Posted on: Sunday, December 14, 2003

Rainbows not ready to lose

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

They lost the first game and three times grimly stared down game-point serves in the rough-and-tumble second.

They dug holes and made mistakes that had even their head coach, Dave Shoji, looking up at the scoreboard and shaking his head like a man tortured.

But when the road to Dallas most looked like a dead end and the postseason appeared at its bleakest point, Kim Willoughby, Lily Kahumoku and the University of Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team reached back in the second game and summoned their prime-time best last night.

And, unlike the clipboard that their coach slammed to the court during one frustrating exchange with the officials, these Wahine would not break under pressure.

With a trip to the Dec. 18 NCAA Women's Volleyball semifinals on the line and 8,848 of its closest friends exhorting it on, Volleyball U. reached back for a championship-worthy comeback effort in this caldron of competition.

It was 32-34, 33-31, 30-24, 30-25, but the numbers only hinted at the resolve it took to muster them in this toe-to-toe shootout.

For three months now, ever since that August 23 loss to defending champion Southern California, we had wondered how these Wahine would fare when really pressed.

We waited to see how they would handle the pressure when it was measured in tons per square inch in the postseason. Not that such a situation had really presented itself during the 34-match win streak that had gotten them to last night's regional final.

When they got there, after sweeping their way through six consecutive post-season matches they found a Georgia Tech team fully prepared and able to play giant killer. A 34-3 Yellow Jacket team that had thrived against the best competition — going 5-0 against ranked opponents — and hungry for a "breakthrough" victory for its overlooked program saved its NCAA-best for last.

And, the Wahine sometimes contributed to their own struggles. When Willoughby's serve conked Kahumoku in the back of the head and Nohea Tano whiffed at the net late in a 4-0 second-game run by the Yellow Jackets, it had all the makings of one of those nights that have haunted the Wahine in their drive to end a 15-year national championship drought.

But this would not be a repeat of 1995 when Michigan State had come into the Stan Sheriff Center and stunned the Wahine in the regional finals. Nor would it become the embarrassment that had been the upset sprung by Texas A&M in the regional semis of 1999.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.