Wahine wrap up Who's got next? Who cares?
WAC season
By Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comThat's not exactly Hawaii's attitude toward its next couple of opponents, but the matches might seem a tad anti-climactic after playing Stanford last Sunday.
The Rainbow Wahine (23-1, 11-0 Western Athletic Conference) only care that they'll have a few games to work on some of the weaknesses that were exposed against the Cardinal. No. 3 Hawaii will be back to its WAC antics tomorrow.
The Wahine face Fresno State tomorrow and play San Jose State Saturday, both matches at 5 p.m. Hawaii time. Despite facing opponents of a drastically different caliber, Hawaii has a few things it can use from Sunday's loss to Stanford.
"Initially, after a loss, you tend to think we didn't play well," senior setter Margaret Vakasausau said. "We looked at (tape) and we made good plays. But we also hurt ourselves with mental errors, missing defensive assignments or who to key in on with our serving.
"That's something we can apply to these next two WAC games. Fresno State is really good at home. ... It's going to be good for us to get away from Hawaii and take a 'business trip' so to speak and try to get us back in shape and get things back in order as far as volleyball playing goes."
The Bulldogs (21-4, 9-2) have won three straight after suffering back-to-back losses to Hawaii and Cal State Northridge two weeks ago. Fresno State is usually tough at home and has dropped one match (UC Santa Barbara) at North Gym this season.
Outside hitter Kristen Fenton was named the WAC Player of the Week after averaging 4.71 kills per game and digging 2.47 balls a game in wins over Boise State and San Jose State. Fenton was the Bulldogs' best hitter when the teams met in Honolulu, finishing with 11 kills in the 3-0 loss to the Wahine.
Though San Jose State (12-13, 6-5) is usually tough at home as well, the Wahine shouldn't have trouble dispatching the struggling Spartans. SJSU's offense looked anemic when the Spartans played in Honolulu at the end of October and hasn't gotten much better.
The Wahine need just one win to clinch first in the WAC Western Division and lock up the No. 1 seed in next week's conference tournament. Fresno State has at least the No. 2 seed of the tournament wrapped up.
Nevada and San Jose State are dueling for the No. 3 seed. Rice, Texas-El Paso, Southern Methodist and Louisiana Tech are the other teams in the tournament. The WAC will not hold play-in matches for the tournament like it did last year.
Notes: Hawaii coach Dave Shoji is seven wins away from his 800th victory. If the Wahine don't lose before then, victory No. 800 will be at Utah. ... Kim Willoughby is second in the nation in kills (6.30) behind Aline Pereira (6.67) of George Mason. Hawaii still leads the nation in assists (16.64), hitting percentage (.342), and kills per game (18.18). No. 1 Stanford -- last week's leader in blocks per game -- is second now behind Notre Dame with 3.61. ... The Wahine signed three players to letters of intent yesterday: Iolani's Kanoe Kamana'o, La Pietra's Alicia Arnott and Kari Gregory of The Meadows High School in Las Vegas.
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