Wednesday, November 11, 1998

BYUH top seed
in tournament

By Jerry Campany
Special to the Star-Bulletin

Now Brigham Young-Hawaii's games will mean something.

The NCAA Division II Pacific West Conference women's volleyball tournament kicks off in Laie at the Cannon Activities Center tomorrow.

Three Hawaii teams, top-seeded BYUH, Hawaii Pacific, and Hawaii-Hilo, will participate in the championship tournament, which runs through Saturday. A BYUH-Hawaii Pacific confrontation is expected in the final after the Seasiders swept the four-game, regular-season series with the Sea Warriors.

The Seasiders have cruised through the schedule again and won all 14 conference games, earning the top seed and the right to host the tournament.

A loss would put them out of the single-elimination tournament early and will give the Pac West crown to another team.

The tournament winner takes the Pac West and nothing more, as the conference does not receive an automatic bid to the NCAA II tournament. It should not matter to BYUH and HPU though, as they are ranked Nos. 1 and 3, respectively, in the national poll going into the tourney.

Hawaii Pacific is seeded third behind Seattle Pacific, despite having a better record and power rating. The Falcons won the West division to give them the second seed. Lewis-Clark State and Western Oregon qualified for the tournament but were not eligible for postseason play.

PacWest Women What: PacWest Conference tournament Where: Cannon Activities Center, Laie Tomorrow: No. 2 Seattle Pacific (15-3, 22-6) versus No. 7 Alaska-Anchorage (7-7, 15-16), noon; No. 3 Hawaii Pacific (12-2) versus No. 6 Saint Martin's (9-9, 11-11), 2:30 p.m.; No. 5 Hawaii Hilo (7-7, 13-16) versus No. 4 Western New Mexico (8-6, 15-14), 5:30 p.m.; No. 1 BYU-Hawaii (14-0, 24-0) versus No. 8 Western Washington (8-10, 15-13), 8 p.m.

ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM: Three players from Hawaii schools were named to the Pacific West all-academic team yesterday.

Honored from top-ranked Brigham Young-Hawaii were junior blocker Arlete Silva and sophomore hitter Vanessa Valansi. Senior setter Heather Wride from Hawaii-Hilo was also named to the seven-women Pacific Division team.

To be eligible, students had to have at least sophomore standing and at least a 3.0 GPA.

STILL THE ONE: Brigham Young-Hawaii remained the top-ranked team in NCAA Division II in the AVCA coaches' poll released yesterday.

The Seasiders (24-1) were the unanimous choice by 24 voters for the ninth straight week. BYU-Hawaii's 60-match win streak ended last night against Hawaii, the seventh-ranked team in Division I.

Hawaii Pacific (24-4) stayed at No. 3 in the Division II poll. The Sea Warriors' four losses this season have all come to the Seasiders.