[ WAHINE VOLLEYBALL ]
COURTESY OF NCAA
The 1983 Hawaii volleyball team was the first in NCAA history to win back-to-back national championships.
There are many comparisons
between Hawaii’s teams this year
and 20 years ago
It was a study in contrasts, those visits to Lexington, Ky., some 20 years ago for the Hawaii women's volleyball team. Mint juleps met maile leis when UH became the first team to repeat as NCAA champions in 1983.
Basketball and volleyball were both invented in Massachusetts, their respective halls of fame just miles from each other in Springfield. But bringing Mr. Morgan's game to compete with Dr. Naismith's game in the Bluegrass State was almost heresy back then.
The Rainbow Wahine had experienced that two months prior to the 1983 final four, as the warm-up act to Kentucky's Midnight Madness.
"And that was when no one had Midnight Madness except Kentucky," said UH coach Dave Shoji, preparing for tonight's regional semifinal with No. 15 Illinois.
Memorial Coliseum was pretty empty, Shoji recalls, for his team's Oct. 14 match against the Lady 'Kats, as the women's teams at Kentucky were then called. Those who filtered in would be killing time for hours before the men's basketball team officially opened its practice season.
The attendance wasn't much better two months later when the Wahine came to town as the defending national champions. In front of a sparse crowd of mostly Hawaii boosters, top-ranked UH needed just 82 minutes to take apart No. 3 UCLA 15-13, 15-4, 15-10.
It was a stark contrast between the balmy winter weather in Honolulu and the light snowfall out on Lexington Avenue. It was like the city itself, where penny parking meters co-existed with the $1 million thoroughbred farms.
And the 1983 title match was as different as it could be from the 1982 five-game marathon victory over Southern California. The confidence after winning the previous year had everything to do with being able to repeat 12 months later.
"They played with so much confidence (in 1983), it wasn't even close," Shoji said. "We were just the best team by far."
In some ways it was easier to get to the final four then than now ... for the elite. The talent was concentrated heavily in the West, as were the successful schools. Despite the NCAA's attempt to regionalize the sport, Hawaii, UCLA, Pacific and Stanford comprised the final four after winning their respective regions.
The 1983 UH team was sent on the road to Austin, Texas, for the regional in what was then a 16-team tournament. The Wahine swept Tennessee, then took on a Kentucky team trying desperately to get back home for the final four.
Hawaii won in four and earned a national semifinal matchup with Stanford. The Wahine steam-rolled the Cardinal, then blitzed the Bruins.
THEY DID IT with a team of overachieving, undersized players and a 6-2 offense in which All-American setter Joyce Ka'apuni went off against UCLA. The 28-year-old was 10-for-15 with no errors in hitting .667.
"Kris Pulaski (Hawaii's other setter) loved setting Joycie the back-2 and she would just beat the block," said former assistant coach Dean Nowack. "I don't think we would have done it without Joyce. She had such a calming effect and probably the best hands I've seen in the last 25 years.
"And she always had an ace at the right time, with her long-distance float serves."
Ka'apuni had four of the Wahine's eight aces that match, including two in Game 3. She also had the final assist to Missy Yomes, who tipped a shot over the taller Bruin block to end the match.
It was, as the headline in the Star-Bulletin read, "Hana Hou for Magnificent Seven." Hawaii's seven seniors -- Ka'apuni, Yomes, Marcie Wurts, Kris and Kory Pulaski, Sista Palakiko, and Deitre Collins -- were 104-5 in their final three seasons and ranked No. 1 for most of their careers.
"We didn't expect to lose," said Wurts, who later married assistant coach Nowack. "When we lost in 1981 (to USC in the regional final), that taught us a lot. We didn't want to lose again.
"It's incredible to think that it's been 20 years. The way the game is now, I probably wouldn't be recruited out of high school. The game has changed a lot. There's more power and taller players, so it's all relative. We were more well-known for our defense.
"But for our time, we were the best."
THE COMPARISONS to this year's Wahine team have been inevitable. Hawaii also has seven seniors who have done it all -- except win a national championship.
The 1983 team had Collins, the two-time Broderick Award winner as the nation's best volleyball player and the Broderick Cup winner as a senior, as the top female collegiate athlete. The 2003 team has arguably the best outside hitters in the country in All-Americans Kim Willoughby and Lily Kahumoku; Willoughby is a favorite to win NCAA Player of the Year honors.
"We had terminators back then in Deitre and Kory, and a bunch of role players," Shoji said. "This year's team is a lot like that with Kim and Lily and our role players.
"And, just like back then, you need a little bit of luck to get to the final four."
And you need heart. In 1982, the Wahine were down 0-2 to the Women of Troy and trailing in Game 3 before rallying to win in Game 5.
"The 1982 team dug down as deep as any team I've ever seen," said Dean Nowack. "After that, '83 was a breeze. Those girls were just tough. It wasn't an attitude of cockiness, it was extreme confidence. Plus, on defense, nothing would hit the floor."
"It's a big blur to me," said Lisa Strand Ma'a, a junior starter on the 1983 team. "It was extremely anticlimactic in 1983 after how we won in '82. That win was phenomenal.
"I had thoughts of hanging it up after '83, going out with the seven seniors. I felt so much a part of that group that when they all left, it was hard for me. I felt very left behind."
Strand, who married former UH men's player Pono Ma'a, never won another title. In her senior season the Wahine went 33-11, losing their last five matches, as many as she had lost in her first three seasons combined.
But she was part of the 1984 team that had a freshman class with Tita Ahuna, Mahina Eleneki, Suzanne Eagye and Diana Jessie. As seniors, those four were part of Hawaii's last NCAA championship team in 1987.
Senior-laden classes have excelled for Hawaii in 1979, 1983 and 1987. This year's team has a history to uphold.
Box score from 1983 title game
Hawaii def. UCLA
15-13, 15-4, 15-10
BRUINS (44-6) g k e att pct. bs ba d Masakayan 3 15 7 35 .229 0 0 8 Connolly 3 4 2 12 .167 1 1 7 Zeno 3 2 4 7 -.290 0 0 1 Orozco 3 10 8 30 .067 1 4 8 Kenny 3 4 3 14 .071 0 5 4 Boyette 3 4 2 15 .133 0 1 9 Sayring 3 0 0 1 .000 0 0 6 Cornell 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Buck 2 6 0 8 .750 0 0 5 Totals 3 45 26 122 .156 2 11 43 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
WAHINE (34-2) g k e att pct. bs ba d Yomes 3 5 5 19 .000 0 0 1 KrPulaski 3 2 0 7 .286 1 1 11 Strand 3 3 3 8 .000 0 0 10 KoPulaski 3 8 5 27 .111 1 1 10 Wurts 3 5 2 15 .200 0 4 14 Ka'apuni 3 10 0 15 .667 0 5 16 Collins 3 16 4 39 .308 0 1 3 Palakiko 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 3 Pestana 3 1 0 11 .000 0 0 1 Totals 3 50 19 131 .237 2 11 69
Aces -- Bruins (1): Boyette. Wahine (8): Ka'apuni 4, Kr. Pulaski 2, Wurts 1, Collins 1.
Assists -- Statistics not kept.
T -- 1:22. Officials -- Sue Lemaire, Mike Carter. A -- NA.
