WAHINE VOLLEYBALL
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
UH's Dani Mafua and Amber Kaufman put up a block against Pacific hitter Alexa Anderson in Hawaii's win last night.
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UH, Washington play for title
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Weaknesses - real or perceived - are in the eyes of the beholder.
For Hawaii coach Dave Shoji, he didn't think No. 9 Washington - tonight's opponent - showed many during its two matches at the Stan Sheriff Center.
NEXT UP
vs. Washington today
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Huskies coach Jim McLaughlin begs to differ ... but he's not going to point out any other than the obvious.
"Our setter is still learning," McLaughlin said of sophomore Jenna Haglund. "We're making progress and getting better every day."
Washington made quick work of St. Mary's in yesterday's first match of the Chevron Invitational. Junior hitter Jill Collymore put down 16 kills as the Huskies (7-0) took 85 minutes to sweep the Gaels 25-20, 25-17, 25-16.
St. Mary's (6-2) faces winless Pacific (0-7) at 5 p.m. today.
The Tigers fell to No. 10 Hawaii last night 25-21, 25-22, 25-23.
CINDY LUIS
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Kanani Herring and Tara Hittle tried to come up with a dig in Hawaii's win last night.
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Hawaii's four seniors began last night's volleyball match by giving former assistant coach Charlie Wade leis. Some 101 minutes later, the four helped send him and Pacific to their seventh straight loss.
Led by senior Jamie Houston's 16 kills and Nickie Thomas' six blocks, the 10th-ranked Rainbow Wahine swept Wade's Tigers 25-21, 25-22, 25-23 in the night's second match of the Chevron Invitational. The winless Tigers face St. Mary's (6-2) in today's 5 p.m. opener. The Gaels dropped their second straight when being swept by No. 9 Washington 25-20, 25-17, 25-16 in 86 minutes.
That UOP was able to stretch Hawaii in every set came as no surprise to most of the 4,495 in the Stan Sheriff Center. Wade was known for his fiery coaching style when spending 11 years on the Hawaii bench, including time with UH's seniors Houston, Thomas, Tara Hittle and Jessica Keefe.
"Charlie seemed to know what we were going to do out there," Houston said. "We just weren't clicking as a team. But we had to play through it and we did.
"Washington is a good team. We'll have to play at a top level to win."
Last night, the Wahine were better when it counted, in the final points after 20.
"I don't think there was much difference between our teams," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "And I think we're a top 10 team.
"We weren't at our best tonight and they gave us all we could handle. When we passed well, we ran our offense. It was pretty ragged and we couldn't side-out with any regularity."
Pacific, giving away 2 to 3 inches at every position, did a lot of things right to throw Hawaii off balance. Alexa Anderson (16 kills) and Kara Uhl (15 kills) hit smart and setter Shannon Krug - Hittle's high school setter - got her hitters good looks all night.
The difference was a point here and a mistake there.
"At the end of games, somebody stepped up, got a big kill, big dig, big block," Shoji said.
At 23-23 in Set 3, Amber Kaufman's successful stepout gave the Wahine match point. Wade called a timeout only to have freshman Stephanie Ferrell pound down her fifth kill to end it.
"We did play better tonight," Wade said. "It was fun for me out there.
"Jamie was so good. We didn't have an answer. She went up and over. It reminded me of the Kim (Willoughby) and Lily (Kahumoku) show a few years ago. Bad pass, crummy set, so what? She put it down."
Having an off-night was junior Aneli Cubi-Otineru, one of several Wahine slowed by a flu bug.
Note: Kanani Herring's reception error in Set 1 was her first in 99 receptions.
Washington 3, St. Mary's 0
The Huskies went on scoring runs late in Sets 1 and 3, and early in Set 2 en route to sweeping the Gaels.
As happened against Hawaii on Thursday, St. Mary's led late in Set 1 (20-19) only to give up six consecutive points. Four of the points came on consecutive kills by Airial Salvo, who finished with 10 for the match.
Set 3 turned into the Jill Collymore show, as the athletic 5-foot-10 junior put down seven kills to help give Washington a 15-12 lead at the technical timeout. UT closed it out with a 10-4 run, punctuated by Salvo's final kill.
Kindra Carlson added 11 kills and 15 digs for the Huskies. Libero Tamari Miyashiro had 14 digs.
Megan York led the Gaels with 14 kills.
Hawaii def. Pacific
25-21, 25-22, 25-23
Pacific (0-7)
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g |
k |
e |
att |
pct |
d |
bs |
ba |
pts
|
Uhl |
3 |
15 |
4 |
32 |
.344 |
14 |
1 |
0 |
15
|
Tonaszewska |
3 |
6 |
2 |
10 |
.400 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
5.5
|
Krug |
3 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
.250 |
5 |
0 |
1 |
2.5
|
Anderson |
3 |
16 |
6 |
38 |
.263 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
18
|
Gibson |
3 |
4 |
5 |
24 |
-.042 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
6
|
Vaysburg |
3 |
3 |
1 |
7 |
.286 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
|
Kama |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
0
|
MimMack |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0
|
Riley |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0
|
Hiromoto |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0
|
Total |
3 |
46 |
19 |
115 |
.235 |
42 |
3 |
6 |
52 |
Rainbow Wahine (6-2)
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g |
k |
e |
att |
pct |
d |
bs |
ba |
pts
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Kaufman |
3 |
5 |
1 |
12 |
.333 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
5.5
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Herring |
3 |
9 |
2 |
23 |
.304 |
12 |
0 |
3 |
10.5
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Houston |
3 |
16 |
5 |
40 |
.275 |
3 |
0 |
6 |
20 |
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Thomas |
3 |
7 |
2 |
13 |
.385 |
1 |
0 |
6 |
10
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Mafua |
3 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
.250 |
7 |
0 |
1 |
1.5
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Cubi-Otineru |
2 |
3 |
0 |
14 |
.214 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
4.5
|
Ferrell |
2 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
.625 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
5.5 |
|
Hittle |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
-1 |
|
Keefe |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0
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Kaaihue |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0
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Brandt |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0
|
Totals |
3 |
47 |
11 |
114 |
.316 |
42 |
0 |
21 |
56.5 |
Key - g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills + blocks + aces - service errors)
Aces - Pacific (2): Uhl, Anderson. Hawaii (5): Cubi-Otineru 2,Kaufman, Houston, Mafua. Assists - Pacific (41): Krug 38, Kama 2, Tomaszewska. Hawaii (45): Mafua 40, Brandt 2, Kaufman, Cubi-Otineru, Hittle. T -1:41. Officials - Dickson Chun, Wayne Lee. A - 4,495.