Sports Update
By Star-Bulletin Staff
Saturday, March 1, 1997
Unfortunately for the veteran head baseball coach, that didn't prove to be the case in last night's 12-9 defeat to San Jose State at chilly Municipal Stadium.
The loss dropped Hawaii to 5-15 overall and 0-1 in the first Western Athletic Conference game of the season for the Rainbows. San Jose State is 3-1 in West Division play and 13-5 overall.
Because of bad weather predicted to hit the Bay Area tomorrow, the two teams were scheduled to play a doubleheader Saturday.
When Goo tried to get into his hotel room Wednesday night in Denver, the door opened and the Wahine coach was looking into the barrel of a gun.
"I told the guy, 'Sorry, guess I have the wrong room,'" said Goo. "Then I ran down the hall."
Goo survived the scare, just as his Wahine survived their outing last night at The Pit. Hawaii finished off the regular WAC season with a 53-44 win over New Mexico, snapping a three-game losing streak.
The Wahine (19-7, 12-4), the Pacific Division's third seed, open the WAC Tournament at 10:30 a.m. Monday against the Mountain's No. 6, Texas Christian (13-13, 7-9).
"I'm really proud of our team," said Goo, who finally got his 198th career win after three failed tries. "The Pit is a tough place to play. They had nearly 9,000 tonight (8,893) and it was loud. I told our ladies to think that their crowd was saying, 'Let's go, go 'Bows' and not 'Let's go, Lobos.'
Friday night, Hawaii coach Mike Wilton shook up his lineup in the hope of finding some heart. The Rainbows found another defeat, going down to UCLA, 15-12, 15-12, 15-11, but may have found a new setter and new middle blocker.
"Believe it or not, there's a silver lining to this loss," said Wilton, whose team fell to 7-6 overall and 5-5 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. "I got sick and tired of the lackadaisical attitudes of some of our players. I was very concerned about our gut skills. I told them I would not hesitate to make some changes if I perceived I needed someone else in there to do the job.
"At 2-8 in Game 1, that time arrived."
Out came senior setter Curt Vaughan, in went junior Kahinu Lee. Junior blocker Rick Tune took a seat, replaced by senior Gavin Cook.
Hawaii rallied to tie it at 12-12 only to see UCLA score three quick points, two on Rainbow errors. It was a pattern that was repeated in Games 2 and 3, with Hawaii falling behind early, catching up in the middle then falling short at the end.
"Hopefully, we can build on the good things we did tonight," said Wilton, whose team takes on UC Irvine Saturday.