[ WAHINE VOLLEYBALL ]
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Susie Boogaard tried to hit past the block of Nittaidai's Michiko Kirii during last night's exhibition match.
Wahine lose exhibition
in 5 games
Hawaii coach Dave Shoji bounced up and down from the bench like a pogo stick.
Shoji got almost as much of a workout as his team. There could be a lot more matches like last night in store for Hawaii as a nearly new team learns to play together.
Welcome to Rainbow Wahine rebuilding.
Hawaii got more than it could handle, falling to Nittaidai 31-29, 20-30, 24-30, 30-21, 17-15. A curious crowd of 1,521 at the Stan Sheriff Center probably didn't know what to think after its first glimpse of a team that ran the gamut in consistency and skills.
"It was a fun game to coach," Shoji said. "We have a lot of new people out there and we were just trying to direct traffic out there.
"It's hard to gauge anything because they're such a different team than we'll face this fall. We won't get as many blocks against the bigger teams. We could have blocked more. The kills they got were mostly just using our block."
Blocking was the one statistic Hawaii dominated, as it got 17.5 stuffs to just one for Nittaidai. But the Wahine passing and defense were suspect at times and the offense never quite hummed, with the constant shuffle of players in and out of the lineup.
Impressive in their Hawaii debut were freshman middles Kari Gregory and Juliana Sanders, who both redshirted last fall. Gregory had seven of Hawaii's blocks and Sanders hit .385 with 13 kills. Freshman Alicia Arnott led the Wahine with 15 kills.
Nittaidai hardly seemed imposing. Kaoru Imanishi (23 kills) led a group of small-but-smart hitters who tooled the block for nearly every kill. Ayumi Kusano (21 kills) and Ikumi Sato (11 kills) were equally masterful at abusing the Hawaii block.
Hawaii took an early 13-10 lead in Game 1 off back-to-back kills from Melody Eckmier. But Nittaidai scored three in a row to tie the game. From there it was a sideout battle, with neither team able to score more than a point per rotation. The Wahine put together a brief run and went ahead 25-22 off a kill from Susie Boogaard, a hitting error by Sato and a stuff by Kanoe Kamana'o and Sanders. But Nittaidai tied the game at 28 off a Hawaii hitting error and then prevented one game point on a kill by Kusano. Nittaidai got two kills from Imanishi to close out the game.
Hawaii served Nittaidai off the court to open Game 2. Thanks to Eckmier, who had two aces, the Wahine jumped out to a 15-7 lead. But once again, Nittaidai made the game interesting, closing to within two at 16-14 off of Hawaii errors.
The Wahine roof appeared in Game 3. After totaling just four blocks in the first two games, Hawaii stuffed Nittaidai off the court, amassing 6.5 blocks and holding Nittaidai to .095 hitting. Gregory's fifth block gave Hawaii a 21-14 lead and Nittaidai never got close again.
The wheels came off for Hawaii in Game 4 as Nittaidai broke away from a close game with a 6-0 run to go up 21-15. Nittaidai evened the match on a kill from Kusano.
Game 5 seesawed back and forth with 11 ties. Hawaii reached match point first on a block by Eckmier and Teisa Fotu. Nittaidai got a kill from Imanishi to even the game. Arnott's 15th kill of the match gave Hawaii the advantage again, but a kill by Imanishi and two more from Kusano ended the match.
