RAINBOW VOLLEYBALL
Kamana‘o wins WAC’s top honor -- Kearney
Nevada's Fazekas joins the UH setter as male and female athletes of 2005-06
Hawaii setter and senior-to-be Kanoe Kamana'o had a surprise waiting for her yesterday when she walked into assistant sports information director Pakalani Bello's office.
She'd just been named the female recipient of the Joe Kearney Award as the Western Athletic Conference's female athlete of the year for 2005-06.
Kamana'o is the second Rainbow Wahine volleyball player to win the award, named after the former WAC commissioner.
"It's a great honor," she said. "To be the second volleyball player to get it, especially after Kim Willoughby ... "
Willoughby was the Kearney honoree in the summers of 2003 and 2004.
Nevada basketball player Nick Fazekas won this year's men's award.
Kamana'o is a three-time All-American, three-time first-team All-WAC honoree and a two-time WAC player of the year. Last year, she had the second-best assists-per-game mark in UH history.
She is already UH's all-time leader in assists with 4,955. Her current career assists-per-game average is also an all-time best.
"Her work ethic, dedication and talent have been an inspiration to the youth volleyball players who dream to be like Kanoe," said Marilyn Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano, UH's senior woman administrator.
Kamana'o deflected the individual honor.
"It all feeds back to overall how our volleyball team had done last season," she said.
Fazekas, a two-time WAC player of the year, has helped the Wolf Pack to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
He is Nevada's career blocks leader and No. 2 on the Wolf Pack's career scoring chart.