|
Wahine serve up
No. 13
Fourth-ranked Hawaii improves
to 13-0 overall and 3-0 in the WAC
with a 30-20, 30-25, 30-26 victory
over Boise State
It's not often that Susie Boogaard feels short.
But it happened last night. And short was a good thing.
It was the short serves by the 6-foot-2 Boogaard that helped No. 4 Hawaii rally past Boise State late in Game 2 and keep the Rainbow Wahine undefeated. Hawaii got 11 kills from Victoria Prince and 10 each from Tara Hittle and Boogaard to sweep the Broncos 30-20, 30-25, 30-26 at the Stan Sheriff Center.
A crowd of 6,275 (7,385 tickets) saw the Wahine win their 185th straight against an unranked opponent, and 81st in a row against a Western Athletic Conference opponent. Hawaii (13-0, 3-0) next faces Texas-El Paso (6-8, 0-5) at 4 p.m. tomorrow.
Boise State, getting 13 kills from sophomore middle Cameron Flunder, fell to 14-4 and 3-2.
"There is no reason for us to panic when we're behind," Boogaard said. "We know we can come back, that someone will make a play.
"We haven't lost yet because we play as a team with a lot of heart."
Until Boogaard's 5-0 serving run in Game 2, it appeared that Boise State would take its first game off Hawaii after being swept in the previous six meetings. The Wahine led it at 4-3 only to have the Broncos start connecting with their offense.
Led by Flunder and Heather Malaschak, BSU jumped out to a 20-16 margin. The Broncos continued to hold onto the lead, going ahead at 23-20 on a kill by Kim Fenneman.
A service error by Jackie Stroud put the ball in Boogaard's hands, where the junior's short serves began causing all sorts of passing problems. Her first serve was an ace, followed by a Telia Peterson's hitting error. A kill by Prince on an overpass gave Hawaii its first lead since 4-3 at 24-23. A kill from Alicia Arnott and Flunder's first hitting error in 14 swings put the Wahine ahead for good.
"The thing that was frustrating is we knew she was going to serve short," BSU coach Scott Sandel said. "It definitely got Cameron out of her rhythm.
"We just didn't execute down the stretch (in Game 2). I think we had five unforced errors and that changed the momentum."
Hawaii finished off Game 2 with a 14-5 run and carried the momentum over to Game 3. The Wahine jumped out to leads of 10-4 and 20-12, allowing UH coach Dave Shoji to clear his bench.
Fourteen of the Wahine saw court time. It also allowed Shoji to move some players around, shifting Hittle from the right side to the left and Prince from the middle to the right.
"It was pretty ragged out there at times," Shoji said. "But we got a chance to see some different things. We need to find a lineup. We wanted to give Tara some swings on the left and we'll probably keep rotating our middles.
"Boogaard's serve in Game 2 was the difference. Kari (assistant coach Ambrozich) is the one calling the serves and she called that. It worked the first time (an ace) and we kept using it. It took Boise out of what they wanted to do."
"We saw that that spot looked open," Boogaard said. "I needed to change my serve and do something else. It worked."
In Game 1, it was close -- Hawaii led 8-7 -- and then it was over. Boogaard simply went over the shorter Boise State block for three straight kills and the Wahine were never threatened the rest of the way.
Hawaii had five of its eight blocks in the opening 23 minutes, punctuated by Kanoe Kamana'o's solo stuff of Sarah Johnson to end it. The game shouldn't have been that close -- midway through, Wahine hitting errors (6) accounted for a third of the Broncos' 18 points.
Hawaii def. Boise State
30-20, 30-25, 30-26
Broncos (14-4, 3-2 wac) g k e att pct. bs ba d Malashak 3 9 2 18 .389 1 3 0 Peterson 3 5 6 24 -.042 0 1 12 Fenneman 3 3 3 12 .000 0 0 5 Flunder 3 13 6 37 .189 0 1 4 Claussen 3 5 8 29 -.103 0 1 9 Melvin 3 2 0 5 .400 0 2 4 Starring 1 1 0 2 .500 0 0 0 Stroud 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 9 Johnson 1 1 2 3 -.333 0 0 0 Totals 3 39 27 130 .092 1 8 43 Rainbow Wahine (13-0, 3-0 wac) g k e att pct. bs ba d Sanders 2 4 2 12 .167 0 4 1 Boogaard 3 10 4 29 .207 0 2 4 Hittle 3 10 8 28 .071 0 0 5 Arnott 2 7 2 15 .333 0 0 3 Kamana'o 3 2 0 4 .500 2 3 7 Prince 3 11 3 19 .421 0 1 3 Gregory 1 2 1 6 .167 0 0 0 Blood 1 0 0 0 .000 0 1 0 Eckmier 1 1 2 6 -.167 0 1 1 Watanabe 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 8 Fotu 2 1 0 2 .500 0 0 13 Thurlby 1 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 0 Woolford 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Silva 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 3 49 22 122 .221 2 12 47 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- BSU (3): Fenneman, Claussen, Melvin. Hawaii (5): Prince 2, Boogaard, Hittle, Arnott. Assists -- BSU (38): Melvin 29, Claussen 4, Malashak, Peterson, Fenneman, Starring, Stroud. Hawaii (48): Kamana'o 36, Fotu 5, Hittle 4, Thurlby 3.
T -- 1:34. Officials --John Martin, Denice Hansen. A --6,275.
