The University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team was selected by league coaches to win its 14th straight Western Athletic Conference title yesterday.

The Rainbow Wahine received eight of the nine first-place votes with New Mexico State earning the other first-place vote. Hawai'i earned 64 total points followed by New Mexico State with 57. Utah State was picked third with 45 points, followed by Idaho (41), Nevada (37), Fresno State (29), San Jose State (28), Boise State (12) and Louisiana Tech (11).

Hawai'i finished 31-4 last season with a 15-1 WAC record. It also won its ninth straight WAC Tournament title.

Hawai'i opens its season Aug. 28 against Western Michigan in the Rainbow Wahine Invitational. Also in the tournament are UCLA and Santa Clara.

TRACK & FIELD

UH'S WICHMANN WINS BATES AWARD

University of Hawai'i track and field athlete Annett Wichmann was named the 2008-09 Western Athletic Conference Stan Bates Award female recipient.

Utah State men's basketball player Gary Wilkinson won the men's award.

Named in honor of former WAC Commissioner Stan Bates, the annual award is given to the WAC's top male and female scholar-athletes and recognizes the recipients' athletic and academic accomplishments. The awards carry a $2,000 postgraduate scholarship.

Wichmann, from Jena, Germany, completed her degree in kinesiology and rehabilitation science this past spring. She is a four-time academic all-WAC honoree and was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American three times.

Throughout her career at UH, Wichmann was a volunteer instructor at numerous track and field youth clinics and participated annually in the Bryan Clay Kid's Fest.

On the track, Wichmann set a UH record with seven NCAA Championship appearances and broke more than 40 school records. She became the first athlete in WAC history to win the heptathlon four times at the conference championships and won the pentathlon three times. She also medaled in the javelin and high jump.

This past year, Wichmann was the Co-Field Athlete of the Meet at both the WAC Indoor and Outdoor Championships. She was named to All-America teams in both 2008 and 2009.

GOLF

KIM ONE SHOT OFF LEAD AT U.S. AMATEUR

Big Island native Kimberly Kim shot a 2-under-par 69 yesterday and was tied for second, one stroke behind leader Amy Anderson after the first round of stroke play at the U.S. Women's Amateur in St. Louis.

Anderson, 17, of Oxbow, N.D., beat Kim for the U.S. Girls' Junior championship last month in Bedminster, N.J. Kim, a 17-year-old who now lives in Arizona, was tied with Ha Na Jang of South Korea.

The field will be cut to 64 after today's second round of stroke play. Match play begins tomorrow.

Kim had six birdies and four bogeys.

"Today was fun," said Kim in a story at the tournament's Web site. "I played good on a hard course. My ball striking was very good and my putting was good."

Cassy Isagawa, of Wailuku, Maui, shot a 73. Honolulu's Stephanie Kono shot a 76

Kim became the youngest U.S. Women's Amateur winner in 2006 at age 14. She has two runner-up finishes in USGA amateur championship finals this summer — the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links and the U.S. Girls' Junior.

Information from www.uswamateur.org was used in this report.

BASEBALL

MILILANI FALLS IN FINAL OF PONY 13 TOURNEY

Mililani lost to Kyle Chapman, Texas, 9-4, in the final of the P.O.N.Y. Pony 13 World Series last night at Chino Hills, Calif.

Kyle Chapman led 9-0 before Mililani got on the board.

Mililani had the bases loaded in the seventh and final inning, but the final batter struck out.

Mililani finished the tournament with a 4-1 record.

Earlier yesterday, Mililani beat Channahon, Ill., 6-2, and Kyle Chapman beat Bergen Beach, N.Y., 7-3.

TENNIS

7 FROM UH, 9 FROM HPU SCHOLAR ATHLETES

Five women and two men from the University of Hawai'i, and six women and three men from Hawai'i Pacific University were named Intercollegiate Tennis Association Scholar-Athletes. Both HPU squads also earned ITA All-Academic Team honors.

UH senior Sascha Heinemann and junior Andres Weber, who helped the Rainbows to their second straight Western Athletic Conference championship, were honored. Both are business majors from Germany. They were joined by Rainbow Wahine Sophie Kobuch, Daria Lagmay, Ellen Linsenbolz, Anja-Vanessa Peter and Natasha Zorec on the Division I list.

Sea Warriors who earned Scholar-Athlete honors were Anastasiya Manet, Tinka Mihova, Lauren Shin, Aleksandra Stankovic, Zora Vlckova, Sandra Wikstrom, Daniel Luedi, Hendrik Bode and Jonathan Lee.

The HPU men's team finished third at the NCAA DII Nationals, with the women's team advancing to the quarterfinals.

In order to earn ITA Scholar-Athlete status a player must be a varsity letterwinner, have a grade point average of at least 3.5 for the current academic year, and have been enrolled at their present school at least two semesters.

The team honor is open to any ITA program that has a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or above. The HPU men's team was one of 10 DII schools to receive the honor.