Monday, September 3, 2001
[ WAHINE VOLLEYBALL ]
Bruins thump Wahine After winning two straight Wahine Classic titles, the Hawaii volleyball team came up short in its quest for a third championship.
with a 3-game sweep
UCLA thwarts Hawaii's attempt to
win a third straight Classic tournamentBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comBefore a crowd of 6,351 at the Stan Sheriff Center, UCLA swept Hawaii 30-25, 30-25, 30-24. The title was the sixth tournament win for the Bruins, who tie Hawaii for most overall.
Tournament most outstanding player Kristee Porter plagued the Wahine with a variety of roll shots, tips and thundering kills over the block. Porter collected 25 kills at a .404 clip. The senior also had a match-high 14 digs and blasted two aces.
"Porter's a big difference in the match," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "She got a lot of kills but she also hit for a great percentage. Big-time players step up in a big match. At times, she was unstoppable.
"We played pretty even but we just couldn't score. We didn't serve tough enough or they passed really well. We just couldn't make any kind of run in the first two games."
Hawaii and UCLA battled through most of the first two games with both teams holding slim leads but the Bruins balanced attack gave Hawaii blockers fits trying to anticipate where the ball would go next.
"That's going to be our key this year to get everybody involved and use everybody," UCLA coach Andy Banachowski said. "We've got some maturity with some youth out there too. We want to be more than one-dimensional. We're stressing about trying to stay balanced."
Setter Erika Selsor distributed the offense to two other Bruin hitters and collected 46 assists. Ashley Bowles and Lauren Fendrick each hammered 11 kills.
And with three jump servers in their arsenal -- Chrissie Zartman, Bowles and Porter -- UCLA torched Hawaii for four aces and kept the Wahine passing out of sync.
"We weren't passing the jump serve well enough to run our offense," Shoji said.
Kim Willoughby led the offense for Hawaii with 16 kills, but she also had 10 errors. Tanja Nikolic and Maja Gustin provided 13 kills a piece.
Gustin, who is still adjusting to finding her rhythm on the left side, gave Hawaii a needed boost in Game 2. She had eight kills in nine attempts and brought the Wahine back during various points in the game.
"The first and second night I wasn't so confident," Gustin said. "I knew I could do it, but I just needed time. I need to go in the gym and practice my timing."
Gustin won't be the only one working on fundamentals, as Hawaii prepares for the Aston Imua Challenge.
Shoji wants to improve the team's passing and blocking.
"At this point, you just keep trying to work on your fundamentals," Shoji said. "There's not a lot of different things we're going to do."
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii