Former University of Hawai'i volleyball star Kim Willoughby faced the music in Circuit Court yesterday, drawing a five-year probation sentence after pleading no contest to assaulting a woman at a Honolulu nightclub in December 2006.

The plea and sentence were part of an agreement reached by Willoughby with prosecutors after she was indicted last year on a more serious assault charge that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years behind bars.

Circuit Judge Karen Ahn accepted the plea deal and will sentence Willoughby, 28, in July.

Willoughby was a member of the silver-medal-winning U.S. volleyball team at the Beijing Olympics. More recently she has been playing professionally in Italy, and the Italian Olympic Committee announced last month that drug tests revealed Willoughby had tested positive for steroid use.

No mention of that finding was made in court yesterday.

Deputy Prosecutor Sherri Chun said Willoughby was involved in an "altercation" inside the Pipeline Cafe with a friend of the victim.

When the victim, Sara Daniel, tried to intervene, Willoughby "pushed her in the face, knocking her down," then followed the victim outside and punched her "several times" in the face, breaking a nasal bone and an eye socket, according to Chun.

Willoughby has agreed to pay Daniel's medical bills, said Chun.

The victim agreed to the terms of the plea agreement, according to the prosecutor.

Willoughby had no comment when she left court.

At the request of defense attorney Richard Hoke, Ahn gave Willoughby permission to return to her home in Louisiana to be with her father, who is seriously ill.

Hoke had no comment after leaving court.

Willoughby was charged in a domestic abuse case here in 2001, eventually entering deferred guilty pleas to one count of abuse of a household member and one third-degree assault count.

Both charges are misdemeanors.

After completing court-ordered community service and writing a letter of apology to the victim in that case, the charges against her in the 2001 case were dismissed.