Sports Update
Rainbows athletic director Hugh Yoshida and head coach Fred vonAppen met with the student conduct and welfare committee yesterday to view a snippet of KHNL-TV videotape that shows Jacobs throwing at least one punch at a man near the bottom of a pile of people during the fourth quarter of last week's Hawaii-Brigham Young University football game.
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Hugh Yoshida: “We don’t condone this type of thing. This has been an embarrassment to our program, locally and nationally.” | |
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Following the guidelines in the student-athlete handbook, the committee recommended to Yoshida that vonAppen take the appropriate disciplinary action.
He and Yoshida will meet Monday morning to determine what punishment Freitas and Jacobs will face for breaking team rules.
Freitas will be punished for leaving the field to see about his family after the police unleashed a cloud of pepper spray in section MM to help break up the fight. Jacobs, who is already on probation for his part in a fight last month, faces sanctions for being involved in an altercation.
Both are considered minor violations, meaning Freitas probably won't start in next Saturday's game with Wisconsin, but will be allowed to play in his final game and take part in the senior walk.
Because Jacobs is a transfer from Stanford University and is not eligible to play this year, his punishment isn't quite as clear-cut. The good news for him is, he won't face expulsion from school.
"We don't condone this type of thing," Yoshida said. "This has been an embarrassment to our program, locally and nationally.
"We will work with Aloha Stadium and the Honolulu Police Department to make sure we provide a safe atmosphere for our fans. I'll be meeting with Coach vonAppen on Monday to see what kind of punishment will take place."
Jacobs said yesterday he saw the short piece of videotape on Thursday, but told UH officials that he only was trying to get away.
Fortunately for him, the athletic advisory board agreed, clearing the way for Yoshida to finally resolve the week-long matter.
Police reports indicate that Freitas contributed to the fight by motioning to his family to take care of a heckler, who had been yelling at him during the game. Freitas told UH officials that wasn't true, and that he only wanted to know where they would be after the game.
Chasing the leaders at 10-4 were Hawaiian-born yokozuna (grand champion) Akebono, ozeki Takanonami and sekiwake (junior champion) Kaio.
Tomorrow, Musashimaru takes on Takanonami, while Wakanohana fights Akebono.
If both Musashimaru and Wakanohana win their fights, a sudden-death playoff will decide the winner of the tournament.
In today's action, Musashimaru, or Fiamalu Penitani, moved in quickly for a better belt-hold on Akebono, or Chad Rowan, shoved him off balance and pulled him down.
Musashimaru is in contention for his second tournament victory. He last won in July in 1994.
Akebono, who has knee problems, is seeking his first victory since winning an eighth title in March 1995.
Wakanohana, after wrestling evenly for a while against sekiwake (junior champion) Kotonishiki, burried his head in his foe's chest and twisted him down. Kotonishiki slipped to 8-6.
Wakanohana, brother of yokozuna Takanohana, is seeking his third tournament victory.
Takanonami backpedaled to the edge where he tripped up Kaio, leaving both wrestlers at 10-4.
No. 1-ranked juryo wrestler Yamato, or American George Kalima, wrestled in the top makuuchi division, forcing out No. 14 maegashira (senior wrestler) Naminohana (5-9) to improve his mark to 10-4.
No. 8 juryo wrestler Sunahama, or Hawaii's William Hopkins, pushed out 5th-ranked Tomonohana (5-9) for his sixth win against eighth defeats.
The University of Hawaii women's volleyball team can finish the WAC regular-season unbeaten tonight with a win over Fresno State.
Perfection would give the No. 3 Wahine the distinction of going through two regular seasons without a loss in two different conferences.
Hawaii finished its last Big West season last year with an 18-0 mark. The Wahine (28-1) would like nothing better than to take a 16-0 league record into next week's inaugural Western Athletic Conference Tournament in Las Vegas.
Last night, Hawaii took its final step to clinch the top seed in the tournament with a 15-1, 15-7, 15-7 victory over San San Jose State. Led by Angelica Ljungquist's 14 kills and .684 hitting, it took just 65 minutes for the Wahine to dispose of the Spartans (10-18, 5-10).
"I don't think the game was ever in doubt, at least in our minds," said Wahine hitter Therese Crawford, the only other Wahine in double kill figures with 12. "We came in with the mind-set that we wanted to take care of business. We knew if we played to our potential that we'd be the better team.
"We have to take care of Saturday, then it's playoff time. We want to go into the tournament feeling like we're playing well."
Hawaii couldn't have played any better than it did in the 14-minute Game 1. The Wahine hit .500 as a team, with Ljungquist, Crawford and Joselyn Robins all but untouchable.
"We played pretty well," said Hawaii coach Dave Shoji. "Whenever you win so easily in the beginning, you have a tendency to let down. We did but we still got a win on the road, which can be tough to do sometimes.
"Neither team had a lot to play for but our team has a different goal than they do. We want to win the NCAAs and we want to improve every night so that we can do so."
The Spartans, without their leading blocker and second-leading hitter, Melissa Myers (ankle sprain), will be seeded 11th in the 12-team field next week. San Jose State, which got seven kills from Brooke Jones, finishes the regular-season tonight by hosting San Diego State.
The Aztecs swept Fresno State, 15-4, 16-14, 15-12, Thursday.
Shoji said he was concerned facing the Bulldogs.
"It's a tough place to play," said Shoji, whose team has won its last 34 league road matches. "They have some quality players and, if they get on a roll, they'll be tough.
"What we want to do is what we did tonight. We looked at different passing formations and substitution patterns. I left the starters in longer. They have to be able to do that because there's not going to be any short games in the playoffs."
Wahine (28-1 overall, 15-0 WAC)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Crawford 3 12 4 24 .333 0 1 5 Yamashita 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 6 Nobriga 2 2 0 3 .667 0 4 3 Ljungquist 3 14 1 19 .684 1 5 8 Ah Mow 3 1 1 4 .000 0 2 1 Robins 2 9 1 12 .667 0 0 7 Goods 3 5 0 9 .556 1 3 1 Cordray 2 3 1 7 .286 0 0 4 Lee 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Ilustre 2 2 1 3 .333 0 1 4 Totals 3 48 9 81 .481 2 16 39
San Jose State (10-18, 5-10)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Jones 3 7 3 22 .182 0 0 6 Froloff 3 6 3 18 .167 0 1 3 Clark 3 3 3 11 .000 0 2 0 Sarkees 3 3 0 5 .600 0 0 0 Walker 3 6 7 30 -.033 0 0 1 Sylvas 3 2 2 13 .000 0 1 4 Nelson 3 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 2 Burningham 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 3 28 18 100 .100 0 4 16Key: g-games. k-kills. e-hitting errors. at-attempts. pct.-hitting percentage. bs-block solos. ba-block assists. d-digs.
Aces-UH (4): Crawford 1, Ljungquist 1, Ah Mow 1, Ilustre 1. SJSU (3): Jones 2, Sarkees 1. Assists-UH (45): Ah Mow 42, Nobriga 1, Cordray 1, Ilustre 1. SJSU (26): Sarkees 21, Jones 2, Walker 1, Sylvas 1, Nelson 1. A-455. T-1:05. Officials: Ken Taylor, Michael Yoshikawa.