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Monday, December 11, 2000
Wahine need University of Hawaii Wahine volleyball players say they've been on cloud nine since winning the NCAA West Regional title on Friday and some haven't been able to get much sleep.
some shut eye
UH volleyball team, still
flying high, will leave tonight for
NCAA final four in VirginiaBy Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinMinds working overtime on anticipation have created an epidemic of insomnia.
But head coach Dave Shoji reels in the cloud tonight. The No. 3 Wahine depart on Delta flight 54 at 6:05 p.m. for the NCAA final four in Richmond, Va.
Hawaii (31-1) will face No. 1 Nebraska (32-0) at 1 p.m. Hawaii time on Thursday in the Richmond Coliseum. The match will be televised either live or on tape-delay by ESPN2.
USC will meet Wisconsin in the other semifinal match.
The national championship will be played Saturday, also on ESPN2.
Sophomore left side hitter Lily Kahumoku, the Western Athletic Conference player of the year, said she didn't go to bed until 3 a.m. Saturday, and was up again until the wee hours yesterday.
"I'm consumed with going to the final four," she said. "I can't think straight. I can't gather my thoughts. It's like a dream come true for so many of us."
Freshman All-WAC middle blocker Maja Gustin, who had 19 blocks last week, said she couldn't sleep at all after the match on Friday.
"My body was still full of energy so I went out," she said.
Kim Willoughby, WAC co-freshman of the year with Gustin, said she plans to sleep on the plane.
"Actually, I'm going to sleep a lot because I went to bed after Fright night at 6 a.m.," she said. "Some of them probably didn't sleep at all that night because we were all pretty excited. The important thing is that we were sharing something very special with a whole bunch of special people."
"I was up all night (Friday) because I cheered too much and I had phlegm in my throat," said senior defensive specialist Aven Lee.
Senior left side hitter and team captain Jessica Sudduth said she's stayed up late to spend time with her father, Steve, and an uncle who've been in town to support her.
"I've been hanging out with my dad and my uncle and my close friends, and talking about the whole experience and what it means," she said. "My friends came over after the match to my house (shared by eight students) on Saturday night and we all chilled. I was trying to talk to people but I couldn't because I was in my own world."
"It's a whirlwind and it's kind of overwhelming right now with school finishing and having to move out of the dorms," said sophomore setter Jennifer Carey, whose Evel Knievel efforts to keep balls in play last week went unheralded.
Many times against Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara, Carey put her body in peril for digs that carried her into or on top of the courtside tables.
"I'd rather be tired, sore and happy than tired, sore and sad," Carey said.
"It feels really unreal and it hasn't hit me yet that we're actually leaving tomorrow," said backup setter Margaret Vakasausau.
"I think when I'm done with my three finals tomorrow, and I'm on the plane sleeping all the way to Virginia, it'll hit me. And when we walk into that Richmond Coliseum, it'll hit me."
The Wahine also have been thinking about winter in the East.
For some it will be a problem and for others, it won't.
"I've been in Russia when it was like minus 30 Celsius," said junior Tanja Nikolic, a Croatian native. "So it won't be hard for me."
But for freshman middle blocker Lauren Duggins, it's a problem she has to resolve PDQ.
"I'm thinking about getting some warm clothes because right now I have absolutely none," said Duggins, who hails from Fullerton, Calif.
Asked how she'll endure the cold, Lee, who went to the 1996 final four in Cleveland with Hawaii, plans to just "double up" her warmer Hawaii clothes.
Gustin said the final four will be the most important volleyball experience of her life, even though the native of Slovenia played for her national team.
"The desire was not as strong as here," Gustin said. "Here in Hawaii, everything is about volleyball. That's why it's the biggest thing for me. I just focus on that now and I don't even think of exams."
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
