GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Chaminade senior Audrey Brady, who's never beaten Hawaii Pacific, wants the drought to end this weekend.
Brady hopes her AUDREY Brady is certainly not afraid to try something new.
bunch can finally
beat Sea Warriors
Chaminade's leading hitter
believes this is the year
the HPU slump will endBy Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.com
But she wants to add one more new experience to her list this year -- beating Hawaii Pacific.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Chaminade's Audrey Brady, a California native, says her team has bonded, and that is why the Silverswords are second in the PacWest this season.
"I want to do it this year," Brady said. "I don't want to walk out of Chaminade losing to HPU again."
Brady will get her last chances tonight and tomorrow night when the Sea Warriors come calling. The Silverswords have not beaten the Sea Warriors since 1997, when Brady was a sophomore at El Segundo (Calif.) High School, but the situation makes this tune a little bit more than a redemption song.
Tonight's winner earns the right to play Brigham Young-Hawaii for the conference title. Chaminade will take on the Seasiders on Thursday, while the Sea Warriors would have to sweep through Western New Mexico and Montana State-Billings before taking on the Seasiders on Nov. 16 in Laie.
This is new territory for the Silverswords, especially for Brady, who is one of the team's two seniors. After enjoying the winning that nearly all collegiate athletes experience in their high school days, she has lived through three years of looking up at HPU and BYUH, losing more games than she has won.
"No one likes to say they are used to losing," Brady said. "But now that we are winning, the losses hurt more. Our loss to Montana (State-Billings) hurt a lot. It didn't just hurt one person, it hurt the whole team."
Brady is not afraid to lose if she thinks it will lead to winning later.
Last spring Chaminade's tennis team found itself needing someone to fill a spot in order to compete, and volleyball coach Glennie Adams recommended her because of her athleticism.
She had never played tennis before -- she didn't even know how to keep score, figuring it was the scorekeeper's job -- but played the rest of the season.
She went through the year winless in matches, but did improve enough to win games from BYUH's Jaime Porter and Hawaii-Hilo's Annie Pharn. For the first time, the natural athlete who played every sport imaginable -- except tennis -- while growing up knew the fear of being totally unprepared.
"The first game I was really nervous," Brady said. "I had never been nervous before a game before, but that one I was."
Brady says that the way practices have been going for her team this week, there will be no reason to be nervous before playing HPU tonight. Even though the Sea Warriors have owned her team and she will be matched up with 2000 player of the year Susy Garbelotti, Brady believes the Sea Warriors can finally be beaten because she will have more help.
Brady is one of only three players on the Silverswords' roster not originally from Hawaii, but it doesn't stop her from buying into the whole "Hawaii vs. the world" mentality. It doesn't stop her because after just 3 1/2 years on Oahu, she considers herself part of the team, part of the great Hawaii family.
"That's the one thing that has made this so wonderful," Brady said. "We're like the local team and don't have to go out and get players from all over the world. I settled in and the girls were great. Now if I am lonely at Thanksgiving I get like 10 invitations to Thanksgiving. It was like we had been playing together for a while, everyone wants to help me out, it's like their thing in life is to keep me happy."
Few things would make her happier than a win tonight, which she figures will come because of the bond she has built up with her teammates over the past three years.
She says there was virtually no feeling-out process since the day she showed up on the Chaminade campus unannounced for an impromptu recruiting visit. She says that from the first day she stepped onto the floor with Adams' collection of Hawaii high school all-stars, it has been like she had played with them all of her life. As hard as her teammates worked to make her feel welcome, Brady met them more than halfway.
"That is a reflection on her parents (Mike and Vicki)," Adams said. "They are people who will try anything, so down to earth. She is so much like them."
Brady's numbers are down slightly from last year, but Brady doesn't seem to mind a bit ... as long as things go right this weekend.
"I did notice that my stats aren't as high as they were last year," Brady said. "But if that's what is working for us this year, I am totally with it. If I can take a blocker away from Valasi (Sepulona) every time, I'll take it. All that matters is winning."
Chaminade Sports
