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Friday, December 1, 2000
Wahine, Utes Call it round 2 of round 2.
will meet again
UH downs Davidson, Utah
tops Texas Tech to set up
a rematch from last
year's tournamentDivision I and II volleyball
tournament scoresBy Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinTonight, the University of Hawaii women's volleyball team will meet the same second- round opponent it swept Dec. 3, 1999, in the NCAA tournament second round: Utah.
A win will allow Hawaii, the West's No. 1 seed, to host the regionals next week.
"We're just going to prepare and take our shot at Hawaii," said Utes head coach Beth Launiere.
"We've been here before. My team won't back down and be intimidated. We have a tremendous amount of respect for Hawaii and their talent level but this is the NCAAs and we know what it's all about."
Hawaii is ranked No. 3 in the latest AVC/USA Today poll, and Utah is No. 19.
Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said he sees Utah, which had five players in double-digit kills against Texas Tech last night, as "very balanced."
"We're going to have to really honor all the hitters," he said. "They serve extremely well. They get back there and bomb the serve, which we knew about. They did it to us last year."
Shoji said the Wahine will be forced to play the entire Utes starting lineup.
"We'll have to play a very honest game," he said. "We can't stack the block here and go after one person there. They don't have many weaknesses."
The Wahine (28-1), in a less than scintillating performance, swept Davidson, 15-5, 15-6, 15-8, before 5,601 fans last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
In the earlier match, Utah (23-7) went to rally scoring to beat Texas Tech, 6-15, 15-8, 2-15, 15-10, 15-12.
The Wildcats bowed out at 24-12 while the Red Raiders ended at 24-9.
Shoji was not ecstatic about the way the Wahine made it to the second round.
The point is, Hawaii did not devour and spit out Davidson the way people expected.
The Wahine hit only .254 -- the third time in three matches they've hit below their season average -- and they had 19 errors.
"Any time you have double-figure errors it's not good," Shoji said.
For the first time in three matches, Hawaii outblocked its opponent, taking Davidson, 12.5 to 6. But the Wildcats were able to make 39 kills, only 11 fewer than Hawaii.
"There's no excuse for us not having our feet set on defense and not making a good strong move to the ball," said sophomore setter Jennifer Carey.
Carey, who had a big night with seven kills in seven attempts, 11 digs, seven blocks and 40 assists, laid it on the line for her team.
"Luckily we were so much better that we were able to get away with it tonight. But we're not going to be able to get away with it later."
In game 2, Hawaii trailed 3-0 and 6-3 before going on a 12-0 run.
"We got a little impatient and hit some balls out," Shoji said. During a timeout, the coach gave his team a dressing down.
"I was hot because we weren't performing," he said. "We were making unforced errors. We weren't going to the ball defensively, and our hitters were not hitting smart shots. I was hot but I think the team responded well."
Hawaii trailed in the third game, 8-7, before ending it with an 8-0 run.
"They sort of pushed our buttons and Dave pushed our buttons, too," said senior team captain Jessica Sudduth, who had seven of her eight kills in the last game.
A factor in Hawaii's recent sluggishness could be the absence of 6-foot-3 freshman All-WAC middle blocker Maja Gustin. Gustin, who sprained her right ankle in a 3-1 win against Cal Poly in Long Beach last week, is the nation's No. 6 blocker.
"That shouldn't be an excuse but we do have two 5-11 people trying to block middle now," said Shoji.
"I think Maja will play tomorrow (tonight). She actually was in a couple of drills at practice today (yesterday). Moved pretty good, jumped OK. Still landing on it (ankle) very gingerly. But she'll be available."
Last year, Hawaii swept the Utes, 15-11, 15-6, 15-4, while hitting .250 but outblocking them, 19-4.
Last night, Kim Willoughby led Hawaii with 11 kills and 10 digs (her eighth double-double of the year) while Kahumoku had 10 kills and 13 digs (her sixth double-double).
Mara Mordini and Roberta Quis led the Wildcats with 12 kills apiece.
"We tried to hit high hands, deep areas of the court, tried to catch them off guard," said Davidson head coach Tami Darwin.
She said the second game gave her Wildcats confidence.
"We gained confidence knowing we could play with Hawaii. Right away our girls saw there were holes in the block and they were able to tool, they were able to block."
But the Wildcats wound up hitting .077 and had 29 errors.
In the Utah-Texas Tech match, Jen Snow-Richards led the Utes with 14 kills while Alisa Geddes had 13 and Kim Turner, McKelle Stinson and Lenka Urbanova had 10 apiece.
