Posted on: Tuesday, October 19, 2004

UH in rare WAC home showdown

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

If it is once-in-a-blue moon that the Western Athletic Conference serves up a genuine, honest-to-goodness homecourt challenge for the University of Hawai'i-Manoa women's volleyball team, then what does that make Thursday's match against Rice?

Halley's comet?

Next to the Rainbow Wahine actually losing a match — something that hasn't occurred in 96 consecutive WAC meetings now — a late-season duel of conference unbeatens at the Stan Sheriff Center, which is what we get Thursday, is about as rare as it gets.

So much so, perhaps, that even Dave Shoji, Rainbow Wahine coach, would be hard-pressed to tell you the last one. "I don't know," Shoji said. "I don't remember. It could have been ... "

Small wonder. You'd have to go back to 1998, three weeks after the Rainbows lost their last WAC match, to find the last time a conference team (Brigham Young at 8-0) came in here with a better WAC record than the Owls' 7-0.

But here comes Rice, at 18-2 overall and on the cusp of the USA Today/College Sports Television Top 25, as probably the last real test of this conference regular season for the third-ranked Rainbows (16-0, 6-0 WAC).

The Owls have a school-record 11-match winning streak and a conference player of the year candidate in left-side hitter Rebeca Pazo.

"They've beaten everybody on our side (in the WAC Western Division) and I don't think that's ever happened before," Shoji said.

Ever since the Owls went five games with then-No. 1 Minnesota in September and proceeded to mow down Fresno State and Nevada in three games each, this is one people have bookmarked.

Including the Rainbows, it seems.

"I like the challenge and I think our players are really looking forward to it," Shoji said. "They've been asking questions about Rice. They've been curious about Rice. They've wanted to know what kind of a team they are and all that, for a while now. But we have tried to deflect them until this week."

Not until after the Rainbow Wahine finished off Southern Methodist on Saturday to conclude the road trip, setting the stage for this showdown, has UH been willing to look at this one in big-match perspective.

Meanwhile, you figure Rice has circled this one both large and early on its calendar. And, with ample reason. With the way divisions are set up, this is the only scheduled meeting between the two, though they are the odds-on favorites to meet in the WAC Tournament finals come Nov. 21 in Reno.

For the Owls, who leave the WAC July 1, 2005, for Conference USA, this is a chance to go out with a megaton bang after an 0-11 history against UH that has been about as close as the numbers suggest.

WAC history tells us those opportunities don't come around very often.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.