Monday, November 30, 1998
Wahine seeded
fifth in NCAA
Tournament
And the WAC volleyball
By Cindy Luis
champions get the No. 2 seed
in the East Regional
Star-BulletinIt was one of Dave Shoji's finest moments, and one of his most bittersweet.
The Hawaii coach sat in the UNLV volleyball office yesterday, getting the NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament pairings via conference call with two of his former all-American players: Rebels coach Deitre Collins and her assistant, Kee Williams.
Six Western Athletic Conference teams were named, the most ever for the league. Leading the way was Hawaii (29-2), which earned the WAC's automatic berth Saturday in Las Vegas by outlasting Brigham Young, 15-12, 21-19, 13-15, 16-18, 24-22, for the title.
The Wahine, seeded second in the East Regional and fifth overall in the field of 64, will host the first- and second-round matches this weekend at the Stan Sheriff Center. Miami of Ohio (26-7), the Mid-American champion, takes on Nevada (22-6), the Big West's No. 4 team, Saturday at 5 p.m. Host Hawaii faces Ivy League champ Brown (23-8) in the second match. The winners meet Sunday at 5 p.m.
But of the 64 teams selected in the expanded tournament, there was no room for UNLV (23-8). Utah (20-9) and Colorado State (23-7), teams the Rebels had defeated in the last eight days, were invited, as were Fresno State (18-10) and BYU (28-3).
"I think the WAC did as well as we could do," Shoji said. "But I'm real disappointed for Deitre. You can make arguments for who should be in and who shouldn't be for the entire bracket."
Still, it didn't take away the sting for UNLV, in only its third year after the program folded after the 1985 season.
"You want so much for your team to experience what you experienced," said Collins, who helped the Wahine to a No. 1 ranking in 1981 and back-to-back NCAA titles in 1982-83. "They worked so hard this season and did everything we thought we needed to do (to earn a berth in the national tournament)."
While the Rebels stay home, the Wahine are home for the last time this season. Because of conflicts with basketball tournaments, Hawaii was unable to bid for a regional.
Should the Wahine and Florida -- the top seed in the East Region -- advance, Hawaii would play in Gainesville, Fla., Dec. 11-13.
Besides BYU, the Gators are the only other team to defeat the Wahine this season. Florida defeated Hawaii in the third match of the season, 16-14, 15-7, 11-15, 15-10.
"I don't want my team even to start thinking about Florida or whoever else is ahead of us," Shoji said. "We have two matches to take care of first before we think about traveling. We don't know much about Brown, but Nevada is a very good team.
"We got the matchup we hoped for. All we have to do is go out and win."
Shoji, who has taken teams to 16 of the 17 previous NCAA Tournaments, said he saw only one big surprise in the seedings. The top 16 teams were seeded for the first time with defending champion Stanford at No. 8.
Long Beach State was seeded first and is No. 1 in the Mountain Region. Stanford is second in the Mountain, eighth overall.
Penn State is second overall and No. 1 in the Central Region. Nebraska is third overall, No. 1 in the Pacific Region.
The top four seeds will host the regionals should they advance. The final four is Dec. 17 and 19 at Madison, Wis.
OF NOTE: The WAC tied the Big Ten and Big 12 for most teams selected for the tournament with six. The ACC, Big West and Pac-10 each got four.
Ten teams are making their first appearance in the tournament: Bucknell, Florida Atlantic, Georgetown, Nevada, New Hampshire, Southern, Maryland-Baltimore County, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Hawaii, which missed the tournament in 1992, is one of five teams making its 16th appearance. The others are BYU, Nebraska, Texas and UCLA.
Four teams have been selected since the NCAA began sponsorship in 1981: Pacific, Penn State, Stanford and UC Santa Barbara.
NCAA Tournament
December 3-4
At East Lansing, Michigan
North Carolina (28-7) vs. Oral Roberts (29-5)
Michigan State (23-6) vs. Pepperdine (17-10)
At Fayetteville, Arkansas
Northern Iowa (25-2) vs. Indiana (15-13)
Arkansas (27-5) vs. New Hampshire (24-10)
At Gainesville, Florida
Florida (31-2) vs. Chattanooga (23-10)
Texas Tech (23-10) vs. Ohio State (16-13)
At Long Beach, California
Long Beach State (30-0) vs. Southern (19-12)
Arizona (21-6) vs. Fresno State (18-10)
At Austin, Texas
Colorado State (23-7) vs. South Carolina (21-10)
Texas (24-4) vs. Wisconsin-Milwaukee (25-5)
At Champaign, Illinois
Colorado (21-7) vs. San Jose State (21-11)
Illinois (20-10) vs. Southwest Texas State (25-8)
At Lincoln, Nebraska
Nebraska (28-1) vs. Morgan State (18-14)
Utah (20-9) vs. Illinois State (22-9)
At Los Angeles, California
Texas A&M (20-8) vs. Temple (22-9)
Southern California (22-5) vs. UMBC (22-6)
At Louisville, Kentucky
Florida State (25-10) vs. Northern Illinois (26-6)
Louisville (27-4) vs. American (29-5)
At Madison, Wisconsin
South Florida (25-7) vs. San Diego (23-5)
Wisconsin (27-4) vs. Arkansas-Little Rock (20-8)
At Provo, Utah
Kansas State (18-11) vs. Georgetown (24-5)
Brigham Young (28-3) vs. Coastal Carolina (23-12)
At Stanford, California
Notre Dame (17-12) vs. Eastern Washington (24-5)
Stanford (25-3) vs. Southeast Missouri State (24-11)
At Stockton, California
Cal State Sacramento (25-8) vs. Houston (21-12)
Pacific (24-5) vs. Florida Atlantic (16-5)
At University Park, Pennsylvania
Penn State (30-0) vs. Bucknell (16-11)
Fairfield (35-1) vs. Clemson (21-10)
At Honolulu, Hawaii
Nevada (22-6) vs. Miami, Ohio (26-7)
Hawaii (29-2) vs. Brown (23-8)
At Santa Barbara, California
Virginia (26-7) vs. UCLA (15-11)
UC Santa Barbara (26-5) vs. Santa Clara (20-9)
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