ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hawaii's Kim Willoughby tipped the ball past North Carolina's Eve Rackham, center, and Holly Strauss yesterday during a regional match in Lincoln, Neb. Willoughby, who had a match-high 22 kills, helped Hawaii to a sweep. UH faces Nebraska next.
UH among the elite LINCOLN, Neb. >> The pregame meeting had a simple message -- know which piece of the puzzle you are and how you can use your part to make the team better.
The Rainbow Wahine sweep UNC
NU in UH's path to final 4
to set up a showdown against the
Huskers in the final 8
By Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comHawaii pieced together a complete team performance that was more than enough to beat a feisty North Carolina team that managed to stick around even when down.
The second-ranked Rainbow Wahine swept the 11th-ranked Tar Heels 30-21, 30-23, 30-22 yesterday in 90 minutes. Fourth-ranked Nebraska, meanwhile, easily dismantled No. 23 Miami to set up the Central regional final that everyone had anticipated.
"We're extremely pleased to be advancing," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "It was a tough week for us because everybody was talking about the matchup with Nebraska. We knew that North Carolina was a good team and they proved that. They were doing some things that bothered us. Our team did a nice job on concentrating on what it had to do and that was win."
North Carolina stayed with Hawaii defensively, but its offensive production didn't come close to Hawaii's level. The Rainbow Wahine (33-1) outhit the Tar Heels .345 to .161.
After two sub-par performances in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, junior Kim Willoughby sizzled yesterday. The All-American hit .500 with 22 kills in 42 swings. Junior Lily Kahumoku used a variety of shots to put away 16 balls. Middle Lauren Duggins added 11 kills on .429 hitting.
"I didn't hit over them. I hit it really hard and I powered the ball through their block," Willoughby said. "The middle blocker failed to drop in her left hand, which gave me a lot of crosscourt, which is the shot that I really do have."
North Carolina noticed. Willoughby hit effortlessly at times in areas of the court that simply couldn't be defended.
"We tried with three blockers. We tried with two blockers and playing defense," Tar Heels coach Joe Sagula said. "She has another level that can hit so many different angles. In the second game, when it was 20-20, she just brought it up another notch."
The Wahine kept a lid on Tar Heel outside hitters Laura Greene (14 kills, .133) and Molly Pyles (11 kills, .064), who were in double digits but hit for low percentages. The Tar Heels weren't used to the frequency at which their shots were returned.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hawaii players, including Maja Gustin (12) and Jennifer Carey (4), celebrated after beating North Carolina yesterday.
Hawaii had four players in double-digit digs, with Willoughby scooping up 16. Libero Melissa Villaroman and defensive specialist Hedder Ilustre brought up 13 balls apiece, while Kahumoku had 11 digs.
"We passed well," North Carolina setter Eve Rackham said. "We were in a good flow. We just had a hard time putting a ball down. We didn't execute."
Carolina played the serve-receive game well, but Tar Heels coach Joe Sagula thought in hindsight that serving tough might have been an error.
"We put some pressure on them and that was probably a mistake," Sagula said. "They needed to set Willoughby and Lily."
UNC's service pressure forced the Wahine to set outside more -- UH's outside hitters combined for 15 of Hawaii's 21 kills in Game 1, which was only close in the first half.
The Tar Heels bounced back and opened Game 2 with a 6-3 lead. Hawaii was down 12-10, but used a five-point Kahumoku serving run to take its first lead of the game at 15-12. But North Carolina battled back to tie the game at 18 behind a series of Hawaii miscues. The game went back and forth before Hawaii took a 23-22 lead. A kill by Duggins and two crosscourt blasts by Willoughby started a six-point Wahine run that closed the door on the game.
The outcome of Game 3 was never in doubt after the opening minutes. The Wahine led 9-3 after a bunch of kills and their only block of the game. Hawaii's lead grew to 18-13 after Duggins' eighth kill of the match.
The Tar Heels rallied one final time and were within three at 20-17 after a kill by Greene. But Dani Nyenhuis served long to end the comeback.
"I was a little nervous the whole match," Shoji said. "They seemed to hang around in all three games pretty similarly. They hung around and it was stressful. If they had made a run at 20-all, it could have been different. They hurt themselves by serving out."
But The Tar Heels did finish the best season in school history at 32-4.
Notes: Today's 3 p.m. final will be televised on Oceanic 16. ... Willoughby has 1,799 career kills and is 74 kills shy of tying Teee Williams' school record of 1,873. ... UH athletic director Herman Frazier flew in from New York yesterday to attend the match. Frazier didn't stay the night, but he did plan on being back for today's final. Frazier said he would have UH President Evan Dobelle with him. Dobelle and Frazier are attending meetings in Dallas. ... Twelfth-seeded Washington State upset fourth-seeded Northern Iowa in the East regional. The Cougars will face fifth-seeded Florida, which swept Temple.
30-21, 30-23, 30-22 Hawaii def. North Carolina
RAINBOW WAHINE
g k e att pct. bs ba d Vakasausau 3 0 0 1 .000 0 0 8 Willoughby 3 22 1 42 .500 1 1 16 Kahumoku 3 16 3 45 .289 0 1 11 Gustin 3 6 3 15 .200 0 3 6 Tano 3 3 1 8 .250 0 2 1 Duggins 3 11 2 21 .429 0 3 5 Boogaard 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Carey 3 1 1 8 .000 0 2 4 Ilustre 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 13 Villaroman 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 13 Totals 3 59 11 139 .345 1 12 77 TAR HEELS
g k e att pct. bs ba d Underwood 3 6 1 18 .278 0 2 14 Rackham 3 5 0 12 .417 0 0 11 Dyles 3 11 8 47 .064 0 0 5 Greene 3 14 8 45 .133 1 2 8 Green 3 5 1 11 .364 0 3 0 Strauss 3 5 3 22 .091 0 1 2 Nyenhuis 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Mitchell 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 deRoeck 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 15 Foxworth 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 3 55 22 158 .209 0 28 65 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- North Carolina 2 (Underwood 2). Hawaii 1 (Ilustre).
Assists -- North Carolina 37 (Rackham 32, Greene 3, Nyenhuis, Underwood). Hawaii 55 (Carey 31, Vakasausau 19, Kahumoku 2, Tano 2, Dugggins).
T -- 1:30. Officials -- Michael Blalock, Carlos Rodriquez. A -- 2,513.
What: NCAA tournament Central regional final Hawaii vs. Nebraska
Who: No. 2 Hawaii (33-1) vs. No. 4 Nebraska (31-1)
When: 3 p.m., today
TV: Live, OC-16
Radio: Live, 1420-AM
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