Saturday, December 12, 1998
Gators deny Wahine
A better than expected
By Cindy Luis
Hawaii women's volleyball season
ends in the regional final
Star-BulletinGAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Somewhere between Heartbreak Hotel and It's a Wonderful Life, the Hawaii women's volleyball team reflected on the what-ifs and the might-have-beens of a season that fell five points short of a trip to the final four.
Last night, for the fifth time since 1989, the Wahine's year ended in the NCAA regional with a five-game loss. Four times it's come in the regional final, including last night's 11-15, 4-15, 15-10, 15-4, 15-7 defeat at the hands of fourth-ranked Florida in the East Regional final at the O'Connell Center.
The 212-hour victory sends the Gators (35-2) to their third consecutive final four, fifth in seven years. The Wahine (32-3) had to rearrange their travel plans, returning to Honolulu with no side trip to Madison, Wis., and no shot at their fifth national title.
"I don't think it's hit me yet that it's over," Hawaii senior setter Nikki Hubbert said as the team enjoyed a pizza party thrown by booster club members who had made the trip. "We surprised lot of people by making it this far. We had a lot of fun, a season that no one thought we would have, and that's all that I can ask for.
"I think that by getting this close (to the final four) will give next year's team that much more desire to get there. Hopefully, they'll get that championship we wanted this year."
The final four is at the Stan Sheriff Center next season. Wahine coach Dave Shoji feels good about his returning nucleus, which includes 85 percent of the offense, 75 percent of the blocks, and National Player of the Year candidate Heather Bown.
Back as seniors will be Bown, Heidi Ilustre, Shelly Kim and Jenny Roberts, with incoming juniors Jessica Sudduth, Tehani Miyashiro and redshirt Aven Lee. Also back as sophomores will be Veronica Lima and Adrianne Bradley.
The Wahine have verbal commitments from three outstanding high school seniors: 6-1 setter Jennifer Carey (California), 6-4 hitter Lily Kahumoku (Kamehameha) and Margaret Vaka-sausau (University Lab). Shoji expects to sign one more player, probably foreign.
What the Wahine lose is Hubbert, who finished as the single-season leader in assist average (14.59) and third in career assists. Also gone is Leah Karratti, the unanimous team choice as most inspirational the past two seasons.
"Physically, we'll replace Nikki and Leah," Shoji said, "but we lose two great seniors. We had six months of adversity starting with last spring (losing five players for various reasons) and I don't think a lot of people believed in this team. But those two rallied the troops and said, 'We're going to be a good team.'
"I'm still enjoying this season. No one expected us to be 32-3. Sure, losing tonight is disappointing. We were so close. To be up, 2-0, and five points away. We started wishing for points instead of making it happen. We got real tentative and Florida got a lot of confidence."
Hawaii was clearly in control of the match after going on a 27-5 run to win Games 1 and 2 and take a 2-0 lead in Game 3. But Florida was not about to see its 30-match home streak end without a fight; the Gators scored 10 unanswered points and got the partisan crowd of 3,118 back in the match.
The Wahine closed to 11-9 and 12-10 but senior Jenni King put down two of her team-high 22 kills and sophomore Jerilyn Hattendorf got the game-ending points on a kill and a block of Ilustre.
Junior Jenny Manz, who had 35 kills in the win over Hawaii in September, was hitting negative all night until the middle of Game 4. As she began having success, so did the Gators; they jumped out to a 12-2 lead and never trailed again.
The Wahine fell behind 5-0 in Game 5 and never got closer than 11-7. Senior Jeni Jones accounted for the final three points on a block and two kills, handing Hawaii its first loss in five rally-scoring five-set matches this season.
"We really broke down," Karratti said. "It was right in our hands and we couldn't grab it."
It was sweet revenge for Florida, which opened and closed the 1996 season with losses to Hawaii. The Gators gave the Wahine their first loss of 1998 and also their last.
"We've played emotionally so many times and won matches all season with it," Shoji said. "We've had that emotion on the line for the last month. We didn't have any left for tonight."
