Wahine lose conference opener

The Hawaii women's soccer team opened Western Athletic Conference play with a 1-0 loss to Nevada yesterday at Mackey Stadium in Reno.

With the game-time temperature hovering around 31 degrees, the Wahine (4-5-3, 0-1) were unable to score on the Wolfpack (1-9-2, 1-0) despite having 10 shots on goal. Nevada's Patrice Godwin scored the game's only goal in the 67th minute.

The Wahine will wrap up their road trip tomorrow with a game against Fresno State.

Bleich blanks CaneFires

New York Yankees pitching prospect Jeremy Bleich threw six shutout innings and San Francisco's Roger Kieschnick drove in a run as the Waikiki BeachBoys beat the West Oahu CaneFires 2-1 in Hawaii Winter Baseball last night at Hans L'Orange Field.

Bleich allowed four hits and struck out six without a walk.

Kazunori Yamamoto pitched in a pair of scoreless innings in relief to earn the win for the BeachBoys (5-7). Daiki Kiyohara spoiled a nice start by Kyle Bloom to take the loss for the CaneFires (6-5).

» The Honolulu Sharks rapped out 15 hits to drub the North Shore Honu 10-4. The Sharks improved to 8-3 while North Shore dropped to 4-7.

UH men lose volleyball exhibition

The Hawaii men's volleyball team went 0-2 yesterday at the Thunderball Tournament in Vancouver, British Columbia, falling 3-1 to Korea's Sungkyukim and then 3-2 to host British Columbia in a pair of exhibition matches.

Sophomore hitter Joshua Walker put down 23 kills and hit .487 to lead the Warriors against SKK.

After jumping out to a 2-0 lead against UBC, the Warriors could not put the Thunderbirds away.

Walker again led Hawaii with 31 kills, hitting .393. Steve Hunt added 18 kills.

“;We feel pretty good about how we played after just six practices,”; UH coach Mike Wilton said.

The Warriors (0-2) will face Pacific in the bronze-medal match today.

Swanson climbs judo rankings

Honolulu's Melinda Swanson was recognized by USA Judo with a senior elite ranking this week.

Swanson, the top-ranked player in the heavyweight division, won back-to-back medals at the U.S. Open and Rendez-Vous tournaments.

PACWEST PLACE

Sea Warriors top Lady 'Swords

The Hawaii Pacific women's volleyball team defeated Chaminade 25-21, 25-21, 25-19 last night at McCabe Gym.

The Sea Warriors out-hit the Silverswords .163 to .067, with Julia Gruszecka leading HPU with 12 kills.

HPU improved to 9-10 for the season, while Chaminade dropped to 6-10.