No. 1 Hawai'i still unbeaten
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — With perfection on its mind and little but pride left inside, top-ranked Hawai'i sucked it up yet again last night to finish the regular season a flawless 28-0.
The Rainbow Wahine's 30-28, 18-30, 30-16, 30-26 volleyball victory over 19th-ranked Utah (23-6) made them only the second team in the program's storied history to enter the postseason unbeaten. The last time it happened was 1995.
"This is probably the unlikeliest team to go undefeated," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "I don't think anybody ever thought that would happen. The staff has coached hard, but it's not anything we haven't done before. I give the players credit. The players developed. They got better."
The Rainbows, with Kanoe Kamana'o the sole returning starter from last season, have awed and amazed since August. Last night might not have been their finest match, but it could have been their finest moment. Running on empty after a week on the road and five matches in six days, they found yet another way to win.
"The thing about this team is, we always have a second wind," senior Teisa Fotu said. "We come kicking harder when we know we have something to lose."
Shoji flew home Monday for his father's funeral and wasn't with his team when it rallied from an 0-2 deficit Tuesday night to beat lowly Utah State. He arrived in Salt Lake as his team was taking it to a fourth game in Logan, and began beating himself up for scheduling the match, and making his team take the 2-hour drive to Logan that day instead of staying up north.
Last night Shoji's eyes were bloodshot and his voice weak, but he insisted his team had much more reason to be tired.
"I thought we were running on fumes in Games 2, 3 and 4," he said. "I think the adrenalin kicked in. They wanted to go home, but they wanted to go home with a win."
So, before 826 on a Crimson Court that never hit 70 degrees, Hawai'i hammered away at Utah after getting hammered itself in Game 2.
Hawai'i had it going early, bolting to a 14-6 advantage in the first game. From there it simply outlasted Utah. The middle was the difference, with Victoria Prince (6 for 8) and Kari Gregory (4 for 6) combining to hit .500.
After working so hard to hold off the Utes, it looked like the 'Bows hit the wall in Game 2. Their 18 points would have been a season-low, if USU hadn't held them to 16 a night earlier.
They came back then, and came back again last night after going into a second-game free fall where their offense was non-existent and five Utah service errors provided nearly a third of their points.
Defensively, Hawai'i's frustrated block couldn't stop the Utes, particularly outsides Shelly Sommerfeldt (7 kills), Liana Bortoto (6) and Kelsie Kartchner (5), who hit .400.
But just when they looked like they would fade away, the 'Bows found another power source, or two. Freshman Juliana Sanders and Fotu — one of Tuesday's heroes — started Game 3. Sanders immediately buried her first two swings.
The score was tied at 9 when Kamana'o served four straight and Utah suddenly went into slow motion. Moments later, another one of Prince's 18 kills gave Fotu the serve with UH up, 16-13.
When Fotu was done, so were the Utes. She floated 10 knucklers over and Hawai'i converted every one for a point, with help from shaken Utah. The 'Bows got three kills apiece from Prince and Susie Boogaard, two of Boogaard's coming off 6-foot-7 Emillie Toone.
The Utes contributed four hitting errors, and hit zero. Sommerfeldt was worse yet as UH held her without a kill and she contributed four misfires. The end came when Sanders lined her fifth kill — in five swings — off Tracy Neumeier's knee.
"Tonight it took a lot of heart, and really digging deep within ourselves to find it," Prince said. "That's what we did. We were tired and our legs were sore but we just pushed hard. We were jumping, hitting hard, serving well. Everybody played a great match."
Utah stayed within two in the final game, until another hitting error — on a free ball — gave Ashley Watanabe the serve with UH ahead 19-16. She served four straight, with Prince, Boogaard and Fotu blocking three and Lyndsey Henderson, an extremely frustrated 6-foot-5 hitter, meekly dropping a dink into the net.
The Utes, who lost to seventh-ranked Colorado State in last week's Mountain West Conference championship, wouldn't get within three again. They couldn't stop UH's middle nor bypass the 'Bows' block, stringing together 34 hitting errors.
"I'm not sure what happened," Utah coach Beth Launiere said, "but they're driving me crazy."
For the second night in a row, a team that thought it could and should have defeated the Rainbow Wahine, missed its serve on match point.
NOTES
Next up: The NCAA Tournament field will be announced Sunday on ESPNews, at approximately 1:40 p.m. Hawai'i time. The Rainbows earned the WAC's automatic berth. Utah and WAC teams Nevada and Rice are hoping for one of the 33 at-large invitations.
History: The Rainbow Wahine won their first 31 matches in 1995, then lost to Michigan State in a five-game regional final.
Shooting star: UH junior Victoria Prince soared to No. 4 in the national hitting statistics this week, at .431. Prince is also 16th in blocking (1.59). Sophomore Kanoe Kamana'o is eighth in assists (13.59).
Relentless: With Tuesday's rally over Utah State, UH has come back from 0-2 deficits twice in a season for the first time since 1986.
Road warriors: The Rainbows have won their last 31 in opposing teams' gyms. They have won all 11 in their series with Utah, which is 69-13 on its Crimson Court over the last six years.
Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8043
