[ WAHINE VOLLEYBALL ]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Fresno State's Carrie Hartt, left, exchanged hits at the net with Hawaii's Karin Lundqvist, center, and Kanoe Kamana'o.
Wahine clinch
WAC in FresnoUH wraps up the regular-season
conference title with a 30-15, 30-26,
30-22 win over Fresno State
FRESNO, Calif. -- There is less than 4 miles between Fresno Yosemite International Airport and the new Save Mart Center. It's a quick and easy drive of some seven minutes, particularly on an early Sunday afternoon.
Still, the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball team didn't want to take any chances on missing its flight home. Second-ranked Hawaii played as if it had a plane to catch, needing only 90 minutes to sweep Fresno State yesterday, 30-15, 30-26, 30-22, in front of a school-record crowd of 4,708.
The victory was Hawaii's 24th straight of the season, and ran the Rainbow Wahine's Western Athletic Conference winning streak to 77. Hawaii (26-1, 12-0) also clinched its eighth consecutive WAC regular-season title and will finish conference play with Saturday's "Senior Night" match against San Jose State (8-16, 6-6) at the Stan Sheriff Center.
A preview of that "Senior Night" came against the Bulldogs yesterday, as Rainbow Wahine senior All-American hitters Kim Willoughby (20) and Lily Kahumoku (14) combined for 34 of the team's 58 kills. Kahumoku picked up a double-double with a match-high 20 digs and Willoughby had four of UH's six aces.
"We came out fired up to play," Kahumoku said. "There is motivation, knowing we have a plane to catch. We really wanted to go back home."
The match ended at 2 p.m. with Hawaii's flight to San Francisco scheduled two hours later. Unlike last year's match with the Bulldogs that went to five, Hawaii stuck around just long enough to appreciate being part of the first athletic event in FSU's new $100-million-plus facility, before heading to the airport.
"It's gorgeous, second only to ours, but I am biased," Kahumoku said.
Both Willoughby and Wahine coach Dave Shoji said they felt they were playing in a final-four atmosphere.
"It's nice and big," Shoji said. "It reminds me of the final-four arenas we've been in the last few years."
"We were fired up about playing in here," Willoughby said. "It was like playing in the final four. It was definitely a different atmosphere than Nevada (where Hawaii played in Reno on Thursday). It was cold there."
The Wahine also went cold in dropping the first game in WAC play to the Wolf Pack Thursday. Yesterday, except for a letdown in Game 2, Hawaii played as efficiently as it had all season.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Fresno State's La'akea Campbell -- a former Iolani School standout -- celebrated a point with teammates during yesterday's 30-15, 30-26, 30-22 loss to Hawaii.
The Wahine led 6-4 in Game 1 and then it was basically over. Maja Gustin served for three points and Kahumoku for six as Hawaii jumped out to a 17-7 lead.
A four-point serving run by Gustin helped push UH ahead 26-13. The Wahine closed it out with 4-2 run, with the final two points coming on a block of Kahuku High's Tuli Peters, a freshman hitter for the Bulldogs, and Willoughby's seventh kill of the match.
Fresno State regrouped, taking advantage of what has become a habit for Hawaii -- a drop in intensity after winning Game 1 easily. With Bulldog coach Lindy Vivas inserting Iolani School graduate La'akea Campbell in Game 2, Fresno State played inspired.
The Bulldogs set a school record with 22 blocks in defeating San Jose State on Thursday but had just one block after Game 1. They stuffed Kahumoku to open Game 2, then blocked Kahumoku again, and Willoughby, Nohea Tano and Lauren Duggins once each in taking a 10-6 lead.
Hawaii trailed until setter Kanoe Kamana'o's dump tied it at 13. It was tied four more times before Hawaii took its first lead of the game at 22-21 on a kill by Willoughby.
Gustin put down two of her seven kills to help the Wahine pull away at 27-23. The Bulldogs closed to within 29-26 on one of Kristen Fenton's 19 kills, but Willoughby ended it with her 14th kill.
