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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 9:43 p.m., Friday, December 8, 2006

Rainbow Wahine upset USC, advance to regional final

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i's improbable volleyball postseason run took on magical dimensions Friday night when the 12th-seed Rainbow Wahine upset fifth-seeded Southern California to soar a step from the NCAA Championship's final four.

The Rainbow Wahine (29-5) won their Honolulu Regional semifinal, 28-30, 30-21, 21-30, 30-27, 15-5. They scored 11 straight points in the final game to devastate the Trojans, whose season ended at 27-5.

Hawai'i plays fourth—seeded UCLA in Saturday's 6:30 p.m. regional championship. The winner advances to next week's final four in Omaha, Neb. The Bruins swept UH earlier this season.

Behind All-American Kanoe Kamana'o and outside hitters Jamie Houston — who had a career-high 35 kills — and Sarah Mason (24 kills, 22 digs), the Rainbows overwhelmed USC at the end, before 7,006 joyous fans at Stan Sheriff Center.

Juliana Sanders was in on a career-high 14 of Hawai'i's 18 blocks. Asia Kaczor led the Trojans with 22 kills, but hit just .125.

The fourth game was tied 11 times, the last at 24. The 'Bows scored the next two points on a Mason dink and Kanoe Kamana'o's stuff of 6-foot-3 Bethany Johnson. They desperately held that advantage with Houston getting three kills around a block by Amber Kaufman and Sanders.

Hawai'i had a passing breakdown almost immediately, with Jessica Gysin launching her float serve for nine straight points to give USC a 10-2 lead in Game 1. Four came on Asia Kaczor kills. The Pac-10 point leader took her team to a 17-7 advantage before the 'Bows got in the game.

They scored three in a row on Sarah Mason's serve and four more on Kari Gregory's to close to 18-14. A Trojan surge put the gap back at 25-17 before UH rallied again.

With Houston finding a way through 6—3 and 6-4 blockers, Hawai'i went on an 11-3 run. The Rainbows tied it at 28 on Houston's sixth kill, but the Trojans scored the next two to silence a crowd that was rocking.

Kaczor buried five of her first six swings and finished Game 1 with nine of USC's 16 kills. But, she hit zero (4 kills, 4 errors) in her last 16 swings as the 'Bow block began to zero in.

That trend continued in Game 2. Hawai'i seized control from the start and USC had no answer for Houston (seven kills) or Mason (10), who battered the huge block from the outside, hitting a combined .555.

The 'Bows hith .488 for the game, stuffed four balls and never trailed. Kaczor had but two kills and no other Trojan was hurting Hawai'i enough to cut into a deficit that just kept growing.

The dominance did not last. USC's servers picked the Rainbow Wahine apart again in the third, forcing UH to take both its timeouts by 19-11. At that stage, Hawai'i had but four kills to the Trojans' 14.

NOTES

Saturday's regional final will be shown on ESPNU, a cable channel that is not on Oceanic Time Warner's system in Hawai'i ... The Pac-10 started the night with five teams in the regionals and ended with ... Cal was swept by second-seeded Stanford in the Austin (Texas) in a conference showdown, while fourth-seeded UCLA and sixth-seeded Washington also won.

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