Monday, October 5, 1998
One for the
road: Wahine
sweep Lobos
Balanced UH volleyball team
By Cindy Luis
improves to 3-0 in the WAC
Star-BulletinThrow out the scouting reports. Toss the tapes.
Trying to get a line on the Hawaii women's volleyball team? Forget it.
Just ask New Mexico coach Laurel Brassey Iversen. The Lobos thought they had a good game plan for the 10th-ranked Wahine yesterday. It didn't take long for them to change their minds.
"We knew their middles were doing a good job and we prepared for that," she said after her team fell in 75 minutes, 15-7, 15-9, 15-7, in the Western Athletic Conference match at the Stan Sheriff Center. "You scout for different tendencies and they threw us something different. The tapes we had on them had all of them hitting cross-court. They hit more line than what we saw on the tapes.
"Hawaii is very balanced. Good players will hit whatever you give them. They have a lot of weapons out there."
The Wahine (11-1, 3-0 WAC) had three players in double-kill figures, led by Heidi Ilustre's 17. The junior left-side hitter was hitting 1.000 after six swings and finished at .419.
Sophomore hitter Jessica Sudduth also came up big on the left, recording 14 kills and hitting .355.
The Lobos committed early on junior blocker Heather Bown, ranked third in the nation in kill percentage. Bown worked free for 11 kills (.421) before leaving early -- she sprained her left ankle after stepping on a New Mexico player's foot in Game 3.
Bown is expected to be ready for the first road trip of the season -- to Utah Friday and BYU Saturday. Freshman blocker Veronica Lima, who sat out yesterday's match and also missed Friday's match against Texas-El Paso (bad back), also should make the trip.
"We're all excited to go on the road and play," Ilustre said after Hawaii won its 52nd consecutive conference match. "This was definitely the match we wanted before going on the road. I think we're ready. We've got a lot of energy in our game.
"Nikki (senior setter Nikki Hubbert) did an awesome job spreading the offense. She saw their block real well and spread it around."
There were few complaints from Hawaii coach Dave Shoji.
"I liked our defense and thought we did a lot of good defensive moves," Shoji said. "The balls aren't hitting the floor and we've worked hard on that.
"We've been struggling on the left. Both Heidi and Jessica understand how hard it is to put the ball down, but they know how important it is for the team to have kills out on the left.
"This was the match we wanted them to have to take some confidence on the road."
There were a few lulls -- after UH gained a big lead (an 8-1 advantage in Game 1 dwindled to 9-7) or after it won a game (New Mexico took early leads of 4-1 in Game 2 and 4-2 in Game 3). But Hawaii responded to the situation -- and to the crowd of 4,303.
"Being at home is more of a positive and obviously the support won't be there on the road," Sudduth said. "It will be a challenge, but we're ready to go off somewhere.
"Volleyball is volleyball. No matter where you play it, you have to suit up and play hard."
The Lobos (6-8, 0-2) were led by Paula Feathers with 10 kills.
Wahine junior middle Jenny Roberts added eight kills with no errors, hitting .533 with six blocks.
Brassey Iversen is intrigued by Saturday's Hawaii-BYU match. UH (3-0) and BYU (1-0) are unbeaten in the Pacific Division, along with San Jose State (1-0).
"I haven't seen BYU this year and playing BYU at BYU is tough," she said. "We've played some pretty tough teams (Long Beach State, Stanford, Wisconsin) and Hawaii is one of the better ball-control teams.
"Size-wise, Hawaii will match up. It will be interesting."
This will be the first regular-season conference meeting between the teams. BYU has beaten UH twice during the WAC tournament.
Lobos (6-8 overall, 0-2 WAC) Hawaii def. New Mexico
15-7, 15-9, 15-7
g k e at pct. bs ba d Torres 3 1 0 4 .250 0 0 3 Goffard 3 3 4 18 -.056 1 2 2 Smith 3 7 6 29 .034 0 0 9 Lu 3 6 2 18 .222 0 1 5 Allison 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 7 Feathers 3 10 1 20 .450 0 2 6 Bouldin 2 3 0 8 .375 0 1 0 Offutt 3 2 3 8 -.125 0 0 9 Heiskell 2 1 0 6 .167 0 2 0 Totals 3 33 16 111 .153 1 8 41Wahine (11-1 overall, 3-0 WAC)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Karratti 3 3 4 14 -.071 1 3 13 Sudduth 3 14 3 31 .355 0 0 8 Bown 3 11 3 19 .421 0 3 5 Hubbert 3 4 0 9 .444 0 6 9 Miyashiro 3 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 5 Ilustre 3 17 4 31 .419 0 0 8 Bradley 1 2 0 2 1.000 0 1 0 Roberts 3 8 0 15 .533 1 5 2 Kim 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Totals 3 60 14 122 .377 2 18 52Key: g-games. k-kills. e-hitting errors. at-attempts. pct.-hitting percentage. bs-block solos. ba-block assists. d-digs.Aces--UH (3): Ilustre 2, Bown 1. UNM (5): Feathers 3, Allison 2. Assists--UH (56): Hubbert 45, Karratti 8, Sudduth 1, Bown 1, Miyashiro 1. UNM (31): Torres 29, Feathers 1, Offutt 1.
A--5,926 (4,303 turnstile). T--1:25. Officials: Tom Given, Dan Hironaka.
1998 UH Wahine Volleyball Schedule
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
