[ THE FINAL FOUR ]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Michelle Chatman celebrated with teammate Aury Cruz after Florida beat Hawaii in four games in the NCAA championship semifinals last night. It was the last match for Hawaii's Nohea Tano (5) and Lily Kahumoku, in the background.
The careers of seven
Wahine seniors finish
with no national title
DALLAS >> Chomp.
What appeared to be Hawaii's best shot at its first national title since 1987 got chewed up and spat out last night by a very hungry Florida team at Reunion Arena. The No. 3 Gators, behind 19 kills by Aury Cruz, advanced to tomorrow's national championship for the first time in seven tries via a 30-28, 30-28, 23-30, 30-28 victory over the No. 2 Rainbow Wahine.
Florida coach Mary Wise will be the first female coach in the national final when the Gators (36-1) take on No. 1 Southern California tomorrow (10:30 a.m. Hawaii time). It will be a rematch of the first volleyball match of this season, the opener of the NACWAA State Farms Classic in Honolulu on Aug. 22, when the Women of Troy handed the Gators their only loss of the year.
USC (34-0) looks to become the fifth repeat champion, and the first since Stanford (1996-97), as well as the third undefeated NCAA champion (Long Beach State in 1998 and Nebraska in 2000 were the others).
Last night, the Women of Troy extended their NCAA-record winning streak to 46 with a 30-27, 30-28, 30-20 sweep of Minnesota in the first semifinal.
It was a disappointing end to the season for Hawaii (36-2), which saw its 35-match win streak snapped after 2 hours and 20 minutes. The Wahine lost in the semis for the second consecutive year and the third time in four.
"We made a lot of hitting errors, we did a lot of things that could have won the match but didn't," said Hawaii senior hitter Kim Willoughby, who tied for match-high honors with 21 kills. "When we had the lead (in Games 1, 2 and 4), we needed to keep it and not let them come back on us.
"I give them a lot of credit. I don't know if they wanted it more or what in the end."
A crowd of 6,805 saw the careers of seven Wahine seniors end with a thud on a mis-set that Jane Collymore slapped back for her 15th kill and the final point.
"It was a great match, a great effort by both teams," Wise said after her team defeated Hawaii for the third consecutive meeting. "Our game plan was to out-block them and we did (13-7).
"We didn't think we'd be able to out-dig Hawaii -- they are a great defensive team -- but there was not such a huge gap that we couldn't overcome it."
The Wahine finished with a 75-66 edge in digs and even slimmer margins in most other categories. Hawaii had more kills (70-68) and a better hitting percentage (.210-.209).
Hawaii coach Dave Shoji figured out by the time he got to the postmatch press conference that his team had even scored more points: 114-113. But the Gators got the points when they needed them, at the end.
"We had our chances," said Shoji. "It was a tough match. It was hard to score, hard to figure out how to stop them. I thought we did a pretty good job but we didn't make enough plays.
"We had too many unforced errors in Games 1 and 2. We gave up too many points on the jump serve and way too many runs. We started to make some adjustments, started to change the tempo of the match, but their jump serve took us out of it in Game 4."
Hawaii dominated Game 3 behind a gutsy performance by injured senior Maja Gustin. The middle blocker had missed most of the past three matches recuperating from a sprained ankle suffered in the first-round match against Idaho.
Gustin brought a fresh arm that nearly dug the Wahine out of a very deep hole. She had an immediate impact when inserted in Game 3, putting down four kills, as Hawaii ended Florida's NCAA-record skein for consecutive games won at 105.
The Gators had not dropped a game since the second match of the season, that coming in Game 3 of the victory over Kansas State.
"When Maja came in, she told us, 'Go deeper inside yourself,' " said UH senior Lily Kahumoku, who tied Willoughby with 21 kills. "She said we can do this, to dig deeper."
The Wahine looked like they were going to force a Game 5, jumping out to a 16-12 lead. But Florida scored five unanswered points to go ahead 17-16 then outscored Hawaii 4-2 for a 21-18 lead. The Gators never trailed again.
The Wahine pulled to within one three times, the last when Kahumoku's dig of a Cruz serve fell back on Florida's side of the net to stave off match point at 29-28.
"At that point, I wondered what it would do to the team's psyche," said Wise. "But just as they have all year, they went on to the next play."
Collymore ended it on the next play to put the Gators into the final and send the Wahine home disappointed once more.
Jacque Robinson and Sherri Williams added 13 kills each for Florida. Lauren Duggins had 12 kills for Hawaii.
