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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, November 18, 2007

Rainbow Wahine are champs again

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Hawai'i's Tara Hittle (3), Stephanie Brandt (10) and Amber Kaufmann celebrate after scoring a point against New Mexico State in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament final at Las Cruces, N.M.

NORM DETTLAFF | Special to The Advertiser

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ALL-WAC TOURNAMENT

MVP: Jamie Houston

Keri Anglin (SJSU)

Jamie Houston (Hawai‘i)

Karly Sipherd (Nevada)

Amber Simpson (NMSU)

Krystal Torres (NMSU)

Aneli Cubi-Otineru (Hawai‘i)

Kim Oguh (NMSU)

Stephanie Brandt (Hawai‘i)

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Hawai'i's Stephanie Brandt sets the ball in front of New Mexico State's Lindsey Yon.

NORM DETTLAFF | Special to The Advertiser

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LAS CRUCES, N.M. — New Mexico State did all the things it needed to beat Hawai'i last night and the Rainbow Wahine still remain the Western Athletic Conference's undisputed volleyball champions this morning.

Finding fortitude and momentum seemingly "out of nowhere," 11th-ranked Hawai'i (24-5) hung another heart-wrenching loss on the 13th-ranked Aggies last night, beating them 28-30, 30-20, 24-30, 30-23, 15-11 in the WAC Tournament championship. It was the first time a tournament final went five games since the Rainbows began their run of what is now 10 consecutive WAC titles in 1998.

That win over Brigham Young was the longest match in NCAA history. Last night's was close, before a rocking crowd of 4,406 at Pan American Center that was ultimately spiked into silence. WAC Player of the Year, and tournament MVP, Jamie Houston fittingly had the honors, dropping her 22nd kill to end it after 2 hours and 53 minutes.

New Mexico State (26-5) did what it could to slow her, putting libero Kristal Torres in Houston's sights and enough blockers in her face to limit her to .149 hitting. The Aggies also served aggressively, going after UH for six aces with only 10 errors. And, the volleyball stars were aligned, with the WAC's top two teams playing in Las Cruces when it mattered most.

But in the end, as it has been the last five times the teams have met, Hawai'i was simply too much. Along with fortitude, it found balance and grit, depth and timely passing and, especially, defense. With all else fairly equal, the Rainbow Wahine ran the Aggies' hitters ragged with 90 digs.

"Hawai'i played an excellent match," NMSU coach Mike Jordan said. "Their floor defense was very good. In particular, where they really put a hurt on us was the fact that they dug some ... just bombs from our outside hitters. Lindsey Yon just crushed some balls and they managed to make some digs on some of those balls. Those balls are mostly kills usually."

The Rainbows play their final home matches against Loyola Marymount Tuesday and Wednesday. They will get the conference's automatic NCAA bid while the Aggies wait for an at-large bid when NCAA brackets are announced next Sunday. Their only losses are to Hawai'i, second-ranked Nebraska and third-ranked Texas.

The Aggies beat UH here last year to end an NCAA-record 132-match conference winning streak, but the 'Bows had taken the teams' last four matches, including an epic five-gamer here in September and a simple sweep in Hawai'i a month ago.

Nothing was simple about this one. The Rainbows gutted their way to an 11-6 advantage in Game 5, taking the lead at 6-4 on four straight points with Jayme Lee serving, Houston resting and Juliana Sanders and Tara Hittle anchoring the attack. When Hittle obliterated a ball straight down for the fifth point, Houston said she knew New Mexico State was toast.

Jordan also pointed at Hawai'i's captain, who had 13 kills, 21 digs and 4 stuffs, as a key component in the win.

"I think Tara Hittle played better than she has against us all year, by far," he said. "She took some nice swings ... really made us work hard defensively. ... I think Hittle hurt us."

NMSU called time down 11-6 and Hawai'i missed just its second serve of the night. Aneli Cubi-Otineru, who fought her way back into the offense the final two games, had a hitting error but reserve setter Dani Mafua ended the Aggies' run with her second kill to make it 12-8.

Mafua came in the front row for Stephanie Brandt at 17-all in the critical fourth game and UH coach Dave Shoji went with both the rest of the match. That substitution gave UH a lift, along with Lee (four digs) and Kari Gregory (two blocks, one kill).

"Stephanie was struggling a little with location and we just needed a spark," Shoji said. "We needed somebody to come in. It wasn't necessarily that the sets were all that much better, but just having her on the court — everybody likes Dani and to see her in seemed to shift the momentum."

On the next serve, NMSU hitter Krista Altermatt landed on a Hawai'i player and sprained her ankle. After several minutes she was taken off on a stretcher.

NMSU got the next point, but would get no closer, with Houston getting her final two kills and the Aggies missing a serve.

Every Hawai'i hitter had at least 10 kills in a rare show of balance around Houston. The 'Bows came back so many times, NMSU's Amber Simpson was still in a daze after the match.

"We had them on their heels practically the whole stretch," she said. "We lost the (fourth) game, but we had energy when we came back and we weren't able to put them away. They jumped out to a lead again and it's hard to catch them. They come up with a momentum that just builds up from out of nowhere it seems like."

After letting a 20-14 advantage get away in Game 1, Hawai'i drilled the Aggies in the second. It led 25-12 when Jordan was given a red card (point penalty) for arguing while his team self-destructed, starting with the pass. Altermatt had five hitting errors in the game and finished with a negative percentage. Yon hit .104 and Simpson .161 — almost 200 points below her average.

Hawai'i didn't stuff a lot of balls — both teams had 12 blocks — but touched most and funneled almost everything else to Hittle, Otineru (20 digs), Brandt (17 digs) and libero Liz Ka'aihue.

The Aggies, however, were good enough to put the 'Bows in a mid-match funk. For a long stretch UH digs floated over the net and were crushed by NMSU. And just when it looked worst for UH, it found itself again.

The Rainbow Wahine took the early lead in Game 3, with Brandt serving six straight to make it 7-3. This time NMSU found its way back behind its block, Kim Oguh (14 kills) and Simpson (11). Hawai'i's hitting percentage dropped from .351 to .143 from the first game to the second, then plummeted to .020 in Game 3.

"There were all kinds of things going on tactically," Shoji said. "We had trouble stopping their attack when we didn't serve tough. Especially in Game 3 we started serving very tentatively and they just rammed it down our throat. We, on the other hand, just made too many hitting errors to be competitive in that game.

"That's the way volleyball is. There's a lot of momentum changes. I was really proud of our players for hanging in there."

Running on fumes and down 12-10 in Game 4, Hawai'i mounted a desperate rally. It scored six straight, again with Brandt serving and Houston and Hittle attacking. The Aggies caught up at 17-all, but a revitalized Otineru — who had six kills in the game — and Mafua helped Hawai'i hold on and force a fifth game, for the fifth time in the teams' last eight matches.

"It comes down to the passing and siding out," said Oguh, who had just one kill in Game 5. "If you don't get a perfect pass it's hard to run the offense the way we want to."

And when a team creates momentum "out of nowhere," it is even harder.

NOTES

Kamehameha senior setter/libero Tatiana Santiago officially signed with Nevada Thursday and will join Wolf Pack freshman Kylie Harrington, out of St. Francis, next season. Santiago, 5 feet 7, was a four-year starter and team captain as a senior, when the Warriors won their third straight state championship. "Tatiana is one of the best setters I have seen in a long time," Nevada coach Devin Scruggs said. "She knows how to run a fast offense and has the work ethic and game sense to make any hitter better."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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