Willoughby continued her hot streak in Game 3, putting down kills for Hawaii's first two points. She had three aces during a 6-0 run that put the Wahine up 9-2.
"I think I had one of my worst serving matches at Nevada," said Willoughby, who turned 23 Friday. "My only goal was to keep the ball in play."
About the only bump Hawaii had the rest of the way was on Duggins' head. Gustin stepped on her senior teammate's head following a dig attempt midway through Game 3; Duggins left the match with a headache, seven kills and seven block assists, and Hawaii up 17-11.
The closest Fresno State would come was 22-16 in seeing its six-match home winning streak snapped.
Fenton was the only player in double-figure kills for the Bulldogs (19-6, 9-3). Peters finished with eight and Campbell seven.
"I thought we played one of our better matches," said Shoji. "Everything was clicking, our passing, our blocking, and we started to play pretty spirited defense, something that was maybe lacking Thursday.
"In Game 2, we do tend to relax when we win easily. And we knew that Fresno State would play better. They were a little tight in Game 1 and they did better when they started to loosen up."
WAC Standings
WESTERN DIVISION
EASTERN DIVISION
CONFERENCE OVERALL W L Pct W L x-Hawaii 12 0 1.000 26 1 Fresno St. 9 3 .750 19 6 Nevada 6 6 .500 13 14 San Jose St. 6 6 .500 8 16 Boise State 1 10 .091 6 22
x-clinches WAC regular-season title
CONFERENCE OVERALL W L Pct W L SMU 10 2 .833 20 6 Rice 8 4 .667 17 9 LaTech 3 9 .250 15 14 UTEP 2 9 .182 8 20 Tulsa 2 10 .167 11 14 YESTERDAY
Hawaii def. Fresno State, 30-15, 30-26, 30-22
Boise St. def. Wyoming, 30-24, 25-30, 31-29, 30-16SATURDAY
UTEP def. Tulsa, 30-23, 31-29, 28-30, 25-30, 15-11
Nevada def. San Jose St., 28-30, 30-23, 31-29, 30-24
SMU def. Louisiana Tech, 30-24, 30-26, 30-13
Hawaii def. Fresno State
30-15, 30-26, 30-21WAHINE (26-1, 12-0 WAC)
BULLDOGS (19-6, 9-3 WAC)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Kahumoku 3 14 3 35 .314 1 1 20 Willoughby 3 20 5 42 .357 0 1 8 Tano 2 5 1 9 .444 0 2 4 Kamana'o 3 2 0 2 1.000 0 3 8 Gustin 3 7 1 12 .500 0 1 2 Duggins 3 7 2 20 .250 0 7 5 Boogaard 3 0 0 2 .000 0 1 2 Lundqvist 1 1 0 2 .500 0 0 3 Arnott 1 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 1 Eckmier 1 1 0 2 .500 0 0 0 Thurlby 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 3 Villaroman 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Totals 3 58 12 127 .362 1 16 66
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 Hartt 3 3 2 22 .045 2 1 2 Keune 3 0 1 5 -.200 0 0 6 Fenton 3 19 3 40 .400 0 2 9 Bishop 3 4 3 19 .053 0 2 0 Peters 3 8 7 34 .029 1 1 6 Taelman 1 0 2 4 -.500 0 0 3 Brennan 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 17 Campbell 2 7 2 14 .357 0 0 8 Totals 3 41 20 138 .152 3 6 51
Aces -- Hawaii (6): Willoughby 4, Kamana'o, Gustin. Bulldogs (2): Keune, Bishop. Assists -- Hawaii (53): Kamana'o 44, Willoughby 2, Boogaard 2, Kahumoku, Tano, Gustin, Duggins, Thurlby. Bulldogs (41): Keune 36, Brennan 2, Hartt, Fenton, Campbell.
T -- 1:30. Officials -- Kent Kitade, Michael Yoshikawa. A -- 4708.
