[ WAHINE VOLLEYBALL ]
Spartans have
hands full with
senior-laden WahineA sold-out Sheriff Center
will say goodbye to seven
seniors tonight
Dave Shoji has not been looking forward to tonight for a while. Neither has Craig Choate.
Both coaches have very valid, if not varied, reasons.
Shoji knows tonight's "Senior Night" festivities will be very emotional. The Hawaii coach is losing seven seniors off this Rainbow Wahine squad, currently ranked No. 2 and riding a 77-match Western Athletic Conference win streak.
WAC volleyball
Who: San Jose State (8-16, 6-6) at No. 2 Hawaii (26-1, 12-0)When: 7 p.m. today
Where: Stan Sheriff Center
Tickets: Sold out
TV: Live, KFVE (Ch. 5)
Radio: Live, KKEA 1420-AM
Choate knows his San Jose State team is overmatched even before taking the Stan Sheriff Center court. The combination of Wahine "Senior Night" and a sold-out arena doesn't help.
"I was really happy to hear about both those things," Choate said, tongue in cheek, about the sellout and the Senior Night. "Seriously, we are as ready as we're going to be at this stage, as ready as we're going to get.
"It's not a competition right now. You're talking about a senior-laden No. 2 team (Hawaii) against a team that has one person who played Division I volleyball last year.
"There's nothing we can do about that. We're here, we get to experience 10,000 people on their 'Senior Night,' and we'll play as hard as we can."
The Spartans (8-16, 6-6 WAC), will be seeded sixth in next week's WAC tournament at Reno, Nev. The Wahine (26-1, 12-0) clinched the top seed in the tournament last week as well as their eighth straight conference title.
Tonight will be hard for both the Hawaii players and coaching staff. This is the last regular-season home match for All-Americans Kim Willoughby and Lily Kahumoku and third-teamer Lauren Duggins; all-conference player Maja Gustin and second-teamers Karin Lundqvist and Melissa Villaroman; and Nohea Tano.
Only four were in the original recruiting class of 2000: Willoughby, Duggins, Gustin and Villaroman. Kahumoku was a 1999 recruit who sat out 2001 on a personal break, Tano transferred in as a sophomore from Washington State, and Lundqvist was a junior transfer from Montana State.
"As a group, it didn't start out to be this many," Shoji said. "We should have only had four, but we ended up pretty top-heavy. I'm going to miss this group -- they are very special.
"They remind me of our 1979 team (which won the program's first national championship) in terms of being senior-dominated. The only thing that separates this team from our (four) championship teams is winning that championship. They've done everything else."
Hawaii, on a 25-match winning streak, is looking to cap its fifth consecutive undefeated WAC season against San Jose State. The Spartans are trying to snap a two-game skid and to defeat the Wahine for the first time since 1993, a losing streak of 22 straight.
"We have a game plan; there's always a game plan," said Choate, in his 11th season. "But when the other team jumps 10-6 and you jump 9-2 ... all you do is try your best, hope they have a bad night and you have a very good night."
Leading the Spartans is senior hitter Kimberly Noble with a 5.39 kill average, ranked 16th in the country. Freshman Jessica Shull leads the WAC in digs (4.34 dpg).
Shoji has about wrapped up his recruiting for the year, receiving letters of intent from 6-foot hitter Tara Hittle (Doherty High School in Colorado) and Jessica Keefe, a 6-2 hitter from Ames (Iowa) High School. He's still waiting on the paperwork from Nickie Thomas, a 6-3 middle from Westwood High School in Texas.
Even though the Wahine lose a lot from this season, "Hawaii is retooling," said Choate. "Let's be honest. The level of their recruit vs. the level of everyone else's recruit is not the same.
"Next year won't be the same team, because this team is scary. But I'm not holding my breath that next year will not be a good year for them."
