Hawai'i overcomes Arizona

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Caught in a volleyball time warp and a battle of attrition, second-ranked Hawai'i outlasted Arizona, 30-24, 30-26, 22-30, 27-30, 15-13, last night before 6,743 at Stan Sheriff Center.

Hawai'i senior Lauren Duggins couldn't keep the ball in play during the first game against Arizona. Duggins had seven kills, two block solos and was in on six other blocks to help UH win, 30-24, 30-26, 22-30, 27-30, 15-13. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Arizona began the season No. 10 in the country, precisely where it left off last season. It proceeded to drop out of the Top 25 for the first time in five years. It has gone to the past seven NCAA Tournaments and was in the final four two years ago before reloading with highly touted recruits.

Last night, the Wildcats reminded Hawai'i why they had been ranked — as if wins over No. 5 Pepperdine and then-No. 8 UCLA were not enough.

"We've been getting better," Arizona coach Dave Rubio said. "We're so young. Our setting and passing is slowly getting better. For us to compete with a team the quality of Hawai'i ... one, they're a great team and two, we're getting pretty close."

Even with Kim Glass, last season's national Freshman of the Year, finding the court only intermittently, Arizona made the Rainbows look awful in Game 3, when UH hit negative .047. In Game 4, the 'Bows got blocked off the court.

"They missed a bunch of serves (nine) early," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "It didn't seem like they missed any after Game 2. They all have pretty tough serves and they got them in.

"We got aced and had to set the ball high, and when we have to set the ball high they are pretty big. Earlier, they were not a good blocking team when we ran some things, but after a while we couldn't run anything. And, our middles kind of disappeared for a while."

Finally Hawai'i, with six senior starters, pulled itself together and took control of the decisive game, as it had against Pac-10 opponents UCLA and Stanford earlier this season.

All-American Kim Willoughby launched six of her 33 kills in the final game, with only one error. The Rainbows, tired of getting burned at the net, even out-blocked Arizona, 3-1. And still, it was a struggle for the full 2 hours, 40 minutes.

The final game was tied six times, the last at 8. Lily Kahumoku's only kill of the game put UH ahead and the last of Lauren Duggins' eight stuffs made it 10-8.

Arizona called time and got the ball to Jennifer Abernathy, one of three sophomore starters, for one of her 20 kills. Then the Rainbows dropped what would prove to be the hammer.

Willoughby went over the block for one kill and Shoji subbed in Alicia Arnott for setter Kanoe Kamana'o in a desperate attempt to get a block. It worked brilliantly, as the Wildcat hitters could not find a hole and UH hitter Nohea Tano set Willoughby twice more to put Hawai'i ahead 13-9.

Abernathy would get another kill and Glass the final two of her 28 — with 17 hitting errors — as the Rainbow Wahine passing broke down for the final time. But Willoughby eventually put down the final two kills and the 'Bows escaped the Pac-10 again.

"In Games 3 and 4 we made a lot of hitting errors or they did a great job blocking, either way," Willoughby said. "We hit a lot of balls out, easy balls we just should have tried to keep in play. In Game 5 we did a better job."

QUICK SETS: UH senior Kim Willoughby was officially given the 2002-03 Joe Kearney Award before last night's match. She was judged the finest female athlete in the Western Athletic Conference. ... Arizona ended the Rainbows' 33-game winning streak, dating to Sept. 13. UH has won 19 straight matches. ... Hawai'i plays at Rice (Thursday), Louisiana State (Friday) and Louisiana Tech (Saturday) this week. It has just two regular-season home matches remaining, Oct. 30 against Boise State and Nov. 15 against San Jose State. ... UH now has a 112-58 record against Pac-10 teams.

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

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