Home, heart help Wahine beat the heat

SMILES. Everywhere, smiles. Arms in the air. Jumping, and ti leaves, and the place rocking, "Let's Go 'Bows!"

A guy danced in the aisle.

Someone unfurled a giant rainbow fan, three seats wide.

A tutu bounced a baby girl.

They did the canoe paddle to "Hawaii 5-0."

Smiles, everywhere. Celebrations, noise. Home is where the heart is. That's what Hawaii had last night. It had home. It had heart.

Volleyball is smiles and fists. Perhaps more than any other game, volleyball is emotion. It's momentum. It is celebrations and rallies and runs. Every block is a revival meeting. Every point a miracle.

It is great leaps during plays, and then after them, too.

Volleyball is heart.

Volleyball is home.

This is what Hawaii had, last night, in this NCAA Regional, in Game 2. And Game 4. And Game 5, oh my goodness, Game 5.

Do you believe in miracles? Yes. After last night we do. On the NCAA-issued blue court, the Rainbow Wahine were walking on water, out there, in the end.

Oh, the chicken skin.

All night long it had tried to carry them, this crowd. It had pushed and pulled and lifted and inspired and bullied and begged. Then came Game 5, and it was the Wahine who picked up the crowd, this time, in the end, carried it, made the place soar.

It just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. The smiles did. The noise did. The moment did. It was building and building, oh my goodness, was this really happening? It was.

"I have no explanation about Game 5," Dave Shoji said.

Everybody up. Every arm. The place exploded. They rushed the court, the Wahine did. Rushed the court even though there is one more to go.

But it was that kind of night. That kind of win.

Maybe that kind of season. Maybe it already is.

"It was everything that we worked hard for was realized tonight," Shoji said.

For a while it looked like they shouldn't even have been here, this year. It's a testament to this team that it even got this far. No Tara Hittle, no Nickie Thomas, no Alicia Arnott. Kanoe Kamana'o missing time in the beginning of the season with some mysterious ailment. Tension in the air.

It didn't look like this season was going to end well.

For a while, it was fair to wonder if Hawaii might actually finally have an off year.

And yet, here they were. Again. Like always. What a team. What a program. What a coach. Here they were, looking for a miracle.

Here they were, it was possible. It was happening. In fact it just did.

Volleyball is home. Volleyball is heart. This is what beat USC, in the end. Home. Heart. All of it. Everything. It engulfed the Trojans in Game 5. It buried them. USC had no chance, in the end. Not against a tsunami of chicken skin.

"They came to see us win," Shoji said.

That drum beat. Let's Go 'Bows.

"We fought as hard as we could fight," USC coach Mick Haley said.

Are the Wahine really this good? Doesn't matter. They were last night.

Jayme Lee ran all night. She ran, and ran. She had her own Honolulu Marathon, last night. She just kept running, all night. Juliana Sanders, big moments in the middle. Jamie Houston, big hits, a rooster strut. Sarah Mason. Kamana'o, her smile getting bigger, bigger as the moment did. The whole thing building to the explosion at the end.

Now the Wahine have to play UCLA tonight to go to Omaha, for the final four. Let's face it, it would take a miracle. Hey -- they are at home ...

Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com