in Game 2. The Rainbows surged to a 13-4 advantage in that game, with Willoughby serving seven straight. The Huskies never caught up, missing three late serves to stifle every surge.
The Rainbows collected 24 digs and enough touches off the block in the second game to put a speed bump in front of the Washington attack, but a trio of runs put the Huskies ahead 16-9 in Game 3. The Rainbows rallied, scoring five straight with Karin Lundqvist —again playing for Gustin — serving and the UW hitters suddenly gone cold.
They caught Washington at 19 and, five ties later, went up 27-24 with Willoughby and Duggins stuffing Leck twice and Margaret Vakasausau serving an ace. Freshman Susie Boogaard's sixth kill — without an error — was game point.
Game 4 was tied a dozen times. Hawai'i scored the final three points when Lundqvist slapped down an overset, Benjamin hit long and Willoughby launched her last kill through a triple block. UW missed six serves in the final game and 17 overall, to Hawai'i's eight. Kahumoku had six of her 16 kills in that game.
"I've seen Lily just elevate and when she had to, in critical situations, she got kills," McLaughlin said. "Great players tend to do that when they're not playing well."
• • •
All-Tournament Team
Most OutstandingiKim Willoughby (UH).
Lily Kahumoku (UH), Margaret Vakasausau (UH), Paige Benjamin (UW), Brittanie Budinger (USF), Zlatina Anguelova (SDSU), Kaitlin Leck (UW).
QUICK SETS: San Diego State (2-5) captured third place with a 30-20, 30-25, 30-16 victory over San Francisco (2-5), which did not win a game in the tournament. Rochelle Currier had 16 kills for SDSU and Brittanie Budinger 11 for USF. ... In other matches this weekend, San Jose State lost to top-ranked Stanford in four games and seventh-ranked UCLA was swept by No. 9 Northern Iowa and No. 20 Minnesota. ... Washington had not started a season with five victories since 1988. ... Washington hired Jim McLaughlin as its coach a week before fall camp started last year. That team's 11 victories was the best UW had done since 1997. ... Hawai'i has won all but one of the eight Aston Imua Challenges. Southern California won last year. ... Kim Willoughby passed Karrie Trieschman on the career kills list Friday, moving into seventh place two-plus seasons into her career.
