Wahine make quick
work of W. Michigan

Therese Crawford puts down
18 kills and her mom treats the
team to home cooking

From staff and wire reports

KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- The pupu course lasted 90 minutes last night.

The University of Hawaii women's volleyball team quickly dispatched its first road opponent of the season, sweeping Western Michigan, 15-3, 17-15, 15-11, at University Arena.

The 17th-ranked Wahine (11-4) then headed off to a late-night dinner provided by Lillian Baker, mother of UH senior co-captain Therese Crawford. The outside hitter, who played at nearby Portage Northern High, didn't disappoint Western Michigan's largest crowd of the year (1,266) as she put down a match-high 18 kills.

"We struggled a little bit and it was pretty typical of an early road trip," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said after his team won its fifth in a row. "Therese and Cia (blocker Goods) had great matches, playing like senior co-captains in leading us to victory.

"But we're still trying to find some consistency in the other hitting spots. Tonight, we didn't learn much."

Hawaii did learn it could play on the road. After a 14-match home stand, the Wahine are playing three matches in three days. They continue the trek with WAC matches in Texas at Southern Methodist today at 2 p.m. and at Texas Christian at 2 p.m. tomorrow. Both matches will be broadcast live on KCCN 1420-AM.

Shoji said today's travel would be particularly tough with an early-morning flight to Chicago and then on to Dallas. Hawaii (3-0 WAC) puts its 38-match regular-season conference winning streak on the line against TCU (2-2) and SMU (2-2); the Wahine have not dropped a league match since November of 1994.

"Our mental attitude is to keep thinking we're on local time," Shoji said. "We didn't play particularly well (last night) and hope that we can play better against TCU and SMU."

In Game 1, Hawaii played as if it couldn't wait to taste Baker's peach cobbler. It took 15 minutes to take care of the Broncos (7-9), whose setter -- Heather Maglessen -- was Crawford's high school teammate.

The Wahine brought along one of their tendencies from home -- a letdown in Game 2 -- but managed to pull it out after nearly a half hour.

Goods finished with 15 kills, hitting .636. Sophomore Jennifer Roberts was in on six of UH's nine team blocks while freshman Jameka Stevens, playing in Game 3, had six kills and hit .417.

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1997 UH Wahine Volleyball Schedule

http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu