Thursday, November 19, 1998
Sea Warriors, Seasiders
By Jerry Campany
ready for regional play
Special to the Star-BulletinFor undefeated Brigham Young University-Hawaii, close counts as a rivalry.
Brigham Young-Hawaii has dealt Hawaii Pacific its only losses of the season, sweeping the four regular season matchups and one Pacific West tournament game this year.
Hawaii Pacific head coach Tita Ahuna has never beaten the Seasiders in her three year reign at the helm -- a span of 13 games.
Dominating the Sea Warriors has been a way of life for BYUH since the first time it opposed HPU. The Seasiders hold an 81-10 edge dating back to '79.
But HPU is making progress and has challenged the Seasiders like no Division II team before. Ahuna's troops have taken the undefeated Seasiders to rally scoring twice this season, and are looking to break through in California at the NCAA Division II regional at Bakersfield that starts tomorrow.
In tomorrow's first round action, Brigham Young-Hawaii takes on UC-Riverside at 3 p.m and HPU plays host Cal State-Bakersfield at 5:30 p.m.
The regional is a single elimination tournament covering two days.
The winner of the regional advances to the "elite eight" NCAA championship tournament December 4-6 in Kissimmee, Florida.
The two Hawaii schools have a tough road to the national championship because the top three teams are all western teams and have to beat each other for a berth in the championship game.
The nationwide poll suggests that the No. 1 Seasiders will meet up with No. 3 HPU for the sixth time this year. Beating a team six times in three months is no easy task, but history is on the Brigham Young-Hawaii side.
"They have a lot of guns," Ahuna said. "Nobody in Division II can beat them in rally scoring, but they can be beaten if we jump on them early and have the mental toughness to keep them down after the first set."
The last time BYUH was drawn into five sets was in '96 when Peru State College (Neb.) took them to five before losing.
"They can be beaten, I think that we have shown that," HPU setter Nia Tuitele said. "We have taken them to the limit and only need to toughen up and break through."
Brigham Young-Hawaii earned the first seed by going undefeated through the season and the Pac West tournament, but declined a chance to host the tournament because of how well HPU has played them in Laie.
Hawaii Pacific didn't anticipate the class of the NCAA Division II turning down a chance to host, coupled with the fact that they couldn't find a suitable arena, and didn't apply either. That left the tournament for California State-Bakersfield to host.
