Posted on: Saturday, November 20, 2004
Hawai'i teams lose at regional
By Chris Wiley
Special to The Advertiser
LA JOLLA, Calif. — Hawai'i Pacific women's volleyball coach Tita Ahuna said she never thought about what happened a year ago during the Lady Sea Warriors' NCAA Division II Pacific Regional semifinal match last night against UC San Diego.
No. 4 seed Hawai'i Pacific, ahead two games to one against the Tritons yesterday, was poised to do the same thing it did in the regionals last year — knock off No. 1 seed UCSD on its home court to advance to the regional title match.
"You know, I never thought about last year," Ahuna said. "Maybe before the match started. All I wanted to do was for our players to play hard and play with a lot of heart, because it wasn't a matter of who was the best team, it's who is going to want it more."
Last night, the Tritons rallied for a 19-30, 30-26, 23-30, 30-28, 15-11 victory over the Lady Sea Warriors in front of 811 fans at UCSD's RIMAC Arena.
The host Tritons, who are ranked No. 2 in the nation, advanced to tonight's title match against Cal State San Bernardino.
Barbara Martin led Hawai'i Pacific (21-4) with 25 kills, while Nadica Karleusa had 19 kills and setter Vera Oliveira 67 assists. Bonnie Wilson led UCSD (30-1) with 18 kills.
HPU squandered an 8-1 lead in the fourth game and never led in the fifth game. In Game 5, Hawai'i Pacific rallied to make it 8-7, but UCSD scored three straight points, and the Lady Sea Warriors never got closer than three points after that.
"I think we played tentative," Ahuna said. "We let our mistakes get the best of us. We compounded our errors."
CS San Bernardino ousts Chaminade: In the first game of its NCAA Division II Pacific Regional semifinal last night, Chaminade took Cal State San Bernardino completely out of its offense with a devastating serve.
But that serve turned out to be the Silverswords' undoing, as the Coyotes eliminated Chaminade, 24-30, 30-27, 30-25, 30-23, at UC San Diego.
Chaminade (17-7) had 15 service errors in the match, which helped Cal State San Bernardino (26-3) score points at crucial times and advance to tonight's regional final.
"We live and die by our serve," Chaminade coach Glennie Adams said. "Our goal is hopefully to take them out of system ... the missed serves were not a matter of trying too hard. I think it was more lack of focus."
Kahala Kabalis had 20 kills to lead the Silverswords, while Valasi Sepulona had 13. Marijana Stanic had 11 kills, but only seven after the first game.
Brie Harris led Cal State San Bernardino with 23 kills, while Cathleen Price had 22. The two combined for 45 of the Coyotes' 60 kills.
After the first game, Cal State San Bernardino figured out Chaminade's serve and began to get the ball consistently to Harris and Price.
In the third game, Chaminade rallied to cut its deficit to 27-22. Then Stanic and Sepulona each committed service errors as the Coyotes scored three of the next six points to win the game.
In the fourth game, Cal State San Bernardino led 15-13 when Sepulona committed a service error that helped the Coyotes pull away.
"Chaminade was probably the toughest-serving team that we've seen all year, without a doubt," Coyotes' coach Kim Cherniss said. "Everybody notices all of the big kills and blocks in volleyball, but it's really about serve and serve-receive."
