Saturday, December 4, 1999
Up next,
regional
Hawaii beats Utah and
By Cindy Luis
will host next week's Sweet
16 Mountain Regional
Star-BulletinThere will be 16 candles on the NCAA women's volleyball cake by tomorrow night. One of them already has Hawaii's name on it.
Thanks to some impressive coming-of-age performances by their freshmen, the third-ranked Wahine advanced to the Sweet 16 round of the Division I national tournament with a 15-11, 15-6, 15-4 win over Utah last night at the Stan Sheriff Center. Freshman Lily Kahumoku tied for the match high with nine kills and was in on six of the team's 19 blocks, and freshman setter Jennifer Carey had 24 assists to help put Hawaii (29-1) into a regional for the seventh consecutive year.
The victory over the Utes (22-10) sets up a meeting with No. 13 Texas A&M (21-9) next Thursday in the second match of the Mountain Regional at the Sheriff Center. The Aggies, coached by Punahou alumnus John Corbelli and his wife Laurie, eliminated No. 23 North Carolina last night, 15-8, 15-4, 15-8.
Also advancing to the Mountain Regional is former WAC member Colorado State (30-2), which defeated Kansas State, 15-12, 8-15, 15-13, 15-10. The No. 11 Rams will take on the winner of tonight's match between Long Beach State and Arkansas next Thursday at 5 p.m."We played good enough to win,'' said Hawaii coach Dave Shoji. "And, at this point, all you have to do is win and advance. I'm very happy about hosting a regional next week.
"We got off to a slow start but, once we settled down, we played pretty good ball. Our block was a key factor in turning the match around.''
The match lasted 80 minutes and, for the first 10 of it, Hawaii didn't have a block or a clue about what to do with Utah. The Utes, sporting tattoos with the Japanese character for 'victory' on their calves, jumped out to a 9-3 lead behind three block assists by former Wahine Adrianne Bradley.
In true island style, the Wahine block showed up late but made an impressive entrance. Hawaii stuffed four balls and pounded back three others on service overpasses to take an 11-10 lead.
Utah got its fourth block of Game 1 to tie it at 11. But it was the last time the Utes touched the Wahine as Hawaii outscored its former WAC rival, 34-10, en route to the sweep.
Hawaii finished with 19 blocks, with senior middle Heather Bown, the national leader, in on 11 of them. One of the roofs led to a yellow card warning on Kahumoku, who was citing for yelling through the net.
"It was an out-of-body experience,'' said the WAC Freshman of the Year. "I don't know what happened.''
It was the Utes who came back to earth after their upset of No. 21 Colorado on Thursday. Utah hit negative .046 with their second-lowest offensive total (21 points) of the season.
All-conference blocker McKelle Stilson was held to two kills and hit negative .500. Utah had difficulty running a middle attack with erratic passing off tough Hawaii serves, leaving talented senior setter Graciela Torres-Lopez with few - and very predictable - options.
"We served well and if a team doesn't have a good pass (off a serve), it makes it easier to read what the setter is going to do,'' said sophomore middle Veronica Lima. "We are a great blocking team. What are we, the best blocking team in the country?''
Statistics say yes. And there's no argument from Utah.
"That's the biggest Hawaii team we've played and the biggest team we've seen this year,'' said Utes coach Beth Launiere.
"They're much improved from a year ago.
"Their two freshmen (6-1 Carey and 6-2 Kahumoku) add so much size for them, make them so much bigger than they've been. I wish them a lot of luck the rest of the way. It would be awesome for them to win it all at home and good for volleyball.''
Hawaii, host of the final four Dec. 16-18, is attempting to become the fourth team in the 19-year history of the NCAA Tournament to win the title on its home court. The last was UCLA in 1991.
Utes (22-10) No. 3 Hawaii def. Utah,
15-11, 15-6, 15-4
g k e att pct. bs ba d Torres-Lopez 3 3 2 10 .100 0 0 3 Stilson 3 2 9 14 -.500 0 3 1 Snow-Richards 2 2 5 13 -.231 0 1 4 Geddes 3 6 7 19 -.053 0 0 10 Barton 3 0 0 1 .000 0 0 7 Bradley 3 7 7 22 .000 0 3 11 Beal 2 4 1 6 .500 0 1 0 Anderson 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Turkova 3 0 0 1 .000 0 0 2 Urbaova 2 6 4 19 .105 0 0 0 Ellett 2 0 0 3 .000 0 0 1 Totals 3 30 35 108 -.046 0 8 39Wahine (29-1)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Vakasausau 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 5 Carey 3 3 1 6 .333 0 3 7 Sudduth 3 4 0 21 .190 2 1 5 Bown 3 9 5 19 .211 3 8 1 Lima 3 4 2 11 .182 1 4 7 Roberts 3 5 2 10 .300 0 2 0 Nikolic 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Kahumoku 3 9 1 22 .364 1 5 2 Lee 3 0 0 1 .000 0 0 0 Ilustre 3 0 0 2 .000 0 1 8 Totals 3 34 11 92 .250 7 24 35Aces--Utah (4): Turkova 2, Torres-Lopez 1, Barton 1. UH (4): Carey 1, Bown 1, Lima 1, Ilustre 1. Assists--Utah (28): Torres-Lopez 21, Stilson 2, Snow-Richards 2, Bradley 2, Barton 1.UH (27): Carey 24, Bown 1, Nikolic 1, Ilustre 1.A--6,203. T-1:20. Officials: Mickey Matthews, Todd Brownell.
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
