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Tuesday, September 5, 2000
A Classic victory For the University of Hawaii women's volleyball team, it was an early season character-builder.
for Wahine
Kahumoku leads an inspired
UH team past arch-rival
UCLA in finalBy Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinThe Wahine rallied from behind in each game to sweep powerful arch-rival UCLA, 15-8, 16-14, 15-12, before 6,283 fans last night at the Stan Sheriff Center in the championship of the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic.
It was Hawaii's sixth title in the tournament.
Left-side hitting sophomore Lily Kahumoku led the Wahine (3-0), who slipped a notch to No. 6 in the latest USA Today/AVCA Coaches Top 25 Poll, with 16 kills, eight digs and four block assists.
"I think she's a tremendous, tremendous player," said UCLA head coach Andy Banachowski.
"When she came in last year, I marveled at her arm swing. It's a thing of beauty. She's able to move the ball around on us so it's hard to get our block set on her."
Freshman right-side hitter Kim Willoughby made 10 critical kills (the only other Wahine in double digits), most of them after she sprained her left ankle in Game 2.
Willoughby also had eight digs, a service ace and three block assists.
Members of the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic All-Tournament Team: CLASSIC PLAYERS
Lily Kahumoku, Hawaii
Most valuable player
Hawaii head coach Dave Shoji said he hopes the sprain is a minor one. He said he was encouraged by the fact that she was able to go back in the match and make important plays.
UCLA's Kristee Porter, the tournament MVP with 73 kills in three matches, was a major concern to the Wahine.
"We had to make her earn her (23) kills and she definitely did," said senior Jessica Sudduth, whose surgically repaired right thumb took a nasty hit in the third game.
"We had to take what she likes away from her. She likes to hit a lot of cross court, so we tried to shade a little more cross court and challenge her to hit other shots."
Porter said the strategy worked well against her.
"They were pretty successful," she said. "I'm basically a cross-court hitter, so if you make me change it, you're doing your job."
Kahumoku said "awesome is an understatement" for the way Porter plays.
The 6-footer from Tyler, Texas, got 17 of her kills in the first two games, mostly by shots off the hands of Wahine players.
"We knew that Porter was going to get a bunch of kills and hit for a pretty good percentage (.349)," Shoji said.
"She hit four more than we wanted and we still won the match."
But Shoji said that keeping middle blocker Elisabeth Bachman and outside hitter Ashley Bowles, who hit .150 and .161, respectively, in check was also critical.
Hawaii trailed until Kahumoku turned the tide (6-5) in the first game. In the second game, the Wahine came back from a 5-2 deficit to open a 10-6 lead.
But the Bruins rallied to take a 14-13 lead before Hawaii tied it and put it away on two UCLA hitting errors.
The final game saw Hawaii start out with a 4-1 lead before the Bruins ran off eight straight points. UCLA led by a commanding 12-6 margin but Hawaii rallied to tie at 12-12 and go ahead on an air-to-ground cross-court missile by Willoughby.
Banachowski was asked if he thought fatigue was a factor in his team's inability to sustain a big lead in game 3.
"Playing three days in a row affected us, and I think Hawaii had a little to do with that, too," said Banachowski.
Throw in the fact that the Bruins had to start the season at the State Farm Classic in Gaines-ville, Fla., the week before flying to the other side of the country.
And there's no rest for the Bruins. Their next three matches are against nationally ranked teams: Michigan State, Notre Dame and Nebraska.
Porter did everything she could to salvage the third game for UCLA, who fell from No. 1 to No. 3 in the USA Today/AVCA Coaches Top 25.
"She was trying to mix it up with dinks and off-speed stuff," said Banachowski.
"I just wish we could've kept her in the front row there or just got the ball to her a little more at the end of the third game," he added. "But we didn't have good setups for that."
Hawaii will now host the Aston Imua Wahine Volleyball Challenge Thursday through Sunday as unranked Creighton, Northwestern and Oregon come into town.
HAWAII DEF. UCLA, 15-8, 16-14, 15-12
Bruins (3-2 overall, 2-1 HAL)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Bachman 3 7 4 20 .150 1 6 2 Bowles 3 10 5 31 .161 0 1 8 Porter 3 23 8 43 .349 1 0 9 Selsor 3 2 0 3 .667 0 1 5 Fendrick 3 4 5 22 -.045 0 4 10 Quon 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 9 Lee 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 4 Wright 2 0 1 1 -1.000 0 1 0 Harley 3 3 4 15 -.067 0 1 0 McFarland 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Rylander 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 5 Totals 3 49 27 135 .163 2 14 54
Wahine (3-0 overall, 3-0 HAL)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Willoughby 3 10 6 21 .190 1 3 8 Carey 3 1 1 6 .000 0 0 10 Sudduth 3 7 3 32 .125 1 2 10 Kahumoku 3 16 6 41 .244 0 4 8 Lima 3 7 1 13 .462 0 3 4 Gustin 3 6 4 18 .111 0 6 1 Vakasausau 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Nikolic 2 1 0 2 .500 0 0 2 Gomez-Tukuafu 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Lee 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 7 Duggins 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Villaroman 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Totals 3 48 21 133 .203 2 18 53 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--UCLA (4): Fendrick 2, Bowles, Quon. UH (4): Gustin 2, Willoughby, Kahumoku.
Assists--UCLA (46): Selsor 32, McFarland 4, Wright 2, Bowles 2, Porter 2, Bachman, Quon. UH (45): Carey 39, Willoughby 3, Kahumoku, Nikolic, Vakasausau.
T-1:49. Officials: Wayne Lee, Ernest Ho.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii