Wahine shocked by
NCAA draw

UH will face Loyola Marymount
on the road in the opener

By Cindy Luis
Star-Bulletin

In a word, unbelievable.

Northern Illinois vs. Villanova; Clemson vs. Central Florida; Houston vs. Oklahoma; and No. 15 Hawaii vs. No. 21 Loyola Marymount.

Those are the first-round matches between the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds in this week's NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament. Along with being told it was the 34th-best team in the country -- as of yesterday -- Hawaii will go to Long Beach State for the mini-regional.

Long Beach State. Where Hawaii's season has gone to die in 1993 and 1994.

Long Beach State. A team that has ended Hawaii's final four hopes six times in seven years, starting in 1989.

Long Beach State. A team that handed Hawaii its worst-ever defeat just 31 days ago.

That's what the Wahine have to look forward to -- IF they can beat Loyola Marymount in Friday's first-round match at The Pyramid. If any team got a worse draw yesterday than Hawaii, Wahine coach Dave Shoji was hard-pressed to find it on the bracket sheet.

"I don't know if we could have gotten a worse draw," a visibly stunned Shoji said yesterday afternoon. "I'd like to trade places with a lot of teams right now. But what's done is done and we've just got to get back in the gym and prepare. We have no recourse.

"I am very surprised that we aren't hosting. Seeing some of the teams that are hosting . . . well, I'm surprised we weren't chosen. It's just hard to believe we're a No. 8 seed in a region. I'm thinking we're a top-16 team (nationally) and now the committee is telling us we're 34th. It's ridiculous."

The last time UH opened NCAA postseason play on the road was 1984 when, as the two-time defending national champion, it was sent to Oregon. With the exception of 1992, the only year it didn't qualify for the tournament, Hawaii has hosted playoff matches every year since 1985.

Six teams from the Big Ten and the Pac-10 and five from the Big 12 were selected. The Western Athletic Conference, which had hoped for six, got three.

Few teams got shipped out of their geographic regions, with the Pacific (eight ranked teams) and the Mountain (seven) clearly the strongest. No. 12 Washington State, which is hosting the final four, was moved to the Central, and WAC champion BYU is in the East, although the Cougars will host the mini-regional this week.

The Pacific and Mountain winners will fight it out in the NCAA semifinals, virtually guaranteeing that only one West Coast school will play for the championship.

Long Beach State coach Brian Gimmillaro stopped short of calling the selections blatantly political.

"The committee got what it wanted," said Gimmillaro, whose top-ranked team was seeded second overall. "They wanted to see Washington State get to the final four and they wanted an East Coast team in the final.

"It continues to be unfair, like it's been for so many years. The Hawaii-Loyola match is certainly the toughest first-round match in the whole country. It's really unfair to Hawaii, to Loyola, to the whole West Coast."

"They're sacrificing a lot of good teams in the first round and it's upsetting. When they announced Hawaii coming to our place (for the first round), I couldn't believe it."

Neither could the Wahine players, many of whom listened in on the conference call.

"I think we got a tough draw and we're going to have to play our hearts out," Wahine setter Nikki Hubbert said. "From what I understand, a lot of teams got lucky. Personally, I'd rather be in Colorado State's spot. "

Colorado State was ahead of Hawaii in the regional rankings last week, but the Wahine beat the Rams on Wednesday in the WAC semifinals. CSU is seeded sixth in the Central Regional and plays American University in a first-round match hosted by Washington State.

"If we had lost to Colorado State . . . we probably would have shipped out and it would have been better," Shoji said. "We beat Colorado State and they get to open with American. You figure that one out.

"All I can say is there are some easy first-round matches and ours isn't one of them," Shoji said. "Especially since if you win, you play the second seed. It's a bad draw and a bad placement.

"How we can be (No.) 34 is beyond me. I have no idea what hurt us, whether it was our two losses at the end or what. We've seen it happen (to Hawaii) in basketball. The committee can rational anything and they will."

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1997 UH Wahine Volleyball Schedule

http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu