Wahine breeze
past LaTech
RUSTON, La. » The trek to Louisiana Tech was nearly 10 times as long as the volleyball match, but that was expected. Such is life in the Western Athletic Conference.
No. 3 Hawaii met little resistance in sweeping Louisiana Tech 30-15, 30-21, 30-23 in 83 minutes yesterday. It was UH's quickest victory of the season.
Hawaii handled the first half of its second road trip with ease in winning its 95th consecutive conference contest before a gathering of 424 at Thomas Assembly Center yesterday. The Wahine (15-0, 5-0 WAC) weren't flawless but made fewer mistakes, as Tech's errors (32) accounted for a third of Hawaii's points.
"Tech's a struggling ballclub and we're playing pretty good volleyball right now," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "It wasn't a close match.
"We hit the ball well. Kanoe (Kamana'o) did a nice job isolating the hitters. I don't think they've seen an attack like ours. They were scrappy. They did dig some balls. When we passed well, we ran the offense and it was pretty hard to stop."
The Lady Techsters, on the other hand, couldn't get their offense out of first gear. They had difficulty with serve-receive and the Rainbow Wahine took full advantage, scoring several quick points off Tech mistakes.
Junior Victoria Prince feasted on most of the errant overpasses, hitting .636 and collecting 14 kills on 22 swings with no errors. Prince added four aces. Outside hitter Susie Boogaard blasted a match-high 15 kills, while sophomore Alicia Arnott chipped in 13 kills, including the final two of the match to make it an early night for Hawaii.
Outside hitter Natalie Shipp led the Lady Techsters (5-14, 1-5) with eight kills.
The Wahine raced out to a 6-1 lead in Game 1 and never looked back. Arnott crushed an overpass to give Hawaii a 20-9 lead. Tech managed five more points before UH coasted to the win. Hawaii hit .447 in the game and decimated the defense of the conference's top digging team. The Lady Techsters, averaging a WAC-best 20 digs a game, couldn't prevent balls from going down, nor could they put a ball down.
Junior Ashley Watanabe (15 digs) and senior Teisa Fotu (10 digs, one ace) split time at the libero position and led UH, which outdug Tech 61-50 and outhit the Techsters .269 to .114.
Tech scored the first point of Game 2 on a kill by Megan Rush for its first lead of the match. The Lady Techsters led 4-3 before Hawaii bolted ahead behind an 8-1 run. Boogaard picked apart Tech's passing to help Hawaii hold a comfortable lead the rest of the game. Prince crushed two straight overpasses that came off Boogaard's serve for a 21-14 lead. Tech trimmed the deficit to four once but would get no closer.
The Wahine, with three non-starters, had a little lapse in Game 3 as LaTech opened with a 7-3 lead off four Hawaii hitting errors. But the Wahine evened the game at 16 when Rush misfired and hit into the net. The score was tied four more times, the last at 21, before Fotu's three-point serving spurt put Hawaii ahead for good.
"There were times in the third game where we got behind, but we had a pretty good lineup out there, so it wasn't a real concern," Shoji said. "Our players just needed to steady out a little bit. We had a couple new players out there and that was probably the reason for our slow start but they came back pretty strong.
"Anytime you win on the road, it's a good win. It's just hard for most teams to win (on the road), so we'll take the win and move on."
The Wahine move on to Southern Methodist for a 9 a.m. (Hawaii time) match tomorrow.
WAC STANDINGS
Western Division
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Hawaii 5 0 1.000 15 0 Nevada 4 2 .667 11 6 San Jose State 3 2 .600 12 6 Boise State 4 3 .571 15 5 Fresno State 2 4 .333 9 9 Eastern Division Rice 6 0 1.000 17 2 SMU 3 3 .500 9 7 Tulsa 2 4 .333 13 5 LaTech 1 5 .167 5 14 UTEP 0 7 .000 6 10 Yesterday
Hawaii def. Louisiana Tech 30-15, 30-21, 30-23
Nevada def. UTEP 31-29, 30-10, 30-26
San Jose State def. SMU 30-26, 30-22, 30-16
Boise State def. Fresno State 30-23, 30-28, 30-22
Today
Rice at Tulsa
HAWAII DEF. LOUISIANA TECH
30-15, 30-21, 30-23
Rainbow Wahine (15-0, 5-0 WAC) g k e att pct. bs ba d Sanders 2 5 0 11 .455 0 2 3 Boogaard 3 15 5 39 .256 0 0 10 Hittle 3 7 5 22 .091 0 0 4 Gregory 2 1 2 5 -.200 0 0 0 Kamana'o 2 0 0 1 .000 0 2 7 Prince 3 14 0 22 .636 1 2 1 Arnott 3 13 5 29 .276 0 2 7 Eckmier 1 0 1 1 -1.000 0 0 0 Watanabe 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 15 Fotu 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Thurlby 2 1 2 4 -.250 0 0 3 Woolford 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Totals 3 56 20 134 .269 1 8 61 Lady Bulldogs (5-14, 1-5 WAC) g k e att pct. bs ba d Rush 3 5 4 19 .053 0 2 2 Okpa 3 5 3 21 .095 0 0 5 Phillips 3 5 0 11 .455 0 0 5 Enny 3 0 2 5 -.400 1 0 5 Fairbanks 2 2 1 7 .143 0 0 1 Clark 3 0 1 4 -.250 0 0 3 Hayes 2 8 5 22 .136 0 1 1 Anderson 3 0 0 1 .000 0 0 22 Shipp 3 8 3 33 .152 0 1 6 Totals 3 33 19 123 .114 1 4 50 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- Hawaii (7): Prince 3, Boogaard 2, Fotu, Thurlby. LT (1): Enny. Assists -- Hawaii (52): Kamana'o 32, Thurlby 19, Hittle. LT (29): Enny 28, Anderson.
T -- 1:23. Officials --Michael Penardo, John Cline. A --424.
