[ COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL ]
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii setter Kanoe Kamana'o tried to block Brigham Young's Laura Nielsen last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Hawaii makes
short work
of BYUThe Wahine dominate from
start to finish to advance to
the regional next week
Was there ever a question?
After the first two minutes, apparently not.
That's how long it took Brigham Young coach Karen Lamb to call her first timeout during last night's volleyball match against No. 2 Hawaii. The NCAA Tournament's second-round match was only 120 seconds old and the Rainbow Wahine were only ahead 5-1, but Lamb already had a bad feeling.
It never got better.
Hawaii needed 88 minutes to dispose of former conference rival BYU 30-19, 30-23, 30-22 at the Stan Sheriff Center. A crowd of 6,492 saw the Wahine (34-1) extend their winning streak to 33 in advancing to next week's regional at the SSC.
Hawaii will face the winner of tonight's match between Illinois and Louisville in Friday's second match. The first match will be between Georgia Tech and the winner of tonight's match between Michigan and California.
"It's shaping up to be four really good teams in the regional," said Hawaii coach Dave Shoji. "But all the regionals will be tough.
"I told the team tonight that I didn't think we could match our intensity from last night (against Idaho). We never really celebrated like we did Thursday, but we were very efficient, very business-like, except for a little lull in Game 3."
The Cougars closed to 19-15 in Game 3, forcing Shoji to call his first and only timeout of the match. The Wahine came back out on the court refocused, needing less than 10 minutes to finish off their 28th sweep of the year and improve their record against the Cougars to 15-5.
Kim Willoughby again led Hawaii with 16 kills, while senior middle blockers Karin Lundqvist and Lauren Duggins also had double-figure kills with 12 and 11.
It was Lundqvist's first start since the Sept. 13 win over Stanford. She started in place of senior Maja Gustin, who sprained her ankle during Thursday's win over Idaho.
"I think we had a lot of focus," said Lundqvist, who hit .556. "We had great spirit out there. They (the Cougars) were fighting well, but we were very energized."
"It was a lot of fun out there," added Duggins. "I thought we've increased our intensity and our urgency."
Hawaii's domination started early. The Wahine were hitting more than .600 for most of Game 1. The Wahine didn't commit a hitting error until their 26th swing, when Duggins was blocked by Carrie Bowers and Laura Nielsen.
Hawaii finished the game hitting .541, with just two errors (Willoughby had the other) in 37 attempts. It was the fewest points the Cougars had scored since a 30-19 loss to Utah on Nov. 7 and only the fourth time they hadn't scored at least 20 points in a game this season.
The Wahine finished the match hitting .385 to the Cougars' .256. It was only the sixth time BYU had lost in straight sets, and it tied the fewest points (64) it had scored all season, matching the low against Florida in the third match of the season.
"Hawaii's got two of the best outside hitters in the country," Lamb said of Willoughby and Lily Kahumoku. "We needed to have the same kind of serving night we had Thursday (11 aces against New Mexico State) and that didn't happen. We also only got five blocks, which is well below our average (3.13 bpg).
"No. 14 (Duggins) hurt us. We chose to focus on their outsides and the middles hurt us. Unfortunately we couldn't get them out of system. I hate to lose, but we lost to a better team tonight."
The Cougars had problems with Willoughby, whether the senior was at the net or on the baseline. She had all three of Hawaii's aces and "everything was OK until she served," said BYU senior hitter Bowers. "She's amazing."
"Their attack is pretty simple," Bowers continued. "They hit it high over the block. Their attack is a lot slower, but you can do that when you have amazing hitters like they do."
Kim Wilson led BYU (24-9) with 12 kills, while Bowers finished with 11 and Lexi Brown 10. Senior libero Uila Crabbe, playing against former Kamehameha teammates Kahumoku and Nohea Tano, had 10 digs. She finished her career as the career dig leader in the Mountain West with 435.
"I think we had a little bit of the jitters tonight," said Crabbe. "We kept with them pretty good, but their middles got away from us."
Said Bowers: "If we're going to go out, we might as well do it against the best. We all wanted this experience, to play here. The cool thing was our last game was here, the best place to play volleyball."
Hawaii def. Brigham Young
Cougars (24-9)
30-19, 30-23, 30-22
Wahine (34-1)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Togo 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 8 Richards 3 6 1 16 .312 0 2 8 Metcalf 3 4 1 16 .188 0 2 7 Bowers 3 11 4 28 .250 0 1 6 Brown 3 10 2 23 .348 0 3 2 Nielsen 3 3 0 9 .333 0 2 1 Varner 1 0 1 3 -.333 0 0 2 Wilson 3 12 5 30 .233 0 0 1 Kearl 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Crabbe 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Castillo 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Totals 3 46 14 125 .256 0 10 47
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 Willoughby 3 16 2 38 .368 0 1 7 Tano 3 6 2 14 .286 0 2 6 Lundqvist 3 12 2 18 .556 0 2 2 Kahumoku 3 7 4 24 .125 0 2 8 Kamana'o 3 5 0 6 .833 0 0 9 Duggins 3 11 1 21 .476 0 3 6 Boogaard 1 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 0 Watanabe 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Villaroman 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 12 Totals 3 58 11 122 .385 0 10 51
Aces -- Cougars (4): Kearl 2, Metcalf, Nielsen. Hawaii (3): Willoughby 3. Assists -- Cougars (43): Richards 34, Crabbe 4, Bowers 3, Togo, Kearl. Hawaii (56): Kamana'o 46, Tano 4, Willoughby 3, Villaroman 2, Kahumoku.
T -- 1:28. Officials -- Kevin Cull, Glenn Sapp. A -- 6,492.
