[ WAHINE VOLLEYBALL ]
KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Chaminade's Kalae Araujo, an outside hitter while at St. Francis, has found her niche in the college game at libero.
Araujo digs
‘Hawaii’s team’
When Hawaii last saw Kalae Araujo, it knew she could dish it out. To see her now is to know that she can most certainly take it.
Chaminade's Araujo was one of the most effective outside hitters for St. Francis in 2001, but knew that college recruiters would not be lining up to sign a 5-foot-6 outside hitter. So she transformed herself into a back-row genius and settled into a career of catching rather than pitching.
"I loved putting the ball down," Araujo said. "I still sneak into the hitting lines at practice; sometimes they shoo me away, sometimes they let me stay."
After spending a season starting in the back row at the University of San Diego, Araujo transferred to NCAA Division II Chaminade. She went to San Diego on an academic scholarship to "get away from her parents and be independent," but soon found that there's no place like home and that decisions made in your junior year of high school aren't always the best ones. Everything was fine in San Diego -- she got along with her coaches and teammates. It just wasn't connected to Hawaii.
"I just told myself, 'I miss this, I can't get back on that plane,' " Araujo said. "I called (Chaminade coach Glennie Adams) and knew she had a team all put together, I just wanted to practice with somebody."
Now she is atop the Pacific West Conference record book in digs and could be the one to break Brigham Young-Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific's strings of dominance in the division.
Not that Araujo isn't used to scaling mountains. During her prep days she captained tiny St. Francis to second place in the state tournament -- which ended when Araujo hit long against Punahou -- and upset the nation's then-No. 1 team, Kamehameha.
Some would say she stayed home to help "Hawaii's team" take back the islands from the Brazilians at HPU and the Chinese at BYUH. She says she just wants to play volleyball.
"It totally drives me. We are the true local girls and there is something about local girls that allows them to bond with the system immediately," Araujo said. "Each year BYUH and HPU have international players coming in as 22-or-something-year-old freshmen, but it pumps us up.
"It's not unfair, it's just a small advantage the same as we have by being local. They are volleyball players and we are volleyball players."
Chaminade hosts the Seasiders tonight, hoping to deal them their first conference loss of the season. Chaminade has already lost a pair to the Sea Warriors, so this may be their last stand in the conference.
In her high school days, Araujo could grab the favorite by the throat and make it respect her power. Now she has to stand on the tracks and hope her 5-6 frame can stop the speeding locomotive.
She holds the PacWest record for digs in a season and is second in the league this year after a shift in Chaminade's defensive philosophy. She broke the record when the Silverswords' smallish front line would funnel the ball to her rather than send it back where it came from. Now, Chaminade is trying to block the ball with the best of them.
Libero is a strange position, and was brought to the college game to allow smaller girls a place in the sport. As a libero, Araujo wears a different color jersey from the rest of her teammates and is forbidden from hitting the ball over the net. Her job is to give the bombers on the other side a target to aim for, then deflect the bullets skyward where a teammate can keep them alive. So the girl who used to dominate the net is not allowed to go near it. But Araujo will take it. She will do anything just to be able to stay on the court.
"I think it's a really hard position, just passing and playing defense," Araujo said. "But I love it when I see a girl blast the ball and not be able to put it down. I know what she's thinking: 'No, not that spot.' "
Unfortunately for Chaminade's opponents, Araujo claims all of Hawaii as "her spot." The only time she leaves is with her team; she knows she will be coming back after the job is done. For now, the job is to finish her studies in psychology and maybe return to school to get her master's degree in criminal justice.
She knows one thing, though. No matter what she does, she will be doing it in Hawaii.
"This is my home," Araujo said. "I am going to make it here."
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Hawaii’s not looking past SMU
It could be balance vs. a little imbalance tonight when No. 2 Hawaii faces surprising Southern Methodist in a Western Athletic Conference volleyball match.
The Mustangs, off to the best start in the program's eight-year history, have four players capable of double-figure nights. They showed that Wednesday when Jacky Neiderstadt (18 kills), Kelly Larkan (15), Beth Karasek (14) and Allison Holder (13) had very solid performances against struggling San Jose State in a 28-30, 30-18, 30-22, 30-21 win.
The victory was SMU's 10th in a row and ran the Mustangs' records to 15-4 overall and 6-0 in WAC play. It sets up an east-west showdown between the unbeaten leaders in the WAC's two divisions.
Looking at SMU through the net will be a Rainbow Wahine team that may be without senior Lily Kahumoku for a second straight match. The senior All-American hitter attempted to practice yesterday but left early for the training room and treatment for back spasms; she is listed as doubtful.
Without Kahumoku, Hawaii (18-1, 6-0) is still favored to take its 72nd consecutive WAC match and keep its 17-match winning streak going. Still, after the Wahine coaching staff watched videotape of the Mustangs yesterday morning, there were some raised eyebrows and a raised level of respect.
"They have a very balanced attack and they will keep us honest," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "We will play them straight-up.
"We need this. The more challenges we get at this point of the season, the better. We need to start playing at a higher level."
The Wahine aren't looking past the Mustangs to tomorrow's match with resurgent Arizona (9-10), which won its third match in four outings against Oregon State last night. But Hawaii will be looking at what SMU represents; the school is based in Dallas, where the NCAA final four will be held Dec. 18 and 20.
The road to Dallas continues tonight, when Hawaii will need to serve tough and have a balanced attack.
Hawaii leads the series with SMU 8-0, with seven of those wins coming in 3-0 sweeps. The Wahine are also 8-0 against Arizona, with the last meeting at the 1999 Arizona Thanksgiving Invitational; UH won in four.
"Arizona is a pretty scary team," Shoji said. "They're big and they're strong. I feel they have as much talent as anyone in the country."
The Wildcats have switched setters, going with senior transfer Kelly Griffin-Halfaker over freshman Stephanie Butkus, who started 14 of the team's first 15 matches. Griffin-Halfaker came off the bench last week to lead Arizona to an upset of then-No. 8 UCLA and has started the past three matches.
