Wahine roll!
Associated Press
Seniors Angelica Ljungquist and Joselyn Robins
celebrate their win over Florida.
Hawaii sweeps Florida in the NCAA semis;
Stanford awaits in the finale
By Cindy LuisStar-Bulletin
Eight years is an ice age when it comes to women's collegiate volleyball. Hawaii has been frozen out of the final four since 1988, never quite getting over the glacier known as the regional.
"Every year you don't make it, you begin to question yourself," Wahine coach Dave Shoji said. "When you don't make it after working so hard all season long, it's depressing.
"Tonight, it feels like the old days where we're back. Maybe not that we're back where we belong but we're back to feeling the way we used to feel."
Shoji hopes to soon be feeling like he did in 1987, when his Wahine team defeated Stanford for what would be the last of Hawaii's four championships. Maybe it's fate, but the Wahine will again meet the Cardinal for the NCAA title at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Cleveland State Convocation Center.
Hawaii (35-2) needed just 86 minutes to sweep past top-ranked Florida, 15-11, 15-8, 15-9, last night and into its fifth NCAA final since 1982. The win set up a meeting with one of the two teams to hand the Wahine a loss this season, Stanford, which eliminated defending champion Nebraska, 9-15, 15-7, 15-9, 15-8, in the second semifinal.
"We just want to play the best team that's left, and it's Stanford," said Wahine junior Therese Crawford after putting down 15 kills. "We didn't play our best against Stanford when we played them the last time. This time, we want to play our best against the best."
Hawaii wasn't playing at its best early last night, struggling at times with the hitting of Nina Foster (12 kills) and Aurymar Rodriguez (10 kills). But when the Wahine needed them, their two All-American seniors - Angelica Ljungquist and Robyn Ah Mow - were at their best.
Case in point: Florida led, 1-0, in Game 3 when Ah Mow came up with a one-handed save of a ball that was going over the net and flipped it behind her to Ljungquist on a tricky shoot set that resulted in one of Ljungquist's 15 kills.
"It (that play) hardly seems fair," said Florida coach Mary Wise, named named National Coach of the Year yesterday. "There were two key factors in Hawaii beating us, 3-0. One would be their blocking. The other is the play of Robyn Ah Mow. We've played good blocking teams but Hawaii was at another level tonight.
"Even when we got Hawaii out of sync, Robyn would turn not-so-great passes into perfect sets. She put on a clinic and they won the match because of her."
Ah Mow had 14 of the team's 57 digs and 41 of the 50 assists. She ran such a deceptive and balanced attack - with four players in double-kill figures - that Florida did not record a block until Julie Stanhope and Rodriguez stuffed Cia Goods to close to 5-2 in Game 2.
Ah Mow came right back to Goods, who connected for one of her 10 kills. Also in double-kill figures for the Wahine was Joselyn Robins, putting down 13 and hitting a team-high .409.
Ljungquist, who celebrates her 22nd birthday today, more than lived up to her Player of the Year award. The senior middle blocker was in on seven blocks, had a team-high 15 digs and added three service aces for 58 on the year, a UH single-season record.
Ljungquist also moved into second place on the career kill list, behind Teee Williams, Hawaii's other national player of the year.
"We wanted this so much," said Ljungquist, who teamed with Ah Mow for the match-ending block of Rodriguez. "We knew we had to come out and be aggressive, not let them back in like we did the last time. We had a good scouting report and I think we did a good job executing our game plan."
Of course, the plan all along has been to win the national championship. To have a shot at it, Hawaii needed to end Florida's 37-match winning streak, a streak that began the day after the first match of the year, the day after the Wahine rallied to win in five at the NACWAA Classic in Normal, Ill.
"We had a pretty good season," said Wise. "We were 37-0, and the 0-2 against Hawaii. Our biggest problem is we've got to quit facing the player of the year every time we get to the final four."
The Gators (37-2) had made it to two previous final-four semifinals. In 1992, they lost to UCLA, featuring Natalie Williams. In 1993, the loss was to Long Beach State and Danielle Scott.
Tomorrow, Hawaii will face two 1997 Player of the Year candidates in Stanford's Kristin Folkl and Kerri Walsh. Walsh had 19 kills, 12 digs and eight block assists, and Folkl added 15 kills, to lead the Cardinal last night.
