Rainbows reach WAC semifinals
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
RENO, Nev. — Fortunately for Hawai'i, last night's first round of the WAC Volleyball Championship was played inside the Virginia Street Gym. That took some — not all —of the chill off the frigid weather outside.
Unfortunately for Tulsa, it was in the same gym as the Rainbow Wahine.
Second-ranked Hawai'i (28-1) extended its winning streak to 27 and its WAC domination to five years-plus with a 30-17, 30-12, 34-32 victory over the eighth-seeded Golden Hurricane (11-16). The top-seeded Rainbows will go for their 88th consecutive victory over a WAC opponent tonight when they play fourth-seeded Nevada in the semifinals at 5 p.m. Hawai'i time.
Before 781 in the barely heated 1,800-seat gym last night, the 'Bows beat up on Tulsa for two games. Then, unintentionally, they got a chance to practice under pressure when their concentration lapsed.
At the end of the first game, UH All-American Kim Willoughby had three more kills than Tulsa (6). At the end of the second, the Golden Hurricane had cut the deficit in their personal battle with the three-time WAC Player of the Year to two (14-12), but let Lily Kahumoku and Lauren Duggins get away. Each buried seven kills and combined to hit .765.
By the end of that game, UH coach Dave Shoji had nearly emptied his bench.
"I thought we really played well in the first two games," Shoji said. "We dug a lot of balls. Everybody was into it. A lot of times when we play like that against someone like Tulsa, it's because the other team is not playing well. But I didn't think Tulsa was playing poorly. We just wouldn't let the ball hit the floor.
"It was fun, and the third game there was a natural letdown with new people in there. It's hard to keep up that level."
Willoughby bundled up in her sweats, and Tulsa took on Kahumoku, Duggins, setter Kanoe Kamana'o and reserves Karin Lundqvist, Susie Boogaard and Alicia Arnott in Game 3. It was suddenly a fair fight, and Tulsa had no fear.
After getting obliterated in every phase in the first two games, the Golden Hurricane out-blocked, out-dug, out-aced and out-hit Hawai'i in the third. Tulsa, which has only taken one game off UH in the 11-match series, was a serve away from its second, at 29-28.
After Duggins drilled her 13th kill, making it 29-all, Tulsa freshman Amy Meyer made it 30-29 with the sixth of her team-high eight kills — all in the last game. Then Sam Rutherford lined the ball down the 'Bows left sideline directly at Kahumoku, who could do nothing but bump it over. The ball fell on Tulsa's side for 30-all.
"Lily made some unexpected plays," Kamana'o said. "Got us points at crucial times."
The All-American had a hand in every critical play at the end.
After a Meyer kill made it 31-30, Kahumoku evened it again with her 17th. Then she launched kills on two of the next three serves. That was expected, but there would be more "unexpected."
In between, with the 'Canes trying to stifle match point, Kahumoku got in front of a screaming Tulsa spike and ricocheted the ball to the low roof. Duggins dug the line drive coming down at her face, but the 'Canes still tied it at 32 on Meyer's last kill.
Kahumoku's match-high 19th kill — on .412 hitting — made it 33-32. Then she went to the end line and slapped her serve into the tape on top of the net. It trickled over to take Hawai'i to the semifinals.
"Best play of the match," Shoji said.
Tulsa wasn't going for it.
"We believed the whole time," said Nathalia Araujo, Tulsa's only senior. "If you understand sports you know everything can happen, no matter if you're playing the second-ranked team or the worst."
Kahumoku had nine of her kills in the final game, while Lundqvist was 4 for 5 with two stuffs to finish with a team-high three. They were the difference when the Rainbow Wahine suddenly went as cold as the sub-freezing, sometimes snowy, weather outside.
"Unforced errors," Kamana'o said.
"We lost focus," Duggins admitted.
Their relentless search for the perfect match goes on.
"Those two games today were at a real high level," Shoji said. "We were pretty close to perfect — seven hitting errors in two games. That's pretty hard to accomplish."
QUICK SETS: Sixth-seeded San Jose State (8-17) upset third-seeded Fresno State (21-6), 30-25, 31-29, 29-31, 28-30, 16-14. The Bulldogs, now hoping for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, fought off a match point in the third game. FSU junior Kristen Fenton went for 35 kills and the teams combined for 175 digs. ... Second-seeded SMU swept seventh-seeded Louisiana Tech, 30-26, 30-24, 30-27. The Mustangs (23-6) play SJSU in one semifinal today. ... Host Nevada (16-14), which lost to Hawai'i in last year's final, swept fifth-seeded Rice, 30-18, 33-31, 30-21, in the final match. The Wolf Pack (16-14) has won eight of its last 11. ... UH coach Dave Shoji believes the WAC had a shot at getting four teams into NCAA Tournament before yesterday. Rice's loss prevented it from winning 20 and will probably keep it out. SMU is still in contention and has started receiving regional recognition. Fresno was No. 4 in the Northwest, behind Hawai'i, Colorado State and UC-Santa Barbara, in the latest regional ranking, which is no longer published by the NCAA. "Today's loss obviously hurts Fresno's chances," Shoji said of the Bulldogs. "But I think they're still in." ...Hawai'i has won the last five WAC championships. It captured the tournament in 1998 and the last two years. The conference did not have a tournament in 1999 and 2000. ... The Rainbow Wahine lost to Brigham Young in the tournament championship the first two years they were in the WAC (1996 and '97). ... Ten WAC Tournament records still stand from that 1998 final, which UH won over BYU, 24-22, in the fifth game. The match is the longest in NCAA Division I history (pre-rally scoring).
Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8043.
