Saturday, October 10, 1998
Hawaii tops Utah;
Staff and wire reports
No. 5 BYU is nextSALT LAKE CITY -- One down and a big one to go.
The 10th-ranked Hawaii women's volleyball team started slow but finished strong last night to topple Utah, 15-10, 15-11, 7-15, 15-4, at the Utes' Crimson Court. Now the Wahine (12-1, 4-0) put their 53-match conference winning streak on the line at No. 5 Brigham Young (3 p.m. HST).
Last night, the Cougars (13-1, 2-0) destroyed San Diego State in 47 minutes, 15-5, 15-7, 15-0. BYU barely broke a sweat, which has Hawaii sweating a little.
"Obviously, BYU is very, very good," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "We'll have to be on our game 100 percent."
Wahine junior blocker Heather Bown (sprained ankle) was at about 80 percent last night but still shredded the Ute block for a team-high 17 kills. She also was in on six blocks and had the Game 1-winning ace.
"Heather came up big every time we needed her to," said Shoji. "She's not 100 percent and you can tell that by her movement. But she's still hitting the ball real well.
"Plus I thought we served well. That was the key to the match. It gave us easy points."
Jessica Sudduth and Heidi Ilustre combined for six of Hawaii's nine aces. Sudduth also added 14 kills and 4 blocks while junior blocker Jenny Roberts added 12 kills in hitting .526.
Hawaii never trailed in Game 1, breaking away from a 4-4 tie with an 8-0 run, helped by two Ilustre aces. Utah closed to 12-10 but two Ute hitting errors and an Ilustre kill finished the threat.
The Wahine fell behind at 0-4 in Game 2 but used a 7-0 spurt to take a 13-6 lead. Utah came within 14-11 and it took Hawaii six tries at game point before Bown nailed an ace.
Game 3 was a struggle for Hawaii, resulting in the first single-set loss in five matches. Kalani Tonga helped the Utes to a quick 13-4 lead on two service overpasses.
The Wahine ran away in Game 4, turning a 3-3 tie into a 10-3 lead. Hawaii closed it out with a 5-1 run to win its 34th straight WAC regular season match without a loss.
"That was a nice one to get, our first on the road," said Shoji. "We were pretty shaky for most of the match, struggled with the passing but we got key sideouts and points when we needed them. It got us over the hump.
"Utah is a good team, well balanced. Tonga is definitely a terminator."
Tonga, the WAC Mountain Freshman of the Year last season, finished with 23 kills, getting 50 attempts. Stacie Greenwalt added 12 kills for Utah (10-5, 0-2).
WAC women
Pacific Division
Conference Overall W L Pct. GB W L Pct. Hawaii 4 0 1.000 -- 12 1 .923 Brigham Young 2 0 1.000 1 13 1 .928 San Jose St 1 0 1.000 1-1/2 12 3 .800 Fresno St 1 1 .500 2 12 2 .857 Texas-El Paso 1 1 .500 1 8 4 .667 Utah 0 2 .000 3 10 5 .667 New Mexico 0 2 .000 3 6 8 .428 San Diego St 1 4 .200 3-1/2 3 13 .187
Conference Overall W L Pct. GB W L Pct. Colorado St 3 0 1.000 -- 13 4 .765 Wyoming 3 0 1.000 -- 8 8 .500 Nev-Las Vegas 2 0 1.000 1/2 13 3 .813 So. Methodist 1 1 .500 1-1/2 10 7 .588 Tulsa 1 2 .333 2 8 5 .615 Texas Christian 0 2 .000 2-1/2 3 14 .176 Air Force 0 2 .000 2-1/2 7 7 .500 Rice 0 3 .000 3 11 6 .647Hawaii def. Utah, 15-10, 15-11, 7-15, 15-4
BYU def. San Diego State, 15-5, 15-7, 15-0
Colorado State def. TCU, 15-9, 15-7, 8-15, 15-8
UNLV def. Rice, 12-15, 15-6, 15-12, 15-5
Wyoming def. SMU, 15-4, 15-13, 15-13
Tulsa def. Air Force, 10-15, 15-6 15-7, 15-7
Hawaii at BYU, 3 p.m. HST
San Diego State at New Mexico; Fresno State at UTEP; San Jose State at New Mexico; Wyoming at TCU; Colorado State at SMU; UNLV at Tulsa; Air Force at Rice
Wahine (12-1 overall, 4-0 WAC
g k e at pct. bs ba d Karratti 4 3 2 8 .125 0 2 12 Sudduth 4 14 5 36 .250 1 3 8 Bown 4 17 5 33 .364 2 4 3 Hubbert 4 0 1 10 -.100 0 3 9 Lima 4 7 5 27 .074 1 4 8 Miyashiro 4 0 0 2 .000 0 0 6 Roberts 4 12 2 19 .526 0 0 1 Ilustre 4 8 6 26 .077 0 2 8 Bradley 1 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 0 Totals 4 62 26 162 .222 4 18 55Utes (10-5 overall, 0-2 WAC)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Torres 4 9 3 19 .316 0 1 7 Stilson 4 9 4 19 .263 0 3 3 Greenwalt 4 12 9 27 .111 1 3 2 Tonga 4 23 9 50 .280 0 1 8 Barton 4 9 7 33 .061 0 4 12 Shakula 4 10 6 25 .160 0 0 8 Turkova 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Lovell 4 0 0 1 .000 0 0 12 Snow 1 0 2 2 -1.00 0 0 0 Totals 4 72 40 176 .182 1 12 62Aces--UH (9): Sudduth 3, Ilustre 3, 3, Lima 2, Bown 1. UU (5): Barton 2, Lovell 1, Tonga 1, Shakula 1. Assists--UH (54): Hubbert 51, Karratti 2, Ilustre 1. UU (59): Torres 55, Turkova 3, Greenwalkt 1. A--739. T--1:56.
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