Furious rally keeps
Wahine unbeaten
When Charlie Wade looked across the volleyball net at Boise State yesterday afternoon, he saw red. As in the Boston Red Sox.
The Red Sox ended 85 years of cursed frustration when toppling the New York Yankees and then the St. Louis Cardinals for the World Series title this week.
"The law of averages catches up with everyone eventually," said Wade, filling in as Hawaii's head coach for a second straight match.
However, it did not catch up with No. 3 Hawaii yesterday in Boise, Idaho. Not even after the Rainbow Wahine had dropped Game 1 and the host Broncos were serving to end Game 2 at 29-28.
Instead, Hawaii rallied hard over 2 hours and 14 minutes to run the nation's longest winning streak to 20-0 with its 100th straight Western Athletic Conference victory. Junior Victoria Prince had a match-high 20 kills to lead the Wahine past Boise State 26-30, 33-31, 30-18, 30-25 in front of a season-high crowd of 1,127 in Bronco Gym.
Susie Boogaard added 15 kills and 16 digs, and Alicia Arnott had 13 kills and 11 digs as Hawaii improved to 10-0 in the WAC. Tara Hittle had 10 kills with one error in hitting .600.
At 29-28 in Game 2, "I'm not trying to get caught up in what it means, things like trying to win that 100th match," Wade said. "It's about the tactics, the Xs and Os, and what we need to win this game. We needed to steady out, do the things defensively like serve-receive and passing well, that allows our really good setter (Kanoe Kamana'o) to run the offense."
Hawaii began to do just that to avoid being down 0-2 for the first time this season. The Wahine tied it at 29-29 on a Bronco hitting error and finally put down game point on their third attempt on Juliana Sanders' first kill of the match.
Hawaii began to pull away in Game 3, despite opening with three consecutive serving errors.
While Hittle was steady offensively, the Broncos targeted her with their serves. It led Wade to make a couple of substitutions, including putting Teisa Fotu in the back row for Hittle and bringing in Sanders -- considered a better attacker -- for Kari Gregory -- considered a better blocker. It worked, as the Wahine pulled away from a tenuous 11-10 lead in Game 3 with a 19-8 run. Four of Prince's kills accounted for UH's last six points.
The Wahine opened up a quick 8-3 lead in Game 4, highlighted by Prince and Kamana'o teaming to stuff Jamie Claussen on two consecutive plays. The Broncos rallied to within 27-25 only to have Hawaii close it out with three straight points, capped by Prince tying her season high with her 20th kill.
Heather Malaschak and Cameron Flunder led Boise State (16-8, 5-5) with 12 kills.
"After the match, I asked the players how they thought we played," Wade said. "They said horrible. But you look at the statistics and, as ugly as it was, we still walked out with stats better than our averages.
"We're a young team and this has been their M.O. all year. We've been up and down and it doesn't matter if it's Boise State or UCLA. The fact is, we're 20-0 and that's a good thing. What we need to do is get better at playing more consistently. We need to be more efficient more of the time."
Hawaii def. Boise State
26-30, 33-31, 30-18, 30-25
Rainbow Wahine (20-0, 10-0 WAC) g k e att pct. bs ba d Boogaard 4 15 4 41 .268 0 4 16 Hittle 3 10 1 15 .600 0 2 5 Gregory 2 2 3 10 -.100 0 3 0 Arnott 4 13 7 46 .130 0 1 11 Kamana'o 4 0 0 0 .000 0 5 10 Prince 4 20 6 34 .412 0 8 4 Sanders 3 7 2 14 .357 0 2 1 Watanabe 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 22 Fotu 4 1 0 5 .200 0 1 10 Woolford 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 4 68 23 165 .273 0 26 79 Broncos (16-8, 5-5 wac) g k e att pct. bs ba d Malashak 4 12 2 24 .417 2 4 2 Peterson 4 8 4 24 .167 0 2 16 Fenneman 3 10 5 30 .167 0 0 8 Flunder 4 12 11 40 .025 1 3 8 Claussen 4 9 13 56 -.071 0 1 16 Melvin 4 4 1 8 .375 0 3 10 Bennett 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Starring 1 1 1 3 .000 0 0 0 Stroud 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 4 Navarrete 2 2 1 7 .143 0 1 0 Johnson 1 0 0 2 .000 0 0 0 Totals 4 58 38 194 .103 3 14 64 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- Hawaii (2): Prince 2. BSU (10): Flunder 2, Melvin 2, Peterson 2, Stroud 2, Bennett, Claussen. Assists -- Hawaii (62): Kamana'o 57, Fotu 3, Arnott, Prince. BSU (48): Melvin 46, Bennett, Claussen.
T -- 2:14. Officials -- Margie Ray, Tom Given. A -- 1,127.
