A week after the Chaminade volleyball team scored historic victories with its first wins over Brigham Young-Hawaii in 16 years, the Silverswords have the opportunity to prevent their next opponent from reaching a historical mark of its own. Chaminade tries for
another historic winBy Brandon Lee and Jerry Campany
blee@starbulletin.com | jcampany@starbulletin.comChaminade (5-5, 2-0) visits defending national champion and top-ranked Hawaii Pacific (12-0, 6-0) tonight and tomorrow in Pacific West Conference play, the teams' first matches against each other this year.
And while the Silverswords and the Sea Warriors are the lone unbeaten teams in the PacWest as the regular season nears its midpoint, a Chaminade victory either night would represent much more.
HPU is riding a NCAA Division II-best 40-match winning streak dating back to the beginning of last season. The streak is tied for the third longest (with the 1993 Henderson State team) in Division II history.
A win tonight would move the Sea Warriors into a tie for second with Nebraska Kearney's 1993-94 squads, while another tomorrow would put them only four away from tying Ferris State's all-time mark of 46 straight victories in 1984.
"Historically, (it would be) huge," said Silverswords coach Glennie Adams of a potential victory against HPU. "But I don't want to buy into all the hype. I'm just preparing realistically."
Last week's wins put Chaminade in an unfamiliar spot -- tied percentage-wise with the Division II's top-ranked team for first place in the PacWest.
But when you take a season game by game and play by play as Adams does, there is no time to sit back and enjoy the feeling that comes with knocking off teams that have owned you for many years.
"I always have felt that we belonged," said Adams, who beat the Seasiders last week for the first time in her seven years as coach.
"Just in recent years it hasn't been easy. And that is probably an understatement."
Instead of focusing on ending HPU's winning streak, Adams says, the Silverswords are concentrating on winning the PacWest title.
The key to Chaminade's success, according to Adams, is slowing down HPU's powerful trio of hitter Roberta Robert, middle blocker Andrea Wean and setter Nia Tuitele.
Two players the Silverswords will be relying on heavily are setter Janeen Waialae and the reigning PacWest Player of the Week, outside hitter Valasi Sepulona. Both are freshmen.
"This is a year unlike recent years," Adams said. "I think there's just much more parity in our conference. HPU is a good team, but the league is good. I think it's anybody's league."
Hawaii Pacific
For her part, Sea Warrior volleyball coach Tita Ahuna also acknowledges the parity among this year's PacWest teams, along with Chaminade's recent hot play."I think every team is extremely dangerous," Ahuna said. "But I know Chaminade has been playing really well. They have some excellent players."
When asked about the streak, Ahuna said she didn't even know the exact number of wins HPU has strung together. She and the Sea Warriors are trying to get through a nine-day, six-match period that culminates with this weekend's matches against Chaminade.
"We're sticking together," Ahuna said. "This week is crucial. We only look at the next game ahead; we're only looking at Chaminade right now."
Brigham Young-Hawaii
The Seasider volleyball team started last week at No. 15 in the nation, but dropped to No. 22 before being upset by Chaminade twice.The basketball team has lost junior Adam Evans for about two months with a broken foot.
The water polo team allowed Chaminade to draw even at 1-1 in their five-game regular season series with a loss last Friday.
Hawaii-Hilo
The cross-country team got back into action last week at the Hawaii Invitational and followed Danny Oliva to a second-place finish behind HPU. Oliva took eighth place, eight seconds out of the top five.The women didn't fare as well in the meet, though, finishing last with 179 points. The women's fastest runner was Nikki Rogers, who finished 35th.