Wednesday, September 5, 2001

[ WAHINE VOLLEYBALL ]

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Wahine steady in
Classic, Shoji says

In a season full of bumps so far,
the Hawaii coach is pleased with
his team's performance

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By Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.com

AFTER taking a pounding at the State Farm Classic, the Hawaii volleyball machine is running a bit more smoothly with two wins at the Hawaiian Airlines Classic.

The Wahine's second-place finish in last weekend's tournament has coach Dave Shoji pleased with the improvement.

"Even though we lost on Sunday, we played a lot steadier," Shoji said. "We didn't give up a lot of runs. We still didn't execute towards the end of the match when we needed to. Overall, it was our most even performance of the year.

"We need to play better defense. We've not won long rallies. You work hard to get into a long rally, but it doesn't pay off unless you can end it."

The Wahine fell five spots in the AVCA poll released yesterday.

Tenth-ranked Hawaii needs steady play again for another tough weekend.

UH hosts Utah State, USC and Cincinnati in the seventh annual Aston Imua Challenge. The Wahine are six-time Challenge winners.

Hawaii plays Utah State tomorrow at 7 p.m. Cincinnati and USC play in the early match at 5 p.m.

The Wahine had Monday off and returned to practice yesterday to work on fundamentals.

"Our team is still working," Maja Gustin said. "This is just the beginning. We are learning about how to deal with this stuff. Even though we lost, it's not bad because we played well. We are just building our team."

They'll have to speed up the construction against No. 6 USC. The Trojans reached last year's final four and have four starters returning. They are the only ranked team among the opponents.

The Trojans finished 1-1 at the Irvine Invitational last weekend. USC's five-game loss to third-ranked Wisconsin was the first loss for former national team coach Mick Haley.

Utah State also has a first-year coach in former UCLA assistant Burt Fuller. Fuller's squad was 2-1 at the Colorado State tournament and needs to rally to win points, much like Hawaii.

"We're kind of the jack of all, master of none," Fuller said. "We really need to have three or four swings a rally to win a point. We handle the ball well. We serve effectively. We have to do those things in order to put teams in trouble.

"Hawaii's had a couple of losses and everybody's kind of down on them, but they still have three or four real, real strong players. They've got maybe one or two All-Americans playing for them in (Kim) Willoughby and Gustin."

Unranked Cincinnati is the only undefeated team in the tournament. UC defeated Wyoming and San Francisco at the Golden Gate Classic.

No. 6 USC Coach: Mick Haley, 1st year Record: 1-1 Starters (6-2 offense): Toni Anderson, Keao Burdine, Alicia Robinson, April Ross, Jennifer Pahl, Katie Olsovsky, Tracy Lindquist, Lauren Killian Series record vs. Hawaii: 18-14 Utah State Coach: Burt Fuller, 1st year Record: 2-1 Starters: Chelsi Neves, Hailey MacKay, Michelle Matheson, Lisa Borom, Shauni Fluckiger, Erin Cartwright Series record: 25-7 Cincinnati Coach: Reed Sunahara Record: 2-0 Starters: Ashley Grooms, Trish Ladusaw, Laura Lauder, Bonita Wise, Julie DuPont, Becky Stahl Series record: first meeting

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UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii