UH's home-season finale is special way to say aloha

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

UH seniors Karin Lundqvist, top left, with her sister Anna, bottom left, and Maja Gustin, top right, with her mother Jasna Gricnik, will be part of tonight's soldout crowd. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser WHO: No. 2 HAWAI'I (26-1, 12-0 WAC) vs. San Jose State (8-16, 6-6 WAC) WHERE: Stan Sheriff Center WHEN: 7 tonight TV/RADIO: Live on KFVE (5) and 1420 AM TICKETS: Sold out SENIOR NIGHT: Kim Willoughby, Melissa Villaroman, Nohea Tano, Karin Lundqvist, Lily Kahumoku, Maja Gustin and Lauren Duggins will be honored after the match

That 1983 team won the program's third national championship a few weeks later. These second-ranked Rainbow Wahine are desperately seeking the fifth.

The collision of excellence, expectations and emotion will shake Stan Sheriff Center.

It is why Maja Gustin's mother, Jasna Gricnik, and Karin Lundqvist's sister, Anna, have flown nearly 15,000 miles.

Ronald Willoughby cruised in a few days ago from Napoleonville, La., and has hardly left the side of little sister Kim since.

Asked if he's had strangers approach his All-American sister, Ronald doesn't hesitate.

"Yes ma'am," he says. "I'm kinda used to it."

"At home I'm always his little sister," Kim says. "Here, he's Kim's brother. That's what I like."

All seven seniors will have at least someone from their family with them tonight. Lily Kahumoku's mother and sister are in from Alabama. Lauren Duggins and Melissa Villaroman have family from California and all over the islands. Nohea Tano, the only senior who grew up here, has friends and family age 2 and up coming.

There will also be 10,000 of the Rainbow Wahine's closest friends in for their first sellout in 371 days.

"I hope having support like the people support them over there has been a wonderful experience," says UNLV coach Deitre Collins, a Hawai'i All-American on the 1982 and '83 NCAA Championship teams. "It was for me. All of a sudden you go from being just another athlete to being special. Nothing compares to that. It's funny to go back and still feel that way. ... People are so into it, it's crazy. There's nowhere else like it."

That's what Gustin has been telling her mother and "best friend" for four years, urging her to share this with her. When Gricnik saw the video of Senior Night two years ago, with Gustin's roommate Tanja Nikolic, she started plotting her course to Manoa.

"It was excellent," Gricnik said of the video. "I can't imagine what it will feel like. I always hear that Hawai'i is crazy for women's volleyball, that it's a passion, very special ... that she loves it here and the people she's met."

Gricnik came with husband Joze (Gustin's stepfather). Anna Lund-qvist brought fiance Anders Garmland. All beat the 'Bows here, flying in for their first U.S. visit, from Slovenia and Sweden, while UH was on its last road trip.

They've seen the North Shore and Wai'anae, met much of the team and many boosters. Mostly, they have finally witnessed Gustin and Lundqvist in the new element they have embraced.

Gustin, her mother says, has grown from "a girl into a real person" over the past four years, and her priorities remain in place.

Lundqvist hasn't changed at all the past two years, according to her sister. "Karin has always been herself, she's a very open person," Anna says. "It was an adventure for her to come here, it had always been her dream to play here. We are happy for her."

QUICK SETS: Gov. Linda Lingle's office contacted Lily Kahumoku to schedule a meeting regarding her political aspirations. Kahumoku says she hasn't been able to set a time yet, but wants to talk about "American foreign policy and how it affects Hawai'i."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8043.