Saturday, October 9, 1999

Wahine blow past
Golden Hurricane

Hawaii takes a little more
than an hour to beat up Tulsa
and stay undefeated

From staff and wire reports

TULSA -- Short but sweet. That's all the No. 2 Hawaii women's volleyball team had hoped for when opening its first road trip in six weeks.

In what was the shortest match of the season so far, the Wahine (14-0, 3-0 WAC) remained unbeaten by beating up on Tulsa last night at the Reynolds Center. It took Hawaii just 69 minutes to blow out the Golden Hurricane, 15-4, 15-5, 15-2, and drop Tulsa to 7-7 and 1-2.

"I thought we played very well tonight,'' said Wahine coach Dave Shoji, notching career victory No. 695. "We served tough, we blocked their best player (Kristien Van Lierop) and took her out of the match early.

"We came out focused, played steady, blocked extremely well and hit for a high percentage. That's what you have to do to win on the road. Our goal is to play well on the road, execute what we want to do and look good doing it.''

It was more of a sneak peek for the estimated crowd of 300 in the arena.

The Wahine pulled away from a 4-4 tie in Game 1 with 11 unanswered points to finish it off in less than 20 minutes.

The Hurricane (8-11, 0-2) jumped to a 2-0 lead in Game 2. That was quickly erased as Hawaii sophomore Veronica Lima served for seven straight points, including two aces. At 9-5, Wahine freshman Lily Kahumoku went back to serve; she never left the backline, with Hawaii finishing it off with a 6-0 run.

Kahumoku and senior Heidi Ilustre each had solo blocks to punctuate the Wahine rolling to an 11-0 margin in Game 3.

A hitting error by Hawaii's Tanja Nikolic and an ace by Tammy Leuer accounted for Tulsa's only points; five minutes later, it was over with freshman setter Jennifer Carey serving the final point.

"It doesn't matter who is on the other side of the net, we have to focus every time out,'' said Wahine senior blocker Heather Bown.

"We did that tonight.''

Bown and Jessica Sudduth led Hawaii with 11 kills each. Bown, the nation's block leader, added 10 block assists for her sixth double-double of the season.

The Wahine hit .352 to Tulsa's .033.

The Hurricane were led by Van Lierop, who had six kills but hit negative .033.

Hawaii def. Tulsa,
15-4, 15-5, 15-2

Wahine (14-0, 3-0 WAC)

		g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Carey		3	1	1	4	.000 	0	0	6
Sudduth		3	11	1	21	.476	0	1	4	
Bown		3	11	2	21	.429 	0	10	4
Kahumoku	3	9	3	21	.286	1	2	4
Lima		3	6	3	12	.250	0	0	4
Ilustre		3	0	0	1	.000	1	3	9
Vakasausau	2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	4
Nikolic		1	1	1	3	.000	1	3	2
Roberts		2	4	0	7	.571	0	3	0
Lee		3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	3
	Totals	3	43	11	91	.352	2	26	40

Golden Hurricane (7-7, 1-2 WAC)

		g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Martin		2	1	2	5	-.200	0	1	3
Hidinger	2	2	3	10	-.100	0	2	3
Klemm		3	4	1	12	.250	0	2	1
Van Lierop	3	6	7	30	.-.033	0	1	9
Carlisle	3	4	1	5	.600	0	1	7
Smith		3	1	0	4	.250	0	1	6
Chrisman	1	2	1	4	.250	0	0	0
Vorraa		1	0	0	3 	.000	0	1	0
Leuer		3	0	3	9	-.333 	0	0	0
Frogge		1	3	2	9	.111	0	1	2
	Totals	3	23	20	91	.033	0	10	31

Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.

Aces--TU (2): Hidinger 1, Leuer 1. UH (5): Lima 2, Sudduth 1, Kahumoku 1, Bown 1. Assists_TU (22): Smith 20, Klemm 1, Leuer 1. UH (38): Carey 33, Roberts 2, Bown 1, Lima 1, Ilustre 1. T--1:09. Officials--John Steppin, Jill Cooper. Att- 300.

Last night's results

Hawaii def. Tulsa, 15-4, 15-5, 15-2

SMU def. TCU, 15-11, 15-6, 15-4