|
Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Georgia Tech didn’t
make it easy for UHTHEY did it. They're going. They're there. They're already gone.
This Hawaii team is back in the final four, off to Dallas, Lily Kahumoku already wearing her cowboy hat.
They hugged. They won. They did it. And was there any doubt?
No. There was Dave Shoji, after aloha ball, with an easy smile and reserved high-fives. Business as usual. That's how it's done.
"Well, I think we're all a little drained after that match," Shoji said. "That was a great college volleyball match."
Well, maybe there was a little doubt.
This UH team had been tested, by the time it made its victory lap, by the time those victory "Let's Go 'Bows!" rained down from above.
This Hawaii team, thanks to Georgia Tech, is ready now.
This Hawaii team, after this latest match, is different now.
It was like the old days, at times, last night, the days most of us remember only in hazy, feel-good dreams. You half expected the crowd to swell up with one voice, rising in anticipation with the set, with a good, old fashioned "TEEEEEEEEE!" And when Kim Willoughby came leaping up from the back row to slam home the point that would give UH a 24-22 Game 1 lead, every arm in the gym went up at once. And even the old guy in the Georgia Tech cheering section could only sit there and grin, shaking his head in appreciation. Smiling with wonder at the force of nature that is Hurricane Kim.
But a funny thing happened on the way to Dallas, to destiny. That would be Georgia Tech, playing like a team with nothing to lose. The Yellow Jackets smiled, point gained or point lost, after hitting the floor. They let it all hang out, with six service errors in the first game, five more in Game 2.
And Georgia Tech won that first game, played tough, played great. They were in a zone and out of their minds. Their "fast offense" found pukas everywhere. Georgia Tech was there to win.
"You look at their stats," Shoji said, "and it was unbelievable."
"It was wonderful," said Tech coach Bond Shymansky, glowing, grinning, minutes after getting beat.
The crowd pleaded. The crowd implored. It willed and beseeched. You could feel the love and the want and the desperation and every emotion in between.
"I love the spirit of the fans here," Shymansky said.
And at last they were answered, and Hawaii won a crucial Game 2, 33-31, then pulled away in Game 3.
A Kim kill seemed to go through the net.
She put one away and went crashing into the official's tower, bending a microphone.
And in Game 4 it seemed Willoughby took over the match (after one Kim kill Kahumoku was so overcome by the play she had to sit on the court for a few seconds to compose herself), and Melissa Villaroman got to every ball. "I was fired up," Villaroman said. And still Georgia Tech would not go away. Still the Yellow Jackets were right there.
"I really don't know how we won," Shoji said.
There were rallies last night, there was defense, there was drama, there was fun. The pancake save was back. It was as if the two teams were making rally scoring disappear, at least a little. There wasn't a point with every swing. It was like the old days, out there.
"The whole setting was something that we'll never forget," Shoji said.
"Going home," Kahumoku, the Texan, said.
They were already on their way there. As they circled the arena, they were already gone.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com