Wahine hang on
against Rebels
UH gets back on track after
By Cindy Luis
losing to Long Beach State
Star-BulletinLAS VEGAS -- The roller coaster across from their hotel is nothing compared to the wild ride the University of Hawaii women's volleyball team experienced over the weekend. Less than 24 hours after suffering the worst straight-set loss in the program's history, the No. 14 Wahine encountered some sharp and unexpected curves yesterday afternoon.
UNLV provided some bumpy tracks at the end of Hawaii's five-day mainland trip before UH was able to prevail, 15-2, 8-15, 15-8, 15-9, in a nonconference match.
It was the first time the Lady Rebels won a game against the Wahine in the two years former Hawaii All-American Deitre Collins has coached the team. In each of the previous three meetings, UNLV didn't score more than 20 points against the Wahine.
"It was tough to get back up for this game," Hawaii senior hitter Therese Crawford said after her match-high 20 kills "We went to another level in the beginning against Long Beach State (Saturday). If we had done that here, we would have completely dominated UNLV.
"We were up in the beginning and then we got on the roller coaster. I had flashbacks (to Saturday) and those were pretty bad."
No. 2 Long Beach State ended the Wahine's 12-match winning streak in a quick 74 minutes Saturday at the sold-out Pyramid -- 15-8, 15-5, 15-0. It was the Wahine's lowest offensive output ever -- the previous low was 16 points against Stanford in last year's NCAA final -- and it was only the second time they had been shut out in a set. The other blanking came against UCLA in the 1988 Wahine Classic.
"I think we've learned from these last two matches," said Hawaii senior blocker Cia Goods, who had 13 kills and eight blocks. "Actually, it's the same lesson. We've got to come out and play hard the whole game."
The Wahine played as if they had a plane to catch, streaking to a 13-0 lead before UNLV got on the board. It took just 16 minutes, including two Rebel timeouts, for Hawaii to mount that lead.
UH coach Dave Shoji replaced starters Crawford and Jessica Sudduth with Kelli Cordray and Jameka Stevens. Those changes seemed to work in UNLV's favor, and it rode the hot hitting of Staci Smith -- she put down all six of her attempts -- to pull away in Game 2.
That silenced the pro-Hawaii crowd that packed Lied Gym. But the scare jump-started the Wahine's offense, and they quickly took leads of 9-1 and 14-5 in Game 3.
The Rebels closed to 14-8 before Heidi Ilustre notched game ball for the victory. But it was far from over.
Game 4 saw Hawaii again pull away early at 8-3 and 10-5. UNLV rallied behind the serves of Meri-de Boyer to close to 10-9. But Crawford crushed a set from Nikki Hubbert for a sideout.
The Rebels never recovered. Hubbert served the last five points of the match, with Ilustre recording her 11th kill to end it after 1 hour and 57 minutes.
"It's not often that an unranked team gets a game off Hawaii and I was happy about that," said Collins, whose team picked up its first WAC victory in nine tries last Thursday against Air Force. "What meant a lot to me was that Dave (Shoji) had to go back to his starters in Game 3 to beat us. It means we're coming along.
"After the loss (to Long Beach), we knew Hawaii wasn't going to come in here, lay down and give us the match. We played hard and we played well. He couldn't just sub anybody in and still beat us like he has (in the past). We made a run and we shut their fans up."
Said Shoji: "I thought UNLV competed awfully well and I've got to give them credit for being aggressive. It did cross my mind that we could go to a fifth game, and when you're favored, you don't want to do that.
"I'm glad we played this match. I told the team it would have been worse to leave right after Long Beach and have the trip back home to think about it. We knew we'd have trouble getting up for this game and didn't have much time to prepare of UNLV."
At Las Vegas Box Score
Hawaii def. UNLV, 15-2, 8-15, 15-8, 15-9
Hawaii (19-5 overall, 10-0 BWC)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Goods 4 13 2 24 .458 0 8 6 Cordray 2 5 5 12 .000 0 2 4 Sudduth 4 14 4 22 .455 0 2 8 Hubbert 4 0 1 1 -1.00 0 2 11 Miyashiro 4 0 0 2 .000 0 0 5 Ilustre 4 11 1 17 .588 0 6 9 Crawford 4 20 6 47 .298 1 1 3 Karratti 1 5 0 6 .833 0 3 8 Nihipali 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Elkington 4 1 0 4 .250 0 1 3 Stevens 1 1 2 8 -.125 0 1 0 Roberts 4 5 2 14 .214 0 8 0 Totals 4 75 23 157 .331 1 34 59
g k e at pct. bs ba d Smith 4 18 7 34 .324 0 5 5 Kamelamela 4 11 6 39 .128 0 1 10 Boyer 4 4 7 15 -.200 0 3 7 Goyet 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Peoples 4 8 5 19 .158 0 8 4 Ramos 4 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 5 Lyttle 4 13 6 36 .194 0 0 2 Wilkinson 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 7 Enfield 4 0 1 1 -1.00 0 0 2 Eves 4 6 7 26 -.038 0 1 7 Totals 4 61 39 171 .129 0 18 49Key: g-games. k-kills. e-hitting errors. at-attempts. pct.-hitting percentage. bs-block solos. ba-block assists. d-digs.Service Aces--UH (3): Hubbert 2, Sudduth 1. UNLV (6): Boyer 1, Eves 1, Kamelamela 1, Lyttle 1, Ramos 1, Smith 1.
Assists--UH (66): Hubbert 63, Crawford 1, Goods 1, Karratti 1. UNLV (55): Boyer 40, Ramos 13, Lyttle 1, Peoples 1.
A--513. T--1:57. Officials: Tana Martin and Helen McAnany.
1997 UH Wahine Volleyball Schedule
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
