Photos By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
When the last point was scored, above, Hawaii players celebrated
like mad. They had earned their rematch with BYU.
For the fifth time in six seasons, the University of Hawaii women's volleyball team is a snowball's throw away from the final four.
This time, the target is Cleveland.
This time, the opponent is Brigham Young.
Tonight's outcome will either send the fifth-ranked Wahine on its final road trip of the season or send them into the ignominious ranks of great teams that never were. With last night's 15-13, 13-15, 15-13, 15-2 semifinal victory over Texas, Hawaii's senior class is 64-3 over the past 16 months.
It has two perfect conference seasons to show for its effort, going 18-0 in the Big West in 1995, 16-0 in the WAC this year. The team has proven it can win.
Tonight, the Wahine must prove they can win the big one. That will have to come in an all-WAC Mountain Regional final against the hottest team in the country, a team that stunned Hawaii less than two weeks ago.
On a night that proved deadly for teams wearing orange, No. 19 Brigham Young held on against 12th-ranked Pacific, 15-7, 8-15, 15-4, 13-15, 15-13, in the earlier semifinal. It was the 25th consecutive win for the Cougars (27-6), who are looking to make it back to the final four for the first time since 1993.
It has been a longer drought for Hawaii, which won three NCAA championships in a span of six years (1982-87). The Wahine were last in title contention in 1988, where they lost to Texas.
"It's going to be a heck of a match," said Texas coach Mick Haley, whose team's season ended at 23-7. "Hawaii's going to have to play to win, not play it safe. BYU's block is as good as you're going to get.
Last night against the Longhorns, the Wahine didn't find their comfort level until the last 19 minutes of the 2-hour and 6-minute match. Suddenly, the 9,070 in the arena saw a too-close-for-comfort match turn into a blowout on the serving of Therese Crawford and the digs of Nalani Yamashita.
All night long, both teams had been able to sprint out to a substantial lead only to have the other catch up. For the Wahine, their Game 1 margin of 13-7 turned to 13-12; it went from 13-5 to 14-13 in Game 3.
For the Longhorns, they led Game 2, 14-10, before Hawaii closed to 14-13. Six points separated the winner from the loser until the Wahine got on a roll in Game 4.
At 8-2, Crawford served for six straight points, including an ace. Yamashita hydroplaned for three momentum-snuffing digs during the run, frustrating what had been a very effective attack by Longhorn hitters Demetria Sance and Sarah Butler.
"Our defense in the fourth game was certainly the difference," said Hawaii coach Dave Shoji. "They had been hitting cross-court all night. We made a little bit of an adjustment and Nalani came up with some big digs. I can't say enough about her.
"We were hoping that Sance would get tired. After Game 2, she had 14 kills and 1 error, and was hitting 65 percent. We talked about holding her to 20 kills."
Sance, the national Freshman of the Year last season, finished with 20 kills. The player Yamashita said was the hardest hitter she'd faced put down just one kill in Game 4.
"It's always frustrating when the other team digs balls," said Sance, who had 16 digs of her own.
Joselyn Robins, still slowed by a hip pointer, reappeared in Game 4 to help dismantle the Longhorns. She had three of her 18 kills and Crawford had three of her 19 to thwart the Texas block at the end.
Hawaii ended up winning the blocking war, 14-13. Cia Goods had seven block assists to go with 13 kills and Angelica Ljungquist had six block assists in addition to 19 kills.
Longhorn freshman Butler was the only other Texas player in double-kill figures with 19.
"When you're on the road against a potential avalanche, you have to put up as many barriers as you can so that snowball doesn't get rolling," said Haley. "We lost our focus on our serve-receive in the fourth game, but you have to give Hawaii credit for that. They were serving bullets late in the match.
"We were able to fight our way out of the fog in Game 3 but you can't play from behind like we did all night and expect to win."
Now all that stands in the way of Hawaii and Cleveland is BYU.
"I didn't really care who won between Pacific and BYU, but now I'm really excited about playing BYU," said Crawford. "Our goal all along has been to go to the final four and now it's a game away."
"Our seniors want to go to the final four but so does the whole team," said Goods, a junior. "We're not going to play for the seniors but play for each other."
Win or lose, tonight will be the final home match for Hawaii seniors Ljungquist, Robins, Yamashita, Chastity Nobriga and Robyn Ah Mow.
"I'm happy for the WAC," said Shoji. "I don't need to win this game because people here don't like BYU. We need to win this game for us. If we don't, I'm going to wish BYU all the luck in the world and hope they win the final four.
"I really didn't understand why our fans got behind UOP (in the first semifinal). UOP has been our rival for so long. I think the team I hate more is Long Beach State."
The 49ers, who knocked the Wahine out of the regional five times since 1988, were eliminated last night by Michigan State, 3-1. The Spartans will play host Florida, a 3-2 winner over Ohio State, in the Central Regional final tonight.
Shoji's only complaint was having to put his team back out on the court after less than 20 hours of rest.
"One thing we need to look at is a day between matches in the regional," said Shoji. "Right now, you have both teams scrambling for film and players won't get the information they need to be as well prepared as they could.
"You can't expect these kids to play that hard two nights in a row. The quality of play will not be as good as it was tonight."
What Women's volleyball
Special Events Arena ticket office.
Single-session tickets, if available, $8 and $10.
Hawaii def. Texas, 15-13, 13-15, 15-13, 15-2
Longhorns (23-7)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Sance 4 20 4 37 .432 1 1 16 Steffkova 4 1 0 6 .167 0 4 11 Winkel 4 2 1 11 .091 0 4 8 Butler 4 19 8 48 .229 0 3 6 Davis 4 4 5 18 -.056 0 3 4 Chrisman 4 0 1 2 -.500 0 0 1 Barnes 4 8 4 27 .148 0 8 2 Austin 3 1 0 4 .250 0 1 0 Klaus 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 4 55 23 153 .209 1 24 48
Wahine (33-3 overall)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Crawford 4 19 6 37 .351 1 2 16 Goods 4 13 4 29 .310 0 7 1 Yamashita 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Nobriga 4 2 3 12 -.083 0 3 10 Ljungquist 4 19 6 37 .351 0 6 7 Lee 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Ah Mow 4 5 2 9 .333 0 5 11 Robins 4 18 11 48 .146 0 3 6 Ilustre 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 4 76 32 172 .256 1 26 62Key: g-games. k-kills. e-hitting errors. at-attempts. pct.-hitting percentage. bs-block solos. ba-block assists. d-digs.
Aces-UH (6): Yamashita 2, Ljungquist 2, Crawford 1, Ah Mow 1. UT (4): Steffkova 2, Winkel 2. Assists-UH (67): Ah Mow 58, Nobriga 7, Crawford 1, Robins 1. UT (48): Steffkova 47, Chrismas 1.
A-9,793 tickets issued (9070 turnstile). T-2:06. Officials: Ann Fruechte, Marty Prochko.