Bown (24 kills, 9 blocks) and Lima (13 kills, 6 blocks) were named to the all-regional team. Joining them were Manz (MVP) and Heather Wright of Florida, Southern Cal's Jasmina Marin-kiovic and Kim Storey of Arkan-sas.
Florida dinked around
They were confident the strategy
By Dave Reardon
would work against Hawaii
Special to the Star-BulletinGAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The Florida Gators apparently like to do the NCAA regional finals the hard way.
They've won five of them now, and they've come back from 0-2 in three.
The latest near-death experience was a 11-15, 4-15, 15-10, 15-4, 15-7 victory over Hawaii last night that sends the Gators to their third consecutive final four, extending the careers of seniors Jenni Keene and Jeni Jones with their 27th consecutive victory and 31st at home.
"I didn't think too much about being down 0-2," Keene said. "I knew that we had a good game plan and we needed to stick to that. I didn't feel like my season was about to be over."
Keene, who led Florida with 22 kills, dropped in a lot of dinks between the blockers and the back row.
"That was one of our plans," she said. "We knew that was one of their weaknesses. That really frustrated Hawaii."
Jones didn't give up either. She said there wasn't any mystery as to what the Gators needed to get done to get back into the match.
"We knew we had to block more balls after game two, and we had to limit our errors," Jones said. "We just had to be patient and just execute."
Coach Mary Wise said she took a calm approach during the break between games two and three.
"I did not go after Jenny Manz' head like I did a year ago (when the Gators were down 0-2 to host Wisconsin in their regional final)," Wise said.
It would have been hard to blame her if she did. Manz hit more errors than kills in the first two games. But she rebounded, and provided three big kills in the rally-scoring final game.
"Last year's experience at Madison goes to show that when you put your mind to it and you want it really bad you can do it. I think we proved that tonight," Manz said. "We worked really hard as a team, and that combined with the crowd is what helped us win tonight."
This time the Gators -- who have never won a final four game in four matches -- won't have to take on the home team in Madison. But they might still have to climb out of an 0-2 hole -- they play unbeaten No. 1 Long Beach State, which is 34-0 and has been taken to five games only once this season.
Florida def. Hawaii, 11-15, 4-15, 15-10, 15-4, 15-7 Box Score
At Stephen O'Connell Center
Wahine (32-3 overall)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Karratti 5 8 7 35 .029 0 4 11 Sudduth 5 19 6 51 .255 0 2 4 Bown 5 24 3 50 .420 0 9 7 Hubbert 5 0 3 8 -.375 0 5 19 Lima 5 13 8 31 .161 1 5 14 Ilustre 5 6 6 16 .000 0 2 18 Miyashiro 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 4 Roberts 4 2 3 12 -.083 0 1 0 Bradley 1 2 1 4 .250 0 0 0 Kim 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 74 37 207 .179 1 28 77
g k e at pct. bs ba d Bova 5 0 0 1 .000 0 0 3 Wright 5 17 6 31 .355 0 5 2 Keene 5 22 11 61 .180 0 4 10 Manz 5 13 9 55 .073 0 2 14 Sanchez 5 4 0 10 .400 0 4 13 Hattendorf 5 6 3 20 .150 0 1 13 Jones 5 13 3 30 .333 0 6 5 Reboucas 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 13 Hartley 1 0 0 0 .000 0 1 1 Totals 75 32 208 .207 0 23 74Key: g-games. k-kills. e-hitting errors. at-attempts. pct.-hitting percentage. bs-block solos. ba-block assists. d-digs.Aces--UH (5): Ilustre 2, Bown 2, Hubbert 1. FLA (8): Hattendorf 4, Sanchez 2, Keene 1, Reboucas 1. Assists--UH (71): Hubbert 67, Sudduth 2, Ilustre 2. FLA (69): Sanchez 63, Manz 2, Bova 1, Wright 1, Keene 1, Hattendorf 1.
A--3118. T--2:30. Officials: Joel Reinford and Kathy Ferraccia.
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