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Waves crash
against UH
The Rainbow Wahine roll to
a victory over Pepperdine,
improving their record to 9-0
Surfing lessons anyone?
The No. 6 Hawaii volleyball team might just starting giving them. The Rainbow Wahine kept their collective balance last night against unranked Pepperdine, riding out every challenge the Waves rolled out over 108 minutes.
Susie Boogaard had 12 kills and Alicia Arnott and Tara Hittle added 11 each as Hawaii remained unbeaten with a 30-28, 30-28, 30-27 sweep of Pepperdine. A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 5,655 (6,849 tickets) saw the Wahine run their record to 9-0 while handing the Waves (2-6) their third straight loss, sixth in seven matches.
The teams meet again at 7 tonight in what will be UH coach Dave Shoji's 1,000th career match. The contest will be preceded by the annual Wahine alumnae match at 5 p.m.
Junior hitter Katy Daly WAS the offense for Pepperdine, finishing with a season-high 25 kills. No other Wave had more than six kills.
Kamehameha Schools product Kekai Crabbe finished with a match-high 18 digs in her second start at libero.
"Expect even better volleyball tomorrow," said Crabbe, who played club ball for three seasons with UH's Arnott, Kanoe Kamana'o and Juliana Sanders. "We keep falling short, but we'll get it."
And that scares Shoji.
"Usually the losing team makes more adjustments the second night than the winning team," he said. "We need to take care of the ball a little better than we did tonight.
"At times it was pretty ugly. But our players have been very mature at the ends of games and Susie had key kills down the stretch in Games 2 and 3."
Boogaard got off to another slow start, putting down two kills in Game 1 and four in Game 2. She had the match-ender, finishing with no errors in hitting .429.
Hittle played steady throughout, with just one hitting error in each game.
"When the times get tough, we pull together," Hittle said. "God knows why. We seem to keep coming up with big plays at the end.
"Pepperdine will come out tougher than they did tonight. They'll be more prepared, but so will we."
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After trailing by as many as six, Hawaii used a 4-0 run late in Game 1 to take its first lead at 25-24. It started with Arnott's third kill that lifted her out of a negative hitting percentage, continued with a great running dig by Kanoe Kamana'o and finished by two consecutive hitting errors by Pepperdine's Sophia Milo.
The Wahine finally began to slow down Daly, who hit .571 in Game 1 (eight kills, 14 swings, no errors) and had over half of her team's 15 kills. Daly was rebuffed on four attempts during one play in Game 2, with the Wahine finally winning the long rally for a 6-4 lead.
Daly committed her first hitting error on her 23rd attempt when her placement shot to an empty UH back court went long to put the Wahine ahead 8-4. Daly continued to swing away, with her 15th kill helping a 5-1 run that gave Pepperdine an 18-16 lead.
The seesaw game would be tied four times, the last at 25-25, before the Wahine used a 3-0 spurt to take the lead for good at 28-25. The Waves did not fold, holding off two game points in closing to 29-28.
Victoria Prince ended it with her fifth kill.
Hawaii led for most of Game 3, taking control early at 12-7. Pepperdine used mini-surges to keep its hopes of taking a game off the Wahine, holding off two match points with kills that landed just inside UH's backline.
Boogaard finally ended it with her 28th attempt.
Prince was in on six blocks and Boogaard five as the Wahine outblocked the Waves 10-5.
"We just made too many errors," said Pepperdine coach Nina Matthies. "It's a young group and they're pressing instead of relaxing. Winning begets winning and this team is still trying to find its identity.
"We usually don't get a chance to play a team back-to-back. It's nice to be able to work on things. We can play better."
Hawaii def. Pepperdine
30-28, 30-28, 30-27Waves (2-6)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Milo 3 4 10 25 -.240 0 3 2 Mehlhorn 3 5 0 12 .417 0 3 4 McClune 3 6 2 13 .308 2 0 0 Hinds 3 6 4 31 .065 0 0 14 Daly 3 25 6 56 .339 0 0 7 Shultz 3 6 6 20 .000 0 0 9 Crabbe 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 18 Roberts 1 1 1 3 .000 0 0 1 Mulligan 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Bayer 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Totals 3 53 29 160 .150 2 6 57 Rainbow Wahine (9-0)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Boogaard 3 12 0 28 .429 0 5 10 Hittle 3 11 3 23 .348 0 3 5 Gregory 2 6 1 15 .333 0 1 0 Arnott 3 11 10 45 .022 0 0 10 Kamana'o 3 0 0 1 .000 0 2 10 Prince 3 7 1 17 .353 0 6 2 Sanders 2 4 0 7 .571 0 3 1 Eckmier 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Watanabe 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 16 Fotu 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Thurlby 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Woolford 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Totals 3 51 15 136 .265 0 20 58 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- PU(2): Hinds, Shultz. Hawaii (2): Prince, Watanabe. Assists -- PU (47): Mehlhorn 33, Shultz 5, Hinds 4, Daly 3, Milo 2. Hawaii (50): Kamana'o 48, Fotu, Thurlby.
T -- 1:48. Officials -- Wayne Lee, Denice Hansen. A --5,655.
