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Wahine top ’Cats
for title
After blowing a 2-0 lead, Hawaii
comes through in Game 5 to beat
Arizona and remain undefeated
Good things come in threes.
Three matches.
Three victories.
Three consecutive Hawaiian Airlines Classic titles.
At times it was more labor-intensive than it needed to be on Labor Day weekend. Way more labor-intensive.
But all that matters is the final result.
No. 13 Hawaii capped an unbeaten tournament showing with a 30-24, 33-31, 26-30, 26-30, 15-11 victory over No. 17 Arizona. A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 5,018 (6,661 tickets) roared as the Rainbow Wahine claimed their ninth HAL trophy as well as their ninth most outstanding player award winner in sophomore setter Kanoe Kamana'o.
"It was amazing, it feels just awesome," Kamana'o said. "And the fans really helped us in the fifth game. They were behind us.
"We just stuck together. We played together and for each other."
Just as they had Friday when prevailing over San Diego in five, the Wahine found another miracle in the Manoa night. But Hawaii needed career nights from Susie Boogaard and Alicia Arnott to pull it off, Boogaard finishing with 21 kills and Arnott 18.
The Wahine rallied in Game 5 on Arnott's arm, as her two kills tied it at 7-7. An Arizona hitting error and Boogaard's block of Stephanie Butkus put Hawaii ahead for good at 9-7.
Boogaard continued to come up big down the stretch, with two more kills. Her final kill gave the Wahine match point at 14-10.
Jennifer Abernathy's 24th kill quieted the crowd momentarily, only to have the arena erupt on Victoria Prince's 12th kill.
Also in double-figure kills was freshman Tara Hittle with 10. Libero Ashley Watanabe came up with 20 of UH's digs.
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For Arizona, Meghan Cumpston had 19 kills to go with 23 digs. Kristina Baum added 16 and Bre Ladd 11.
"Arizona exploited a lot of our inexperience, but that was to be expected," Wahine coach Dave Shoji said. "They did a nice job working our weak spots
"But anything can happen in a fifth game. It was to our advantage to play a short game (15). You can steal a short rally- score game. They were pretty much dominating us in Games 3 and 4. But everyone hung in there, no one got down."
The 2 hours and 41 minutes included an impressive rally in Game 2 by Hawaii, in which the Wahine held off four game points. The first came when trailing 29-26. Boogaard and Prince teamed to block Abernathy. Prince then had a solo block of Ladd, and an ace by Boogaard tied it at 29-29.
Boogaard just missed on another ace when it went long, but a kill by Arnott tied it at 30. Prince's service error gave the Wildcats another swing at ending it, only to have the game knotted when Kari Gregory blocked a dump attempt by Butkus.
Hawaii finished it off with a block of Cumpston and a kill by Arnott.
The comeback so dazed UA coach Dave Rubio that he started to sit on the wrong side of the court when coming out of the locker room. His team had no such problem, jumping out to quick leads of 7-3 and 11-5.
The Wahine staged another rally behind backup setter Cayley Thurlby, pulling to 13-10. Kamana'o returned to connect with Arnott for two more kills to close to 13-12.
Hawaii never got closer than one after that. At 29-25, the Wahine held off one game point to close to 29-26, but Baum ended it with her 14th kill.
Game 4 was nearly a replay, with Hawaii having to play catch-up the whole way. A 3-0 serving run by Kamana'o gave the Wahine their first tie at 19-19. Arizona answered with a 4-0 run to go ahead for good and force a fifth game.
"Susie came up with crucial points when she needed to," Arnott said. "It didn't surprise us. We know what she can do."
San Diego, 3, Eastern Washington 2: Devon Forster put down 26 kills and Kristen Carlson had the Toreros' last three kills in holding off the Eagles.
USD (2-1) was poised for a sweep of EWU, only to have the Eagles go on a 5-1 run at the end of Game 3. The Eagles led for most of Game 4, helped in part by six blocks, but couldn't sustain it in Game 5.
Kristen Hurst finished with 13 kills and Carlson 12 for USD. Forster had 71 kills for the tournament, four shy of the tournament record set by UH's Kim Willoughby last year.
Torero libero Jackie Bernardin did break the tourney mark for most digs, finishing with 61, 10 more than Demetria Sance (Texas, 1995).
Keva Sonderen led the Eagles with 18 kills and was in on nine blocks. Deanna Albers had 24 of the team's 79 digs.
All-Tournament Team: Kamana'o, Boogaard and Prince, Hawaii; Forster and Lindsey Sherburne, San Diego; Cumpston, Arizona; Sonderen, EWU.
Notes: The Wahine will host three other undefeated teams in this week's Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Challenge in No. 3 UCLA (4-0), No. 22 Santa Clara (3-0) and Southwest Missouri State (4-0). The Bruins won the Texas A&M Invitational on Saturday with a sweep of the host Aggies. The Broncos swept Pacific on Saturday, dropping the Tigers to 0-2, the first time they've opened the season with two losses. The Bears overcame a 7-1 deficit in Game 4 to defeat Fresno State in four and claim their own Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational.
Hawaii def. Arizona
30-24, 33-31, 26-30, 26-30, 15-11Wildcats (2-1, 1-2 hal)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Abernathy 5 24 8 46 .348 0 1 10 Butkus 5 1 4 11 -.273 0 2 16 Ladd 5 11 5 24 .250 1 3 3 Cumpston 5 19 12 61 .115 0 4 23 Killough 5 9 1 19 .421 1 6 1 Baum 5 16 6 28 .357 0 3 7 Crum 5 0 0 1 .000 0 0 14 Chin 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 4 Dyck 5 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 0 Mulvany 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Totals 5 81 36 191 .236 2 19 88 Rainbow Wahine (3-0, 3-0 HAL)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Boogaard 5 21 5 55 .291 2 3 5 Hittle 4 10 6 31 .129 0 0 3 Gregory 4 8 4 18 .222 2 3 2 Arnott 5 18 5 49 .265 0 1 12 Kamana'o 5 3 3 6 .000 0 2 12 Prince 5 12 3 30 .300 1 5 1 Blood 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Eckmier 1 0 0 0 .000 0 2 1 Watanabe 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 20 Fotu 4 1 0 7 .143 0 4 4 Thurlby 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Woolford 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Totals 5 73 26 196 .240 5 20 62 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- UA (4): Abernathy, Baum, Crum, Mulvany. Hawaii (9): Boogaard 3, Arnott 2, Kamana'o 2, Prince 2. Assists -- UA (78): Butkus 72, Ladd 3, Baum, Crum, Chin. Hawaii (68): Kamana'o 52, Thurlby 5, Boogaard 4, Arnott 3, Fotu 3, Watanabe.
T -- 2:41. Officials -- Wayne Lee, Dan Hironaka. A -- 5,018.
