Wahine fall short against Cardinal After its lopsided loss to Stanford in last year's NCAA final, Hawaii keeps it close this time
By Cindy Luis
Star-Bulletin
PALO ALTO, Calif. - It was Senior Night at Maples Pavilion. And Fan Appreciation Night, too. Also, Stanford All-Americans Kristin Folkl and Lisa Sharpley were poised to make their moves on the Cardinal career lists, Folkl to No. 2 in kills and Sharpley to No. 2 in assists. Plus, the Stanford men's volleyball team received the NCAA championship rings it won last May.
There were plenty of distractions for third-ranked Stanford last night. But none was greater than the effort by No. 14 Hawaii, which played better than many expected, and certainly much better than when the teams last met 11 months ago in the NCAA title match.
Hawaii coach Dave Shoji warned Stanford counterpart Don Shaw before the opening serve that there would be a few surprises. More surprising than UH's ability to stay in the match was that it did it without senior co-captain Therese Crawford.
The all-Western Athletic Conference hitter missed only the second match of her career, playing the unexpected role of cheerleader as her team fell, 15-8, 10-15, 15-10, 15-3.
"It was not a punishment," said Shoji, who replaced Crawford with junior Kelli Cordray. "Kelli worked harder in practice, deserved to start and played well enough to remain in the game."
"He's the coach and I respect his decision," said Crawford, who was told just before the match that she wouldn't start. "I don't want to say anything that would take anything away from my teammates' performance or the great game Kelli had tonight."
Cordray responded to the rare start with a career-high 19 kills. Freshman hitter Jessica Sudduth tied her high with 15 kills and added 23 digs.
Crawford never took off her warm-up outfit. She and the crowd of 3,231 watched a Wahine team that has made great strides since its 71-minute shellacking at Long Beach State three weeks ago.
"I think everyone was a lot more comfortable out there and more confident than we were at Long Beach," said Hawaii senior blocker Cia Goods, who finished with 13 kills and eight blocks. "It's not that we physically can't compete, but mentally we don't believe in ourselves. Once we start realizing that we can play, too, like we did in Game 2, and a couple of things go our way, then we're OK.
"Our problem is we play well in the middle of the match. What we have to do is come out strong and finish strong."
That's the attitude Hawaii hopes to take into the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas this week. The Wahine (23-6) play the winner of today's match between Utah and Southern Methodist in tomorrow's second-round match at 1 p.m. HST.
Shoji said he didn't expect to change his lineup for tomorrow's match, saying "Therese has to show she wants to play. We need her and no doubt we could use her. We're a better team when she's on and playing hard."
Without Crawford, UH's best wasn't good enough. But the effort gave Stanford some anxious moments before extending its its winning streak to 23.
UH did what only four other teams have done this season - win a game from Stanford. Not since a 3-1 loss to Penn State on Sept. 6 had the Cardinal dropped Game 2.
Hawaii led in Game 3, 8-6, before being outscored, 9-2. The Wahine closed to 10-11, but three hitting errors ended the threat.
About the time the P.A. announcer figured out how to pronounce "Wahine," the Cardinal figured out Hawaii's offense. Game 4 took less than 15 minutes as the Stanford seniors ran their four-year record to 61-1 at home and 120-7 overall.
"I'm not surprised how well Hawaii played," said Folkl, who led her team with 26 kills. "Hawaii always has a strong program, and anytime you play them, you expect great defense, solid offense and excellent blocking.
"When it was 11-10 in Game 3, I think we started concentrating on what we were doing on our side and quit worrying about what they were doing."
"I told the team I'm proud of their efforts, but the bottom line is we lost the match," Shoji said. "We were in the match, could have won Games 1 and 3, but we didn't. I'm happy we competed hard, but on paper it still shows up as a loss.
"People questioned why I scheduled this match. I was looking forward to it. I was upset the way we played at Long Beach and knew we were a better team than we showed down there. I wanted redemption for this team and I think we partially got some tonight. I don't think Stanford respected us, but they learned they had to start playing if they were going to beat us."
"We were obviously on an emotional roller coaster tonight with our five seniors," Shaw said. "But give Hawaii credit, they played very, very well. If they had played last December like they did in stretches tonight, it would have been a different match."
At Palo Alto, Calif
Stanford def. Hawaii, 15-8, 10-15, 15-10, 15-3
Wahine (23-6 overall)
g k e at pct. bs ba dGoods 4 13 4 29 .310 0 8 3
Cordray 4 19 7 47 .255 0 3 9
Sudduth 4 15 9 52 .115 0 3 23
Hubbert 4 2 1 8 .125 1 3 10
Miyashiro 4 0 0 2 .000 0 0 7
Illustre 4 8 2 18 .333 1 0 10
Karratti 4 2 1 7 .143 0 1 2
Elkington 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1
Stevens 1 1 2 5 -.200 0 0 1
Roberts 4 11 3 27 .296 1 2 2
Lee 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 3
Totals 4 72 29 195 .215 3 20 71
g k e at pct. bs ba dKey: g-games. k-kills. e-hitting errors. at-attempts. pct.-hitting percentage. bs-block solos. ba-block assists. d-digs.Sharpley 4 1 2 7 -.143 1 0 11
McNamee 4 14 3 28 .393 1 7 0
Ifejika 4 10 3 29 .241 0 4 15
Walsh 4 11 3 25 .320 2 6 12
Lambert 2 4 3 10 .100 0 1 4
Folkl 4 26 7 67 .284 0 3 15
Clark 2 4 3 10 .100 1 1 1
Gregory 4 4 0 7 .571 0 0 12
Kagawa 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0
Neal 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10
Detmer 1 2 2 7 .000 0 0 0
Totals 4 76 26 190 .263 5 22 80
Service Aces-UH (3): Hubbert 1, Karratti 1, Miyashiro 1. SU (2): Gregory 1, Sharpley 1.
Assists-UH (69): Hubbert 60, Illustre 3, Sudduth 3, Cordray 2, Karratti 1. SU (71): Sharpley 65, Ifejika 3, Walsh 3.
A-3,231. T-2:06. Officials: Max Kernaghan, Mickey Matthews
