Thursday, November 19, 1998
Wahine foes
jockeying for
postseason slots
San Jose State, Fresno State
By Cindy Luis
battling for berths in the NCAA
volleyball tournament
Star-BulletinLocation is everything in real estate. The same holds true for women's college volleyball.
As the regular season heads into its final 10 days, teams are jockeying for the highest possible position in the regional rankings. A misstep now and a school that figured to host NCAA Tournament first and second round matches could end up on the road.
No. 7 Hawaii was sitting pretty as it headed to California to close out the Western Athletic Conference regular season at San Jose State tomorrow and Fresno State Saturday. The Wahine (24-2, 11-1) moved up two spots in the latest District 7 rankings. They are second behind Long Beach State, which is ranked first in the nation.
Both of Hawaii's opponents this week are hoping to make it into the NCAA Tournament, which has expanded to 64 teams this season.
The Spartans and Bulldogs, tied for fourth in the Pacific Division, also are playing for seeding into next week's WAC Tournament in Las Vegas.
On Monday, a blind draw gave BYU the top seed over Hawaii in the WAC Tournament. The Wahine will open the tournament next Wednesday against the winner of the Mountain-3 /Pacific-6 match, and BYU will face the winner of the Mountain-4/Pacific-5 match.
San Jose State and Fresno State are hoping to be that Pacific-5 team. If the Spartans and Bulldogs remain tied for fourth, the Spartans will get the Pacific-4 spot by virtue of two regular-season victories over the Bulldogs.
"What's disappointing to me is that last weekend we were playing for third place, but could end up fifth now," Fresno State coach Lindy Vivas said. "We had a good chance to beat Utah and didn't. We needed our middle (6-foot Adrienne Sankey) on Saturday and she sprained her ankle Friday against BYU."
San Jose State coach Craig Choate said he'd like to avoid Hawaii and BYU for as long as possible next week.
"I would be happy with fourth place," Choate said. "You want to avoid the big girls as long as humanly possible. I'd rather see the Mountain-1 (likely Colorado State) than Hawaii or BYU. I don't see a Mountain Division team winning the tournament. There might be a fluke and an upset of somebody, but no team is going to upset two Top-10 teams (Hawaii and BYU).
"I don't see that much is going to change this week against Hawaii. They're still bigger and stronger than us. But we have to be pretty happy with our season. The coaches picked us seventh, which means they didn't think we'd make the tournament. We're going and I think we've had a very nice year."
Hawaii's postseason fate will be announced Nov. 29, the day after the WAC Tournament final. Barring any major upset between now and then, the Wahine will host the first- and second-round matches Dec. 5-6.
Should Hawaii advance, it will be on the road for the regional. Because of basketball commitments, UH athletic officials couldn't put in a regional bid.
As it stands now, Long Beach State, Penn State and Nebraska all would be awarded regionals. The fourth host site is up for grabs with 14 schools in contention: Florida, Stanford, BYU, UC Santa Barbara, Arizona, Illinois, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Maryland, Florida State, Arkansas, Texas Tech, South Florida and Louisville.
"I don't know what the selection committee's thinking will be," said Marilyn Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano, UH assistant athletic director who is in her final year as a member of the NCAA Volleyball Committee. "With 16 teams being seeded this year, there should be parity. All the regionals should be strong.
"We've never given two schools from the same conference regionals. That could come up for debate. Cost and distance are not supposed to be factors. If Hawaii goes to a regional, it could be anywhere."
Shoji said he would like to be sent anywhere other than Long Beach State. That was the scene of Hawaii's worst-ever defeat, when the Wahine lost in under an hour to the 49ers.
"We'll see what the committee does," Shoji said.
"In the past, they've justified keeping teams close to their natural region. They said they'll seed 16 and paint a true national picture, but it would be very easy to put us, Pacific, Santa Barbara and Long Beach all in the same region.
"But we can't get ahead of ourselves. We've got two matches to win this weekend and then the WAC Tournament. We're playing for national seeding now."
Wahine volleyball
Tomorrow: No. 7 Hawaii (24-2, 11-1 WAC) at San Jose State (18-9, 6-6), 5 p.m. HST
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
