FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Maja Gustin went up for a block last night against Minnesota at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Wahine won in three.
UH goes
to its ace againKim Willoughby comes through
for the Rainbow Wahine
in a win over Minnesota
The hot television show of the summer has been World Championship Poker. Not surprisingly, Dave Shoji is a fan.
Perhaps it's because the Hawaii volleyball coach enjoys the drama and doesn't mind the tension.
Perhaps it's because he knows who the money player is in a high-stakes game.
Shoji knows who he'd back on a volleyball court.
Last night at the Stan Sheriff Center, the No. 2 Rainbow Wahine spread out their offense, running their middle attack particularly well. But when it came down to needing a critical kill, Hawaii again went to its hole card.
Again it was an ace.
All-American hitter Kim Willoughby had yet another dominating performance, putting down a match-high 21 kills to lead Hawaii to a 30-20, 30-18, 30-18 sweep of No. 6 Minnesota. A turnstile crowd of 5,553 (6,807 tickets) watched UH improve to 2-1 overall, 1-0 in the 16th Hawaiian Airlines Classic.
In yesterday's early match, No. 13 UCLA had a surprisingly easy time in sweeping No. 22 Louisville 30-24, 30-13, 32-30 in 89 minutes. The Bruins (1-0) have today off to prepare for tomorrow's 3 p.m. match with the Golden Gophers.
Minnesota (0-1) and Louisville (0-1) have no such luxury. The two meet in a single match at 1 p.m. today.
Tomorrow's 5 p.m. match features Hawaii against Louisville. The tournament concludes with Monday's 4 p.m. showdown between the Rainbow Wahine and the Bruins, who have combined to win 13 of the previous 15 HAL Classic titles.
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Lily Kahumoku made a dig in the backcourt last night against Minnesota at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Hawaii rebounded from last week's pounding by Southern California by doing some pounding of its own, hitting .387 with 53 kills in 85 minutes.
Also rebounding from a sub-par night against the Women of Troy last Saturday was senior All-American Lily Kahumoku, who had 11 kills to go with her 15 digs. Hawaii also got a combined 17 kills from middles Maja Gustin (nine) and Lauren Duggins (eight), who had just one hitting error apiece.
Cassie Busse and Trisha Bratford had 10 kills each to lead the Golden Gophers.
"We passed well and that allowed us to run the middle," Shoji said. "We felt they (Minnesota) would try to block us the way SC did. Duggins and Maja got up early, hit the ball hard and got some kills.
"Then they had to honor our middle. And that loosened Kim and Lily a little bit. That's what we've been talking about for two years, trying to spread the offense, get our middles involved. And that's what happened tonight."
Minnesota coach Mike Hebert wasn't sure what happened to his team.
"I'd like to say we unraveled, but to get unraveled, you have to get raveled first," Hebert said. "I don't think we were ever in the match, were not physically or mentally prepared. We played very poorly. I don't know if it was first-match jitters or a notoriously difficult place to play for visiting teams.
"I thought we were ready, but we obviously weren't. It looked like were playing in 10 feet of water."
The Wahine had no errors in Game 3, putting down 18 kills in 38 attempts.
UCLA 3, Louisville 0: The Bruins jumped out to early big leads in Games 1 and 2 then hung on against the Cardinals, who changed from a one-setter offense to a two-setter one in Game 3.
"We expect to be in matches that are going to be close and those are the matches we want to win," said UCLA coach Andy Banachowski, who notched his 940th career victory. "We want to be really good at the end of the match."
The Bruins were good at the end when it counted. UCLA had two swings to end the game, but Louisville rallied to tie it at 29.
Freshman Colby Lyman and senior Cira Wright teamed to block Sonja Percan for another match point at 30-29 only to have Bing Sun's 10th kill knot it at 30.
Sun hit her next attempt into the net, putting UCLA up at 31-30. Junior Brynn Murphy ended it with her 13th kill.
In her collegiate debut, Lyman finished with a match-high 14 kills with 14 digs. Murphy had 13 kills, hitting .500, while Wright had 13 kills and was in on eight of the Bruins' 11 blocks.
Louisville was led by Sun's 10 kills and nine digs.
"I expected better than we showed tonight," said Cardinals coach Leonid Yelin. "We were trying to find out the best rotation, either 5-1 or 6-2. Tonight, 6-2 worked better for us, got us back in the game.
"You have to give them (UCLA) credit. They didn't let us get in our game. When they take us out of our system and they play their system, it's very hard."
Yelin said he was disappointed in the play of senior all-conference player Percan, who missed most of last season with a sprained ankle. She had four kills in 21 attempts, hitting negative .143.
"She's healthy," said Yelin. "It's more psychological."
BACK TO TOP |
Hawaii def. Minnesota
30-20. 30-18, 30-18
GOPHERS (0-1) g k e att pct. bs ba d Bowman 2 2 2 11 .000 0 0 2 Taatjes 3 0 1 4 -.250 0 1 8 Peniata 3 0 0 1 .000 0 0 7 Byrnes 3 5 1 13 .308 0 0 0 Busse 3 10 4 31 .194 0 1 6 Martin 3 4 2 15 .133 0 3 0 Reinhart 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Bratford 3 10 4 24 .250 1 1 1 Nelson 3 2 1 6 .167 1 0 4 Lorenzen 1 0 1 1 -1.000 0 0 0 Cipperly 2 3 0 5 .600 0 0 0 Gentil 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 14 Totals 3 36 16 111 .180 2 6 43 WAHINE (2-1) g k e att pct. bs ba d Willoughby 3 21 4 36 .472 0 0 6 Tano 2 1 1 4 .000 0 2 2 Kahumoku 3 11 2 27 .333 0 1 15 Kamana'o 3 1 0 1 1.000 0 1 4 Gustin 3 9 1 19 .421 1 1 2 Duggins 3 8 1 15 .467 0 3 6 Boogard 1 1 0 4 .250 0 0 2 Lundqvist 1 0 0 2 .000 0 0 0 Arnott 1 0 0 1 .000 0 0 1 Watanabe 3 0 1 1 -1.000 0 0 1 Thurlby 1 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 1 Villaroman 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 9 Totals 3 53 10 111 .387 1 8 49
Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- Gophers (0). Hawaii (8): Watanabe 3, Kamana'o 2, Willoughby, Kahumoku, Arnott. Assists -- Gophers (33): Taatjes 31, Busse, Gentil. Hawaii (48): Kamana'o 36, Tano 3, Thurlby 2, Willoughby 2, Kahumoku 2, Boogaard 2, Villaroman.
T -- 1:25. Officials -- Ernest Ho, Wayne Lee. A --6807.
