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Monday, October 30, 2000
Mission accomplished. Volleyball Wahine
tough in TexasBy Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinThe University of Hawaii women's volleyball team came out of its four straight road matches smelling like a rose.
But the Wahine (No. 2 in the AVCA/USA Today poll, No. 1 in Volleyball Magazine) did it without their Lily.
"It's a little scary not to write No. 9 in the lineup but I think the team came through without her," said Wahine head coach Dave Shoji.
Sophomore left-side hitter Lily Kahumoku, Hawaii's offensive leader (4.71 kills per game), suffered deeply bruised cartilage in her right wrist during a practice the day before Friday night's match at Texas Christian University.
She missed her team's sweeps of TCU, and Southern Methodist University on Saturday.
Shoji said he would like to have her ready to go against San Jose State on Thursday at the Stan Sheriff Center because the Spartans (17-5 overall, 8-1 WAC) are now Hawaii's (20-0, 10-0) closest pursuers in the Western Athletic Conference.
"We'd like to be at full strength for that but she's still sore," he said.
"If we had to play tomorrow (Monday), she couldn't play. I don't know how long it will take."
Shoji said even though Kahumoku played through back pain last season and earned WAC freshman of the year and All-WAC first-team honors, the wrist injury is much more sensitive.
The Wahine are at home for five of their final six WAC matches.
After hosting the second-place Spartans on Thursday, the Wahine will welcome in Fresno State on Saturday. Hawaii's last WAC road match is at Tulsa on Nov. 10.
After that, the Wahine stay home to play Nevada (Nov. 16), Rice (Nov. 21) and the University of Texas-El Paso (Nov. 22).
The Wahine fly to California for the Long Beach State Thanksgiving Tournament Nov. 24-25.
Hawaii faces Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Nov. 24 and the 18th-ranked 49ers the next night.
Long Beach State is the only ranked team Hawaii will face between now and the NCAA Tournament.
Once again, depth and the ability of some players to step up their games with a key starter down made the difference in Hawaii's favor last weekend.
Against SMU (15-4, 15-9, 15-9), freshman Kim Willoughby led the offense with 13 kills and had a career-high 17 digs while hitting .400. She went into the weekend hitting .245 on the season.
Junior Veronica Lima and freshman Maja Gustin had 12 kills apiece.
"Kim hit for a higher percentage and that's what we wanted out of her," Shoji said. "She's been getting a lot of kills but she was getting a lot of errors also."
Against TCU, junior Tanja Nikolic stepped into Kahumoku's spot and had a career-high 12 kills. She also hit a solid .409 as Hawaii won, 17-15, 15-10, 15-8.
Hawaii is hitting .305 as a team to opponents' .127.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