Geddes was the only Ute who hit over .300 (.345).
Turner assisted on 10 blocks as the Utes outblocked the Red Raiders, 14.5 to 12.
But Texas Tech outhit Utah, .285 to .224.
The Red Raiders were led by 6-7 middle blocker Colleen Smith, who had 27 kills and hit .346. Melissa McGehee, a 5-10 outside hitter, added 18 kills and hit .361 for Texas Tech.
"We got outhit by about 70 percentage points (actually 61) and still found a way to win," Launiere said. "We just find ways to win volleyball matches."
Asked what difference she sees between the Wahine, who beat her team last season in the second round at the Stan Sheriff Center, and the 2000 Wahine, Launiere cited Gustin.
"I think the freshman middle brings a huge plus for them," she said. "Statistically she's doing incredible."
Asked if Gustin not being at 100 percent will be a factor, Launiere said it might.
"If she's not 100 percent, that's bad for her, good for us, obviously," she said.
Snow-Richards, a senior outside hitter, said the large and loudly partisan Stan Sheriff Center crowd will not have a negative effect on the Utes.
"That just adds to the adrenaline and excitement," she said.
"We just have to use the noise and excitement to our advantage. I think we can do that."
Hawaii def. Davidson, 15-5, 15-6, 15-8
Wildcats (24-12)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Ortega 3 6 5 21 .048 1 1 0 Lorenz 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 6 Schwartz 3 1 3 5 -.400 0 0 3 Mordini 3 12 7 41 .122 0 2 9 Teichgraeber 3 1 2 5 -.200 0 0 0 Bentley 3 5 2 22 .136 0 1 14 Tonelli 1 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 0 Schultz 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Quis 3 12 6 27 .222 0 3 1 Chapman 3 1 4 8 -.375 1 1 3 Martin 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Totals 3 39 29 130 .077 2 8 39 Wahine (28-1)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Nikolic 3 3 2 6 .167 0 0 6 Willoughby 3 11 3 26 .308 1 0 11 Carey 3 7 0 7 1.000 0 7 11 Sudduth 3 8 2 24 .250 0 0 7 Kahukmoku 3 10 5 30 .167 0 4 13 Lima 3 8 7 24 .042 0 6 4 Vakasausau 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Gomez-Tukuafu 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Lee 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Duggins 3 3 0 5 .600 1 4 0 Villaroman 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Totals 3 50 19 122 .254 2 21 56 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--Dav (3): Lorenz, Bentley, Martin. UH (7): Sudduth 3, Carey 2, Kahumoku, Lima.
Assists--Dav (38): Schwartz 35, Ortega, Bentley, Chapman. UH (47): Carey 40, Willoughby 3, Sudduth 2, Nikolic, Kahukumoku.
T-1:26. Officials: Gloria Cox, Tom Pingel. A--6,160.
Utah def. Texas Tech, 6-15, 15-8, 2-15, 15-10, 15-12
Red Raiders (24-9)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Orzen 5 1 0 7 .143 0 1 11 McGehee 5 18 5 36 .361 0 2 10 Jury 5 4 2 13 .154 1 2 7 Romjue 5 2 5 20 -.150 0 3 14 Smith 5 27 9 52 .346 0 4 7 Jones 5 9 2 20 .350 1 5 0 Mooney 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Hughes-Justice 5 1 0 3 .333 0 0 8 Kubalova 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Cumbess 4 6 0 7 .857 0 3 0 Totals 5 68 23 158 .285 2 20 57
Utes (23-7)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Snow-Richards 5 14 6 29 .276 0 5 10 Turkova 5 7 3 15 .267 0 3 8 Ellett 1 1 1 9 .000 0 1 2 Geddes 5 13 3 29 .345 0 2 8 Turner 5 10 4 26 .231 0 10 1 Bradley-Drake 5 2 0 2 1.000 0 0 8 Morrill 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Stilson 5 10 4 20 .300 0 4 0 Urbanova 5 10 9 34 .029 0 4 8 Barton 5 0 0 1 .000 0 0 7 Totals 5 67 30 165 .224 0 29 53 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--TT (6): Hughes-Justice 3, Jury, Romjue, Smith. UU (8): Geddes 3, Snow-Richards 2, Barton 2, Bradley-Drake.
Assists--TT (63): Orzen 59, McGehee 3, Smith. UU (61): Turkova 53, Geddes 3, Urbanova 2, Barton 2, Stilson.
T-1:55. Officials: Tom Pingel, Bob Oshita.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii