DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's Jennifer Carey, middle, and Susie Boogaard dove for the ball against San Diego State last night. The Wahine swept.

Wahine stroll
past Aztecs

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By Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.com

In a tournament with just one ranked team, having the two best teams in the final of the eighth annual Aston Imua Challenge doesn't exactly mean much.

But at least one team's perfect record will end today. Hawaii (5-0) meets Washington (5-0) at 7 p.m. for the championship.

The fourth-ranked Rainbow Wahine and the Huskies easily took apart their opponents yesterday to set up today's final. Hawaii rolled to its fifth straight victory, dismantling San Diego State 30-10, 30-11, 30-23. Washington didn't need much time either to sweep San Francisco 30-14, 30-18, 30-23.

Washington coach Jim McLaughlin isn't intimidated by the task, but he is cognizant of how good the Wahine are.

"They're good across the board," McLaughlin said. "They do so many things well. They play great defense. They better the ball."

The fourth-ranked Wahine have won six Challenge titles but don't expect an easy match. The last time these two teams met was in 1992, when Washington came away with a five-game win.

"Their offense presents a challenge," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "They're very fast to the pins. Their style is a little bit different.

"They have one of the best-serving teams I've seen this year, so we have to pass well. If we can pass well, we have the advantage because we're bigger."

Hawaii had every advantage in yesterday's waxing of San Diego State before 4,981 at the Stan Sheriff Center. The match bore resemblance to Western Athletic Conference matches before rally scoring. It was hard to believe that the Aztecs were once WAC champions (1995) as well before moving to the Mountain West Conference.

"Our execution was overwhelming," outside hitter Lily Kahumoku said. "They were frustrated and that was the cause of their collapse. They're a good team. They're very functional. But we were overwhelmingly offensive and defensive tonight."

Hawaii needed 40 minutes to skip through the first two games. In Game 1, Hawaii led 7-4 when Kahumoku served 14 consecutive points. It got so ugly for the Aztecs that most of the crowd applauded when Aspen McPartland fired a kill that finally found the floor for San Diego's fifth point.

It was more Hawaii dominance in Game 2. Kahumoku continued her blistering attack and scored eight of Hawaii's first 11 points (seven kills, one block). She added three more kills and finished the night hitting .739 with 17 kills and no errors. The Aztecs never mounted much of an attack and had no answers for stopping the Wahine. Hawaii outhit San Diego State .406 to -.009.

Shoji said that Kahumoku's performance was beautiful to watch and that he didn't have much to say to his team with Hawaii's near flawless execution.

"The first two games were about as good as we could play defensively," Shoji said. "That's what we want every night -- to have effort on every ball that's hit."

The defense might have given fits to Aztec hitters, but it was the pressure that Hawaii put on San Diego State that was too much.

"When another team puts that kind of pressure on you, you tend to try to do things you can't do so it takes you out of your game," Warner said. "And that's the goal of the other team is try to disrupt you so that you don't play like you're capable of.

"We were completely out of synch. We couldn't get anything going at all. For us to hit negative is completely ridiculous."

Hawaii def. San Deigo St.

30-10, 30-11, 30-23

Aztecs (2-3, 0-2)	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Akporiaye	3	3	3	17	.000	0	2	4
Anguelova	3	6	5	32	.031	1	0	4
Cansdale	1	0	6	14	-.429	0	0	1
Wright	3	1	0	2	.500	0	1	1
Schauermann	3	2	2	11	.000	0	2	1
McPartland	3	4	5	21	-.048	0	0	7
Moriarty	2	5	2	9	.333	0	1	3
Currier	2	2	1	8	.125	0	0	7
Gregg	3	1	1	2	.000	0	0	4
Landrum	1	1	0	0	.000	0	0	1
Dykema	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	2
Totals	3	24	25	116	-.009	1	6	41
Wahine (5-0, 2-0)	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Vakasausau	3	0	0	2	.000	0	1	7
Willoughby	3	15	2	23	.565	1	0	10
Tano	2	6	0	10	.600	0	1	5
Lundqvist	2	4	1	11	.273	0	3	1
Kahumoku	2	17	0	23	.739	0	1	7
Duggins	3	6	5	14	.071	0	2	9
Boogaard	2	5	3	15	.133	0	2	3
Carey	2	2	0	3	.667	0	1	3
Ilustre	2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	7
Eckmier	1	1	2	5	-.200	0	1	1
OBrian	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Villaroman	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	7
Totals	3	56	13	106	.406	1	12	60

Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.

Aces -- San Diego St. (1): Akporiaye. Hawaii (6): Willoughby 3, Kahumoku, Boogaard, Eckmier. Assists -- San Diego St. (21): Wright 12, Landrum 3, Anguelova 3, Akporiaye, McPartland, Gregg. Hawaii (53): Vakasausau 29, Carey 16, Willoughby 2, Boogaard 2, Lundqvist, Kahumoku, Duggins, Ilustre.

T -- 1:19. Officials -- Wayne Lee, Dan Hironaka. A -- 4,981 (6,522 tickets issued).

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UH Athletics