Saturday, September 12, 1998
Wahine close in
on title
UH buries Baylor to remain
By Cindy Luis
perfect in the Aston's Imua
volleyball tourney
Star-BulletinIt was hurry-up-and-wait time for the University of Hawaii women's volleyball team last night.
The No. 13-ranked Wahine jumped out to quick leads against Baylor, then waited for the Bears to challenge.
Baylor never did -- until it was way too late -- as host Hawaii improved to 4-1 with a 15-5, 15-3, 15-12 victory in 85 minutes at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The Wahine go after their fourth consecutive Aston's Imua Challenge title tonight, when they close out the tournament against Arizona State.
The Sun Devils remained winless in the tourney, squandering a 2-0 lead and falling to Bradley, 10-15, 3-15, 15-9, 15-12, 15-11, last night. The Braves take on the Bears in today's 5 p.m. opener.
"I don't think we got bored," Hawaii setter Nikki Hubbert said of the letdown in Game 3. "I think we got a little overconfident and lost focus. It was a lot easier than everyone thought it would be.
"We just wanted to go out and show them we were better than they thought we were."
Baylor coach Brian Hosfeld votes in the AVCA poll. Last week, Hosfeld ranked the Wahine 18th, something Hawaii assistant coach Charlie Wade made sure his team knew.
It didn't take long for Hosfeld to realize that he might have underestimated the Wahine. Four minutes into the match, the Baylor coach called his first timeout -- the Wahine were up, 5-0, and hitting 1.000 on five attempts.
"When they're running on all six cylinders, they are scary," Hosfeld said. "You look at their ages and they're more mature than that on the court. They're a Top-10 team.
"And I don't know what Nikki Hubbert did over the summer, but she's a completely different player than I've ever seen. She's comfortable with herself and her team."
Hubbert is particularly comfortable going to junior transfer Heather Bown. Bown tied Baylor's Elisha Polk with a match-high 17 kills and added eight block assists.
For the crowd of 4,831 (6,349 tickets issued), the match didn't get interesting until Game 3. The Bears stayed close most of the way, narrowing a 12-6 deficit to 12-11. Polk had 10 kills in the third game, including three consecutive spikes that held off two match points and pulled her team to 14-12.
On the fifth match-point serve, a hitting error by Baylor's Kia Young finally ended it.
"We haven't gotten one game point this year on the very first serve," Hubbert said. "That's our goal (tonight), to finish it.
"There are still things we need to work on. Maintaining our tenacity is one of them. We've got to go out every game and not drop down to the other team's level. Tonight, we did that. We served aggressively and shut their big hitters down until No. 6 (Polk) got going at the end."
Hawaii coach Dave Shoji is concerned about tonight.
"ASU is going to be a difficult match," Shoji said. "They're a physical team and Burbridge (6-foot-2 sophomore Amanda Burbridge) is a big-time left-side hitter. It will be a challenge for us to slow her down.
"I'd like to think we're a Top-10 team, but I like our position right now (in the polls)."
n Bradley 3, ASU 2: In her three previous seasons with the Braves, Erika Nash had a total of 25 kills. Last night against the Sun Devils, the University Lab School product nearly matched her career output.
Nash had a career-high 17 kills and Punahou graduate Lindsay Chang added a team-high 18 kills and 21 digs to rally Bradley over ASU. Abby Kohnen added 16 kills.
ASU appeared ready to end the match in four games, taking leads of 8-3 and 12-10 in Game 4. Bradley tied it at 12, then scored the final three points to force a rally-score game.
Tough serving and even tougher defense kept the Braves ahead throughout Game 5. With Nash's father -- UH men's basketball associate head coach Bob Nash -- leading the aloha ball standing ovation, Bradley took three swings at match point with Kohnen finally putting it down.
Burbridge led the Sun Devils with 29 kills and Jami Coughlin added 17. ASU had 10 service aces in the first two games, but none the rest of the match.
Aston's Imua Challenge
Tonight: Bradley (3-2) vs. Baylor (4-3), 5 p.m.; Hawaii (4-1) vs. Arizona State (3-3), 7:30 p.m.
At Stan Sheriff Center Hawaii def. Baylor,
15-5, 15-3, 15-12
g k e at pct. bs ba d Sivertson 3 3 4 11 -.091 0 1 4 Atkinson 3 5 5 20 .000 0 0 14 Polk 3 17 4 30 .433 0 0 8 Young 3 5 6 21 -.048 0 0 2 Nicholas 3 3 4 11 -.091 0 0 0 Berg 3 6 2 12 .333 1 1 4 Scott 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 3 Chuha 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 3 Totals 3 39 25 105 .133 1 2 38
g k e at pct. bs ba d Sudduth 3 8 1 26 .269 0 0 6 Bown 3 17 3 28 .500 0 8 3 Hubbert 3 4 0 5 .800 0 4 4 Lima 3 7 3 18 .222 0 1 5 Roberts 2 1 0 5 .200 0 3 0 Ilustre 3 6 1 14 .357 1 2 5 Karratti 1 2 1 6 .167 0 0 1 Bradley 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Miyashiro 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 7 Kim 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 3 45 9 102 .353 1 18 31
Bradley def. Arizona State,
10-15, 3-15, 15-9, 15-12, 15-11Kills--Brad (73): Chang 18, Nash 17, Kohnen 16, Catlin 12. AS (72): Burbridge 29, Coughlin 17, Hibsman 10. Assists--Brad (63): Hardwick 55. AS (67): Faatulu 60. Blocks (solo/assist)--Brad (1/10): Kohnen 1/3, Catlin 0/3, Dority 0/2. AS (0/10): Coughlin 0/4, Mortensen 0/3. Digs--Brad (66): Chang 21, Nash 13. AS (78): Coughlin 25, Burbridge 16, Faatulu 10. Aces--Brad (5): Hardwick 2, Chang 1, Nash 1. AS (10): Coughlin 4, Burbridge 2, Mattingly 2, Smith 1, Hubbard 1.
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