"Maybe I should have put Maja in earlier than I did -- she gave us offense right off the bat," said Shoji. "I'm sure I'll be second-guessing myself on that one for a long time. But I thought Karin (senior middle Lundqvist) was doing a good job.
"The problem was their jump serve bothered us and we gave up way too many runs. It was a very even match and they executed when they needed to execute."
USC 3, Minnesota 0: The Gophers gave it a valiant effort but came up short against the defending national champions.
The difference came at the end of both Games 1 and 2 when the Women of Troy were able to hold off a Minnesota challenge. And it came early in Game 3 after the Gophers had jumped out to a 5-0 lead.
At that point, USC was hitting minus-.500 with no kills and three errors on six swings. The Women of Troy didn't have another error in their next 11 attempts, putting down seven kills to take control of the game at 10-7.
"I think our kids like to be behind," said USC coach Mick Haley. "It let them have a chance to play a little freer.
"There was no coaching wizardry involved. After the timeout at 0-5, we outscored them 19-4. We started getting chances to swing at the ball and get back into our rhythm."
USC had three players in double-figure kills, led by Keao Burdine's 13.
Bibiana Candelas added 12 kills and April Ross 11.
The 13th-seeded Gophers (26-11), the lowest seed to ever make the final four, got 23 kills from Cassie Busse and 11 from Erin Martin.
Minnesota coach Mike Hebert is now 0-3 in the semifinals. His first two losses came against Hawaii in 1987 and 1988 when he was the coach at Illinois.
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Hawaii’s Willoughby
named Player of the Year
DALLAS >> Kim Willoughby's Christmas wish was simple. A single piece of jewelry.
An NCAA championship ring.
It won't happen for the senior outside hitter, one of Hawaii's all-time great volleyball players. Florida ended the chance for the ring and the Rainbow Wahine's first title since 1987 in the chilly air of Reunion Arena last night.
Willoughby, however, picked up another gift box today when she was named the NCAA Player of the Year at the All-American luncheon.
"While I'm at a loss for words, honestly Ithought I played great for four years but I never thought in a million years I'd get something like this," Willoughby said today.
The 6-foot senior outside hitter is the third Rainbow Wahine honored by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, joining Teee Williams (1987 and 1989) and Angelica Ljungquist (1996).
"I feel Kim is the best player in the country," said Wahine coach Dave Shoji. "She does amazing things."
Willoughby holds all the major UH career records: kills (2,598), aces (194) and digs (1,440). The three-time All-American also ranks 10th in block solos and 11th in total blocks.
Willoughby also has left her signature in the NCAA record book, finishing sixth in all-time kills. She owns single-season records for kills in the rally-scoring format with 850 in 2001 and for kills per game in rally scoring (7.20 in 2001), Both marks rank fourth all-time.
Other players considered were three-time All-Americans April Ross of USC and Aury Cruz of Florida.
Florida def. Hawaii
30-28, 30-28, 23-30, 30-28Gators (36-1)
Wahine (36-2)
g k e att pct. bs ba d S. Williams 4 13 2 23 .478 0 7 0 Chatman 4 5 3 15 .133 0 4 4 Cruz 4 19 9 60 .167 1 2 14 Moscovic 4 3 0 11 .273 0 1 7 Collymore 4 15 10 43 .116 1 2 20 Robinson 4 13 5 29 .276 0 6 1 Engel 4 0 1 1 -1.000 0 0 6 Mendes 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 14 T. Williams 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 4 68 30 182 .209 2 22 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 Willoughby 4 21 13 66 .121 0 1 18 Tano 4 5 0 15 .333 0 1 8 Lundqvist 3 3 1 6 .333 0 0 1 Kahumoku 4 21 11 57 .175 0 3 15 Kamana'o 4 1 0 2 .500 0 2 8 Duggins 4 12 5 30 .233 0 6 3 Watanabe 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Gustin 2 7 1 10 .600 0 1 3 Villaroman 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 18 Totals 4 70 31 186 .210 0 14 75
Aces -- Gators (3): Moscovic 2, Cruz. Hawaii (5): Willoughby 3, Kahumoku, Kamana'o. Assists -- Gators (63): Moscovic 56, Cruz 4, Collymore, Robinson, Mendes. Hawaii (61): Kamana'o 53, Willoughby 3, Kahumoku 3, Tano, Lundqvist.
T -- 2:20. Officials -- Patsy Malta, Mary Blalock. A -- 6805.
