Arnott leads UH
over SMU
The third-ranked Rainbow Wahine continued their roller-coaster ride of a season yesterday, playing some good, bad and ugly volleyball in dispatching the Mustangs 27-30, 30-27, 30-20, 30-27 in Dallas.
Before 1,440 at Moody Coliseum -- the largest home crowd of the season -- Hawaii rode through a series of loops, twists and turns before steadying out long enough to survive its last regular-season meeting with Southern Methodist. SMU joins Conference USA next year.
The Wahine win sets up a battle of the unbeatens as Hawaii (16-0, 6-0 Western Athletic Conference) faces Rice (18-2, 7-0) on Thursday at home.
"It sets up a pretty interesting match," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "They're the best other team in the conference. It'll be a fun match."
It won't be fun if Hawaii passes the way it did yesterday.
Sophomore Alicia Arnott bailed out the Wahine on multiple occasions as problematic passing forced most sets outside. SMU had no answer for Arnott, who butchered the block for a career-high 30 kills and added 19 digs in a stellar defensive performance.
The Wahine expected and got a tougher match than Thursday's sweep of Louisiana Tech. At the start, UH couldn't quite match the elevated mood of the Mustangs (9-8, 3-4) nor track the trajectory of their serves.
SMU aced Hawaii six times during the match, with three coming in Game 1. Libero Ashley Watanabe started the match but was replaced midway through by senior Teisa Fotu (20 digs) as the Wahine fell into a 12-4 pit.
The Wahine trimmed the Mustangs' lead with an 8-2 run that brought them within 20-18. UH managed to tie the game, the last at 25, but never took the lead. Despite Arnott's 10 kills in the game, Hawaii couldn't close the gap as the Mustangs took a game from Hawaii for just the second time in the series.
"I thought SMU was better than their record," Shoji said. "They played us pretty tough. They were doing some things that gave us a lot of trouble. The serving was something we haven't seen a lot. They were the best serving team we've seen so far. It kept us a little bit off balance.
"We definitely started slow. That's something we have to guard against. We knew they'd be up. They struggled on Thursday and for sure we thought they'd be better tonight. We tried to match their emotion but couldn't quite get over the hump in Game 1."
The wake-up call was necessary and it helped Hawaii take a 12-7 advantage in Game 2. The Wahine cut back on their hitting errors and that was enough each time SMU got close.
In Game 3, Hawaii broke away from a 7-7 tie with a 12-5 run. Arnott paced Hawaii with five kills during the spurt. The sophomore put the finishing touches on the match after Hawaii relinquished a 21-14 lead in Game 4.
SMU knotted the score at 26, but Arnott put down her 29th kill for a 28-26 advantage. The sophomore dropped the hammer on the Mustangs on match point to clinch Hawaii's 96th straight win over WAC opponents.
"We got a great match out of Arnott. We certainly needed every single one of her kills tonight," Shoji said. "She was just unstoppable on the left. She got some really good sets and she just felt confident and just let it go. She hit like we thought she could hit. She got a couple kills on some off-speed stuff. She really hit the ball with a lot of pace tonight."
Hawaii def. SMU
27-30, 30-27, 30-20, 30-27
Rainbow Wahine (16-0, 6-0 WAC) g k e att pct. bs ba d Sanders 2 2 4 10 -.200 0 1 0 Boogaard 4 15 5 50 .200 1 2 15 Hittle 4 10 7 37 .081 0 4 11 Arnott 4 30 5 54 .463 0 0 19 Kamana'o 4 0 1 2 -.500 0 3 13 Prince 4 13 3 26 .385 0 6 5 Gregory 3 5 2 15 .200 0 2 0 Watanabe 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Fotu 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 20 Thurlby 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Woolford 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 4 75 27 194 .247 1 18 86 Mustangs (9-8, 3-4 WAC) g k e att pct. bs ba d Mihm 4 2 2 10 .000 0 0 9 Zener 4 15 7 30 .267 0 2 1 Cornelius 4 7 3 20 .200 1 3 3 Larkan 4 13 3 36 .278 0 2 14 Giubilato 4 11 5 31 .194 0 2 19 Karasek 4 16 7 59 .153 0 1 16 Erazmus 4 0 0 1 .000 0 0 20 Salcer 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 4 64 27 187 .198 1 10 82 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- Hawaii (5): Kamana'o 2, Arnott, Prince. SMU (6): Mihm 3, Karasek 2, Whitney 1. Assists -- Hawaii (70): Kamana'o 65, Hittle 4, Thurlby. SMU (58): Mihm 53, Larkan 3, Giubilato, Karasek.
T -- 2:15. A --1440.
