Thursday, October 11, 2001

[ WAHINE VOLLEYBALL ]

---

UH gets back to
beating WAC

There is nothing like a few weak sisters
in the league to raise a team's spirits

---

By Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.com

Hawaii's dominance in the WAC was never more obvious than in last week's three conference road wins.

Against Louisiana Tech, Rice and Tulsa, Hawaii hit almost 200 points above its season average. The Wahine will likely pad their numbers again with a pair of conference matches against UTEP and SMU.

They play UTEP tomorrow at 7 p.m. and SMU on Sunday at 4 p.m. Both matches are at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The 13th-ranked Wahine hit .422 while holding opponents to .036 percentage last week. It was the highest the team hit all season. Suffice it to say that the beatings Hawaii administered increased the confidence of a team that struggled early against the nation's top teams.

"We played good volleyball and that's hard to do on the road," Margaret Vakasausau said. "We're finding good chemistry right now. Especially this weekend, everything lies in our hands. We have to make sure we capitalize and don't let them into our match."

Hawaii coach Dave Shoji echoes those sentiments.

"We really made a lot of progress on the road trip," Shoji said. "The Santa Clara match, I wasn't sure if it was us or them but we continued to play like that on all four games on the road so I really have to believe we've gotten better. The matches were all pretty similar. We controlled everything from the outset.

"I think we understand our game enough that we wouldn't panic if the other team got hot, too. If we play steady, we all feel confident that we're going to win."

The Wahine have not lost a single game to the Miners (5-7, 1-3), and only one to the Mustangs (7-8, 2-2) in six previous meetings.

But UH isn't taking either team lightly, especially since SMU upset San Jose State last week.

---

UH Athletics