Saturday, November 17, 2001
[ WAHINE VOLLEYBALL ]
Wahine sleep walk SAN JOSE, Calif. >> Tired from a long day of travel and not enough sleep, the Hawaii volleyball team was thankful that it didn't have to work too hard in its first Western Athletic Conference tournament match.
through rout of Tulsa
Hawaii overcomes a delay at the
airport to overturn Tulsa quicklyWahine face familiar foe in Fresno State today
By Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.com
In front of 143, mostly Wahine faithful, at the Event Center, UH disposed of Tulsa 30-18, 30-14, 30-17 in 77 minutes. The quickness of the match was aided by the fact that neither coach called a timeout. The only pauses during the match were for media commercials.
Tulsa coach Matt Sonnichsen didn't say much to his team before, during or after the match. Sonnichsen didn't attend postgame interviews as he rushed to the airport to catch a stand-by flight. Tulsa was originally scheduled to leave today.
It was hard to say who had the tougher route to the quarterfinals as Tulsa survived a five-game battle with Boise State on Thursday night.
Hawaii, however, endured more challenges trying to get to San Jose than it did in its first match. The Wahine spent the better part of Thursday at the airport waiting for its plane to be cleared of mechanical problems. The Wahine did not arrive in San Jose until 1:30 a.m.
"Obviously, we didn't come out on fire," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "They had to be tired. I don't know how many of them actually ate this morning. They all said they ate something but we got five hours of sleep and came to the gym. We weren't real sharp but we managed to play some good volleyball."
The Golden Hurricane ended up being little more than a practice squad for the Wahine after holding a slim 10-8 lead in Game 1. Maja Gustin struggled early in her hitting but she fired three aces during a 5-0 run that put Hawaii ahead at 13-10. From there, the Wahine completely overpowered the Golden Hurricane.
"Tulsa had a big match last night and they came out firing," setter Margaret Vakasausau said. "We thought we were going to take over but they took a 10-8 lead in the first game and snapped us back into reality."
Hawaii hit .438 as a team and broke the WAC tournament record of .402 set by Texas-El Paso on Thursday night. BYU held the previous record of .326 against San Diego State in 1996. The Wahine's 57 team kills were more than the 49 total points scored by the Golden Hurricane.
Kim Willoughby led the rout with 23 kills. Maja Gustin dug herself out of an early hole and finished hitting .458 with 14 kills.
Vakasausau and Jen Carey had double-doubles with Vakasausau posting 31 assists and 11 digs and Carey notching 18 assists and 10 digs. It was Hawaii's 56th consecutive win against a WAC opponent.
Note: Freshman Melody Eckmier suffered a mild sprain to her right ankle early in game three.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii