Tuesday, November 27, 2001

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Lauren Duggins and the Wahine travel to Washington
to take on Washington State on Friday in the first round
of the NCAA tournament. The Wahine must go on the
road because the NCAA wants to limit travel.

Wahine to take
show on the road

Hawaii will visit unseeded
Washington State in the
West Regional on Friday

Where and when

---

By Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.com

It wasn't fair, but no one expected it to be.

The NCAA announced the 64 teams for the 21st collegiate volleyball championship. The final four will be played Dec. 13-15 at San Diego State.

Ninth-ranked Hawaii is the third seed in the West and the ninth seed overall in the tournament. The Wahine travel to Pullman, Wash., to play unseeded Washington State on Friday at 6 p.m. HST.

If Hawaii wins, it would play the winner of the Eastern Washington-Oregon State match on Saturday at 4 p.m. HST. It's the first time since 1997 that Hawaii isn't home for either the first or second round of the tournament.

Penn State, Pennsylvania, Fairfield and UCLA are also in the same bracket.

"I think it's a good draw, considering all the things the NCAA felt they had to do," Shoji said. "It's not the easiest bracket, but it's not the hardest. The thing that concerns me is the travel and having to play the home team the first match.

"I don't think the fact that we have to go is going to bother anybody on this team. We've been on a lot of airplanes. We've been resigned to having to go ever since the NCAA ruling came down. We expected to go."

The NCAA issued a memorandum on Nov. 6 stating that given the instability in the world since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, teams would be seeded in a way that would minimize air travel and mitigate risk. Given Hawaii's location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it was easier to send the Wahine to the mainland than to fly three unseeded teams here.

The seeding wasn't optimal for Hawaii, but seven of the 16 seeded teams won't be at home either.

Long Beach State, Nebraska, Stanford and USC are the top seeds. The 49ers are in the same regional as Hawaii. USC and Nebraska are not hosting first-round matches. The Trojans are going to Illinois and the Cornhuskers were sent to Kansas State.

Shoji's expression was grim as Hawaii appeared on the television screen, but setter Margaret Vakasausau, who was watching with senior Tanja Nikolic, let out a cry of glee.

"I'm excited. I've never been to Washington so I'd like to go there," Vakasausau said. "Sometimes you feel gypped when you look at other brackets, but you can't look at it that way. You never know what's going to happen.

"We're going to concentrate hard on Washington State, Eastern Washington and Oregon State now. I'm actually kind of happy that we're on the road. As much as I'd love to stay here and give our fans a good show, I think we're going to do well because we've been, as Dave calls us, the "Road Warriors"."

Shoji doubts that Hawaii's loss to Pacific last Saturday affected Hawaii's placement in the tournament. The Tigers snapped the Wahine's 24-match win streak, but the players would like to think of the loss as a good omen.

At this time last year, UH had won 27 straight before losing to Long Beach State at the Thanksgiving tournament.

"The great thing about it is that we lost to Long Beach State at the last game of the season and we made the final four," Kim Willoughby said. "We didn't like the feeling after that match."

Which means that the possible crowd of 3,000 at Bohler Gym may not be enough of an advantage for the Cougars.

Washington State finished the regular season at 17-11 and 9-9 in the Pac-10.

"I don't think I've ever been that excited to see an NCAA bid come up," Cougar coach Cindy Fredrick said. "But then to see the teams to host, that blew us out of the water. We are absolutely thrilled."

The water is probably frozen in Pullman since snow has already fallen and daytime temperatures are expected to be in the 20s or 30s. The last time any of the Wahine, except Nohea Tano, remembers seeing snow was during a road trip to Tulsa last year.

Tano is a transfer from Washington State. Although the sophomore played sparingly for the Cougars last year, she is excited to see her old teammates.

Notes: Of the 64-team bracket, 31 teams received automatic bids as conference champions and 33 others received at-large berths.

The Big 12 led all conferences with eight teams in the field. The Big Ten and Pac-10 each had six teams placed in the tournament.

The Big West and the Mountain West had four teams selected to the tournament while the WAC placed three. Nevada and San Jose State also received bids and were placed into a bracket with third-seeded Stanford.

There are seven newcomers: University of Pennsylvania, Eastern Illinois University, Florida International University, Georgia Southern University, Northeastern University, College of William and Mary and Xavier University.

Hawaii has captured three titles (1982, 1983, 1987) and was runner-up twice (1988 and 1996). The Wahine have only missed the tournament once (1992).

UH has played 14 of the 64 teams in the tournament this season.

|

NCAA Volleyball Tournament

FIRST ROUND

Friday or Saturday

At Long Beach, Calif.
San Diego (21-8) vs. UC Santa Barbara (17-13)
San Diego State (16-12) at Long Beach State (28-0)

At Cedar Falls, Iowa
DePaul (24-8) vs. Minnesota (17-12)
Northern Illinois (24-5) at Northern Iowa (28-1)

At Pullman, Wash.
Oregon State (17-11) vs. Eastern Washington (20-5)

Hawaii (26-5) at Washington State (17-11)

At University Park, Pa.
UCLA (18-8) vs. Pennsylvania (18-4)
Fairfield (19-12) at Penn State (21-7)

At Champaign, Ill.
Arizona (21-4) vs. Eastern Illinois (20-8)
Missouri (20-10) at Illinois (20-8)

At Louisville, Ky.
Pacific (26-7) vs. Alabama A&M (20-8)
Georgia Tech (19-7) at Louisville (25-6)

At Columbus, Ohio
Xavier (25-5) vs. Cincinnati (22-7)
Robert Morris (29-5) at Ohio State (25-3)

At Durham, N.C.
Southern California (22-3) vs. Liberty (21-10)
William and Mary (21-5) at Duke (22-4)

At Palo Alto, Calif.
Santa Clara (19-9) vs. San Jose State (24-7)
Nevada (17-7) at Stanford (27-2)

At Salt Lake City
Utah State (18-11) vs. Brigham Young (20-8)Texas Tech (18-13) at Utah (23-6)

At College Station, Texas
Texas (16-12) vs. Northeastern (23-10)
Texas-Arlington (24-11) at Texas A&M (23-5)

At Madison, Wis.
Notre Dame (22-6) vs. Michigan State (20-7)
Wisconsin-Milwaukee (20-7) at Wisconsin (25-3)

At Chapel Hill, N.C.
Pepperdine (21-3) vs. Georgia Southern (22-11)
South Carolina (20-5) at North Carolina (23-8)

At Gainesville, Fla.
Florida International (22-7) vs. Central Florida (19-6)
Florida A&M (27-2) at Florida (25-1)

At Fort Collins, Colo.
Colorado (18-10) vs. American (26-3)
Baylor (18-11) at Colorado State (27-3)

At Manhattan, Kan.
Nebraska (27-1) vs. Oral Roberts (19-6)
Arkansas (21-11) at Kansas State (19-7)

---

SECOND ROUND

Thursday, Dec. 6 through Sunday, Dec. 9

TBA

---

SEMIFINALS

Thursday, Dec. 13

At San Diego

TBA

---

CHAMPIONSHIP

Saturday, Dec. 15

At San Diego

TBA

---

UH Athletics