ByKathrynBender, Star-Bulletin
Angelica Ljungquist, who was named player of the year today,
will lead the Wahine against Florida tomorrow.

The four best teams in the country start jamming with the 1 p.m. HST semifinal between Hawaii (34-2) and top-ranked Florida (37-1). Following is the second semifinal between Stanford (29-2) and defending national champion Nebraska (30-3).

All four were the top seeds in their respective regionals and it's a jump serve as to who had the toughest road here. Hawaii beat a very good Texas team in the regional semifinal before steamrolling over BYU.

Florida eked out a five-set semifinal victory over Ohio State, then came from behind to eliminate Michigan State in four. Nebraska swept past Louisville in its semifinal but had to rally against Penn State, winning rally scoring Game 5, 20-18.

And top-seeded Stanford, the team with the most final four appearances (10 since 1982), finished off Pacific-10 rivals Southern Cal and Washington in straight sets. The regional victory over the Cougars avenged the Cardinal's only conference loss of the year, a defeat that snapped Stanford's 33-match winning streak in the Pac-10.

Hawaii has played all three other semifinalists this season, opening the year with wins over Florida and Nebraska, then losing its No. 1-ranking after the Nov. 2 defeat to Stanford. "But when you get to this point in the season, you can't go on what's happened earlier," said Wahine coach Dave Shoji, seeking his fifth national title. "Anything can happen on any given night."

Getting here was half the battle. Now the war to keep the season alive begins.

A look at the match-ups:

Florida's Mary Wise is the only coach here without a national title but, despite losing five starters from last year's team, has another shot at a banner. The biggest factors in the Gators' success have been the dominating play of 6-foot-2 blocker Nina Foster, a junior transfer from Alabama, and junior hitter Aurymar Rodriguez, who had 22 kills in the loss to Hawaii.

Shoji is almost as hungry for another title as his five seniors, who have gone 65-3 the past two seasons.

The Wahine had part of their burden lifted when they exorcised the regional jinx last weekend with an impressive win over BYU.

Still, just being here is not enough for a program that used to make the final four part of its schedule. There won't be 10,000 fans to warm the Wahine here but the pressure to bring a championship home for their faithful is just as great.

Hawaii's left-side hitters, Therese Crawford and Joselyn Robins, need to continue their hot hitting, and junior blocker Cia Goods needs to come up with the same kind of effort she had against the Cougars.

Middle blocker Angelica Ljungquist did not have a great night hitting against BYU (nine kills), but she more than made up for it with her imposing presence at the net (seven blocks).

Keys: Florida's block needs to find a way to slow down and frustrate Hawaii's outside hitters. Hawaii needs to pass as well as it did against BYU, frustrate the Gator hitters with relentless defense, and get off to a quick start.

Pick: Hawaii in three.

Texas coach Mick Haley perhaps said it best after the regional loss to Hawaii.

"I wouldn't want to play Stanford anytime during the tournament except in the final four," said Haley, who takes over as the U.S. national women's team coach next year.

That was Haley's polite way of saying the Cardinal begins to grab at its throat when getting this far. Stanford made it to the final four six consecutive years between 1982 and '87 without ever winning a title, finishing second three times, third twice and fourth once. The Cardinal broke the chain with championships in 1992 and '94. Its title run last year ended with a heartbreaking 3-2 loss in the national semifinal against Texas.

Nebraska finally broke through last season, beating Texas in only the second championship match ever without a California team. The first was 1988, when the Longhorns swept the Wahine.

Fiona Nepo, Nebraska's back-up setter last year as a freshman from Hawaii, has brought the Cornhuskers back farther than many expected. Their advantage is that their last final four memory is a good one.

If Stanford blocks as well as it did against Hawaii, and freshman Kerri Walsh has as much success hitting from the back row, the Cardinal is the easy favorite. But Nebraska got outblocked and outhit by Penn State last weekend and still managed to find a way to win.

Keys: Stanford has to pass well or the Cardinal will be in trouble. For Nebraska, junior hitter Lisa Reitsma has to take control of the net and Nepo has to continue to run a balanced attack.

Pick: Nebraska in four.

CLEVELAND - Who else could it possibly have been?

Senior blocker Angelica Ljungquist was named the NCAA Player of the Year today, the first time a Hawaii women's volleyball player had earned the top national honor since 1989. Ljungquist joins former All-American Teee Williams, who was the co-player of the year in 1989 and solo award winner in 1987, the year of Hawaii's last national championship.

Ljungquist was the preseason favorite for the top award but didn't rest on the hype. She finished the regular season as the only player in the country to be ranked in the top three in two statistical categories: No. 1 in blocking and No. 3 in hitting percentage.

The Western Athletic Conference Pacific Division Player of the Year also became the first four-time All-American for the Wahine, making the first team for the second straight year after two second-team placings.

Also named to the All-American first team for the second consecutive season was Wahine senior setter Robyn Ah Mow.

"We thought Angelica would get it but sometimes you just don't know how the voting will go," said Hawaii coach Dave Shoji. "I can't imagine anyone else having a better year. If someone else got it, it meant there was someone out there that we didn't know about."

"Robyn's (assist) numbers were down this season, but people had to know how important she was to our team. But it's never a given."

Also named to the first team today were: Nebraska's Fiona Nepo, from Honolulu, and Lisa Reitsma; Stanford's Lisa Sharpley and Kerri Walsh, a freshman; Penn State's Terri Zemaitis; Ohio State's Vanessa Wouters; Washington State's Sarah Silvernail; Washington's Angela Branson; Minnesota's Ketrien DeDecker, and Michigan State's Val Sterk.