COURTESY JEFF GOLDEN / LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY
Loyola Marymount's Kealani Kimball of Kaunakakai, Molokai, was named first-team All-West Coast Conference.
Kimball named
first-team all WCC
Loyola Marymount senior Kealani Kimball (Kamehameha '00 of Kaunakakai, Molokai) was named first-team All-West Coast Conference for the third consecutive season, the WCC announced yesterday.
In the Lions' final regular-season match on Saturday, Kimball recorded 16 digs in a five-game loss to Santa Clara to pass the 1,000 career digs plateau.
She also had 21 kills and is the fourth Loyola Marymount player to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in her career. She has had 18 double-doubles in 31 matches this season.
Kimball has career totals of 1,011 digs and 1,082 kills in 383 games, which ranks eighth on the LMU games-played list.
Her career averages are 2.63 digs and 2.83 kills over four seasons. Kimball played outside hitter this year and as a freshman; she played middle blocker most of her sophomore and all of her junior seasons.
Kimball and the Lions, ranked No. 15 by the coaches this week with a 25-6 overall and 10-4 WCC record, await Sunday's announcement of the NCAA Division I championship tournament schedule.
No. 4 Pepperdine (24-2, 14-0) and No. 3 Santa Clara (20-9, 11-3) of the WCC also anticipate NCAA bids, as, of course does No. 2 Hawaii.
The NCAA selections are scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m. Hawaii time on ESPNews.
Mason earns Pac-10 honors: Oregon's Sarah Mason (St. Joseph '03 of Hilo) was named yesterday to the Pac-10 Conference All-Freshman volleyball team.
Stanford's Kristin Richards of Orem, Utah, was selected Freshman of the Year. A spokesman said the Pac-10 does not make public who was runner-up in voting.
Mason led Oregon in hitting percentage at .257 and in kills per game at 3.06 (275 in 90 games).
She is the second player in Oregon history to make the all-freshman team.
Oregon went 0-16 in the Pac-10, but Mason said, "even though we didn't get any wins it was still fun. There were no seniors on our team and nine freshmen.
"We did a lot of learning and we will have a great team by next year. It will be totally different."
Raiola a Big Ten honorable mention: Wisconsin sophomore center Donovan Raiola (Kamehameha '01 of Kaimuki) yesterday was given honorable mention on the coaches and media All-Big Ten football teams.
Raiola has been one of the leaders of the Badgers' sometimes-dominant offensive line. He loves to be part of a long, sustained drive of running plays.
"When ... you see the defense on their knees, you definitely build a lot of confidence," he commented on an 80-yard, 13-run play drive against North Carolina earlier this season.
Junior college volleyball: Taft (Calif.) rolled through the Central Valley Conference with a 16-0 record (18-2 overall) and reaped the rewards due a champion.
Sophomore outside hitter Jamie Tsubaki (Kaimuki '02), freshman setter Lehua Yap (Nanakuli '03) and freshman middle Janice Fonoti (Farrington '03) were chosen first team all-conference by coaches, and sophomore libero Burgandi Borges (Roosevelt '01) was named to the second team.
Coach Kanoe Bandy was chosen conference and regional Coach of the Year. Her assistant is Kealii Pearl.
Seven of the 12 players on the Taft roster are from Hawaii and four are from Nevada. One was from Taft, a 6,000 population oil town an hour from Bakersfield.
Taft, seeded eighth in Northern California, opened play last night in the regional championships against conference runner-up Fresno.
The Hawaii Grown Report also runs Sundays in the Star-Bulletin. Reach Dennis Anderson at homegrownhawaii@verizon.net.
