[ WAHINE VOLLEYBALL ]
Wahine dominate
Spartans on road
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- On Tuesday, the scoreboard in The Event Center consistently malfunctioned during San Jose State's nonconference volleyball loss to St. Mary's.
Last night, it was the Spartans' offense that had a power outage against No. 2 Hawaii. The Rainbow Wahine opened up their Western Athletic Conference title defense with a 30-22, 30-19, 30-20 sweep of the Spartans in 90 minutes.
It was Hawaii's 66th consecutive WAC regular-season victory, and 75th WAC win in a row counting conference tournament play. It was also the 100th WAC win for the Wahine since they joined the conference in 1996; they are now 100-1.
"We were pretty loose at times, but when we needed to play well, we did," said Hawaii coach Dave Shoji. "Our block was definitely better tonight and Maja (senior blocker Gustin) got in on a number of those."
Gustin was in on five of Hawaii's 9.5 blocks. She also had eight kills, hitting .583. Leading the Wahine attack were senior outside hitters Kim Willoughby (18 kills, .452) and Lily Kahumoku (11 kills, .308).
Hawaii (12-1, 1-0) also had nine aces, including five by Willoughby.
"When you have a good game, you're always happy," Gustin said. "I am especially happy with the blocking. It's been our weak point and we've worked on it so hard in practice. The confidence in our block was there tonight."
Hawaii shut down San Jose State's leading hitter, Kimberly Noble. The Spartans' senior hitter had nine kills, but also nine errors in hitting .000.
A season-high crowd of 875 saw the Wahine defeat the Spartans (2-10, 0-1) a 23rd consecutive time. San Jose State has not defeated Hawaii since 1993, when the two schools were in the Big West.
The crowd was decidedly pro-UH, according to Shoji.
"We had a lot of people cheering for us," he said. "We're used to that when we play here in this area. We're hoping to see that Sunday when we play Santa Clara."
Hawaii faces its eighth ranked opponent of the year when taking on the No. 16 Broncos (8-4) tomorrow at 10 a.m. Hawaii time. The match is part of the Sunday Night Spike series shown nationally on CSTV (DirecTV Channel 610).
"We're pretty used to the television cameras and I don't think it will be a factor for us," Shoji said. "We had a nice homestand, but it was also good to get out on the road, play on someone else's floor."
Shoji used his entire 12-player roster last night and the reserves were very effective in Game 3. Senior Karin Lundqvist hit 1.000 in putting down all of her four attempts; sophomore Susie Boogaard had three kills in four swings; and freshman Alicia Arnott added three kills, including the match-ender.
There was a decided pattern to the match, with Hawaii pulling away in the beginning only to have San Jose State rally. The Wahine would then regain control with solid service runs.
Spartan coach Craig Choate got pretty much what he expected in seeing his team lose its fourth straight match.
"Hawaii's going to put on a show," Choate said before last night's match. "They're not No. 2 in the country for nothing. We're young. It's going to be a long season. They know it and I know it."
Hawaii def. San Jose State
RAINBOW WAHINE (12-1, 1-0 WAC)
30-22, 30-19, 30-20
SPARTANS (2-10, 0-1 WAC)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Willoughby 3 18 4 31 .452 0 2 8 Tano 2 2 1 5 .200 0 3 4 Kahumoku 3 11 3 26 .308 0 1 9 Kamana'o 3 1 0 1 1.000 0 2 0 Gustin 3 8 1 12 .583 0 5 1 Duggins 3 5 3 10 .200 0 4 4 Boogaard 2 3 0 4 .750 0 2 3 Lundqvist 1 4 0 4 1.000 0 0 0 Arnott 2 3 1 6 .333 0 0 0 Eckmier 1 1 1 2 .000 0 0 0 Thurlby 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Villaroman 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 8 Totals 3 56 14 101 .416 0 19 38
Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
g k e att pct. bs ba d Dillon 3 0 0 2 .000 0 1 3 Nash 3 7 5 29 .069 0 0 7 Dahlstedt 3 4 0 6 .667 0 0 5 Herald 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Wlodarczyk 3 3 2 13 .077 1 1 0 Noble 3 9 9 34 .000 0 1 4 Shull 3 0 0 1 .000 0 0 5 Conrad 2 1 0 2 .500 0 0 1 Rudd 2 1 1 5 .000 0 0 0 Thompson 2 5 0 7 .714 0 1 0 Totals 3 30 17 99 .131 1 4 25 Aces -- Hawaii (9): Willoughby 5, Duggins 2, Kamana'o, Gustin. San Jose St. (5): Dillon 2, Nash, Dahlstedt, Conrad. Assists -- Hawaii (54): Kamana'o 41, Thurlby 8, Willoughby 2, Boogard 2, Villaroman. San Jose St. (27): Dillon 23, Dahlstedt 2, Herald, Conrad.
T -- 1:30. Officials -- Rick Olmstead, Lara Brown. A --875.