"Hawaii has some motivation after we beat them at home" said Stanford coach Don Shaw, whose team won the NCAA title in 1992 ad 1994. "They've lost twice this year. They got back at BYU last week (in the regional championship) for one of those losses. Now, they go after us."
And Hawaii could win, according to Fiona Nepo, Nebraska's sophomore setter and a first-team All-American pick this week.
"It's going to be a great match," said the University High graduate. "It will be tough. They'll have to serve tough, block well and their outside hitters will have to step it up. If Hawaii plays like they need to, they could.
"Yeah, it would have been great if I had been able to play against Hawaii in the final four. It was fun against them in the NACWAA tournament. Usually you look across the net and it's 'OK' But at NACWAA, it was, 'Hi, how you doing.' There's just some connection you have when you're from Hawaii and you play other players from Hawaii.'
In a match eerily similar to the one in Honolulu last month, the Cardinal looked rattled at first, then started rattling off points. The match was not as close as the final scores indicate, with Stanford holding a 13-0 lead in
Game 2, 6-1 in Game 3 and 14-5 in Game 4.
As she did against the Wahine, Walsh was nearly untouchable from the back row en route to 29 kills. The national freshman of the year also had 12 digs, eight block assists and three aces.
What Walsh didn't put down, Folkl did, finishing with 14 kills. Lambert, coming off the bench, added 11.
The Cornhuskers (30-4) got a match-high 20 from Lisa Reitsma, who put down her 600th career kill at the end of Game 1. Kate Crnich added 16 kills and 15 digs.
"Stanford is vulnerable. We just didn't take advantage of the situation when we had them reeling a little it," said Nebraska coach Terry Pettit, whose 1984 team stunned Stanford in the national semifinals. "I don't have to tell Dave (Shoji) anything to help him prepare. He knows what it will take to beat Stanford."
Hawaii needs to do everything it did in Game 1 against the Cardinal last month: serve tough, disrupt Stanford's passing, slow down Walsh's back-row attack and frustrate Folkl on the outside. The Wahine will also have to have an answer for Lambert, who had a career night last month with 12 kills and five blocks.
"We got spanked pretty badly by Stanford," Shoji said. "We have something to prove to ourselves. We're not talking revenge. But if there is redemption, it's in us wanting to gain some respect back."
Shoji has been waiting for a rematch with Stanford for more than a month. He's been waiting 96 months to bring the Wahine back to where they belong.
Hawaii def. Florida, 15-11, 15-8, 15-9
Gators (37-2)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Shade 3 4 0 7 .571 0 0 7 Woods 3 4 8 23 .043 0 3 16 Jones 1 1 1 2 .000 0 1 0 Reboucas 3 0 12 0 .000 0 0 1 Rodriguez 3 10 1 39 .103 0 2 4 Roach 3 0 0 2 --.500 0 0 5 Keene 3 4 4 12 .083 0 0 2 Stanhope 3 3 0 11 .091 0 3 1 Manz 3 1 0 7 --.286 0 0 2 Sanchez 1 1 1 1 1.000 0 0 0 Foster 3 12 1 27 .333 0 1 5 Totals 3 40 22 131 .137 0 10 28
Wahine (35-2)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Crawford 3 15 7 40 .200 0 3 4 Goods 3 10 3 18 .389 1 2 2 Yamashita 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 5 Nobriga 3 3 0 12 .250 0 2 9 Ljungquist 3 15 4 32 .344 0 7 15 Ah Mow 3 1 0 3 .333 0 3 14 Robins 3 13 4 22 .409 1 0 8 Ilustre 1 0 0 0 .000 0 1 0 Totals 3 57 18 127 .307 2 18 57Key: g-games. k-kills. e-hitting errors. at-attempts. pct.-hitting percentage. bs-block solos. ba-block assists. d-digs.
Aces-UF (4): Shade 1, Roach 1, Keene 1, Stanhope 1. UH (6): Yamashita 3, Ljungquist 3. Assists-UF (31): Shade 26, Sanchez 3, Wood 1, Roach 1. UH (50): Ah Mow 41, Nobriga 4, Ljungquist 3, Goods 1, Crawford 1.
A-7,209. T-1:26. Officials: Powell, Lemaire.