Top-ranked Hawaii batted around No. 25 Louisville for the opening minutes of their Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic match last night, before the visiting Cardinals took some swipes at the Wahine's vaunted defense and pride.
Hawaii's 14-5 lead in Game 1 melted like a shave ice on Waikiki Beach against tough-serving Louisville and its two Russian stars. At 14-14, there was nowhere for the Wahine to go but up and rise to the challenge.
Almost faster than one can say "dasvidanya" (goodbye in Russian), Hawaii went on a 32-6 blitz to deflate Louisville, 16-14, 15-2, 15-4, in 81 minutes. It's now "Zdrazdvitye (Hello), Bruins" for the Wahine, who go for their third straight Classic crown against their long-time rival, UCLA.
Hawaii and No. 6 UCLA meet for the 52nd time tonight at 5 p.m., with the Wahine leading the series, 26-25. The Bruins overcame a stubborn Michigan team, 15-8, 15-5, 7-15, 18-16, in yesterday's first match at the Special Events Arena.
Michigan and Louisville open the final day of round-robin competition at 3 p.m. today.
"We'll have no problem getting up for UCLA," said Hawaii senior blocker Angelica Ljungquist, hitting .563 with nine kills and no errors in 16 swings. "It's going to be a fun match."
The Wahine weren't having a whole lot of fun after seeing their 14-5 margin evaporate into a 14-14 tie, helped by five Cardinal aces. Hawaii regained its defensive composure, coming up with several spectacular digs before finishing off the game on its seventh attempt at game-point on an ace by Joselyn Robins.
"That's when we said, 'That's it, we've got to keep the same intensity level we had at the start of Game 1," Ljungquist said. "We played really well until we got to 14 and then they were able to make their comeback because they served really, really tough. We had trouble passing the ball and got frustrated.
"But our coaches gave us a great scouting report and we just went back to our game plan. We knew exactly where (the Cardinals) liked to hit and we knew where to hit against them. The coaches did a great job and we followed what they told us."
The scouting report on Louisville was simple. Big block. Big hitters. Tough, tough serving.
The Cardinals, who had nine aces against UCLA, had five aces in Game 1. They had one the rest of the way.
Russians Marina Sinichenko and Sonia Gubaidulina, who combined for 34 kills in Louisville's upset of UCLA Friday cooled considerably against Hawaii. The pair had a total of 11 kills last night; Gubaidulina hit .048 while Sinichenko was a negative .077.
The Cardinals had one block to the Wahine's 15. Hawaii, sparked by the return of defensive specialist Nalani Yamashita, added to Louisville's frustration with a dig advantage of 41-21.
"I thought we played defense about as good as we could at this point of the year," said Hawaii coach Dave Shoji, whose team outblocked the Cardinals, 15-1, and had a 41-21 advantage in digs. "Our block was outstanding. And it was nice to have Nalani (Yamashita) back. The confidence the team has in her allows everyone to relax a little bit."
Yamashita, hampered by stress fractures in both ankles, sat out Friday's match and hasn't practiced since the team returned from last week's State Farm NACWAA Classic in Illinois.
There was nothing wrong with Yamashita's serving as she helped Hawaii to a 12-0 lead in Game 2 with four straight serves. Louisville got as close as 13-2, before Robins put down one of her eight kills and the Cardinals had a hitting error to end the game.
Yamashita also opened Game 3, serving a run of four points, then held service for another seven in a row as Hawaii ran away to a 14-4 advantage. Ljungquist and Therese Crawford teamed to stuff Sinichenko.
Crawford finished with a team-high 11 kills, committing 3 of Hawaii's 8 hitting errors. Setter Robyn Ah Mow vacuumed up 10 digs.
First-year Louisville coach Leonid Yelin had more to say during the 10-minute break between Games 2 and 3 than after the contest. The Cardinals did not return to the court after the break until time had expired; they received a yellow card for not putting in their starting lineup in time.
"Hawaii played a great match today," said Yelin, the former Soviet Union women's national team coach. "There's nothing much else to say.
"I was not really surprised at how well they blocked. I saw them last week at Illinois. We expected a tough match and were trying to play our game, but it didn't work out. We have to find a way to be where we want to be."
n UCLA 3, Michigan 1: The Bruins hadn't lost a season opener in Andy Banachowski's 30 years of coaching until Friday's loss to Louisville. Last night, UCLA (1-1) took 2 hours and 11 minutes to even its record against the Wolverines (0-2).
"We had our hands full," said Banachowski after defeating his former assistant, Greg Giovanazzi, now coaching Michigan. "I was just hoping our block would get going."
The Bruins wound up with 20 team blocks, including the match-winner on the combined effort of Kara Milling and Tanisha Larking. Michigan had rallied from a 9-5 deficit to take a 15-14 lead and was a point away from forcing Game 5 when junior setter Kim Coleman began to assert herself.
Coleman, getting the nod over Friday's starter, put down a kill then teamed with Kim Krull to block Michigan's Karen Chase for a 16-15 lead. The Wolverines tied it at 16-all on Linsey Ebert's 10th kills only to have the Bruins score two quick points to end the marathon.
Krull finished with 17 kills to lead the Bruins and Milling added 13. Freshman blocker Elisabeth Bachman hit .714 with 10 kills and no errors in 14 swings.
Sarah Jackonson led the Wolverines with 17 kills followed by Chase's 14. Michigan had no blocks in the first two games, finishing with five, and outdug UCLA, 72-64.
Friday: UCLA vs. Louisville, 5:30 p.m.; Hawaii vs. Michigan, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday: UCLA vs. Michigan, 5:30 p.m.; Hawaii vs. Louisville, 7:30 p.m.
Monday: Michigan vs. Louisville, 3 p.m.; Hawaii vs. UCLA, 5 p.m.
Where: Special Events Arena.
Broadcasts: All matches live on KFVE-TV (Channel 5). All Hawaii matches live on KCCN (1420-AM).