Hawaii players celebrated after defeating Nevada for the WAC tournament championship yesterday in Reno, Nev.
Champs again!
Hawaii tops Nevada to win
the WAC and an NCAA
Tournament berth
RENO, Nev. » This town bills itself as the "Biggest Little City in the World."
Is it any surprise, then, that one of the smallest Hawaii players and one of the smallest middle blockers in the country came up with some of the biggest moments of yesterday's Western Athletic Conference tournament championship?
Rainbow Wahine junior libero Ashley Watanabe -- all 5 feet, 6 inches -- and 6-foot junior middle Victoria Prince came up huge to help second-ranked Hawaii win its fifth WAC tournament final, as well as the league's automatic NCAA bid.
Watanabe set a tournament record with her career-high five aces and Prince earned MVP honors as Hawaii downed bothersome Nevada 30-21, 28-30, 30-22, 30-27 at the Virginia Street Gym.
Hawaii needed 2 hours and 9 minutes to run its record to 26-0. The Wahine also won their 106th straight WAC match and 198th over an unranked opponent with a balanced attack that saw four players reach double-digit kills.
A vocal crowd of 1,364 -- at least half of whom rooted for UH -- saw Susie Boogaard put down a match-high 19 kills, followed by Alicia Arnott (17), Prince (16) and Tara Hittle (14). Boogaard, Arnott and Prince joined Kanoe Kamana'o and Watanabe on the all-tournament team.
"When they announced Watanabe as all-tournament, I said, 'Yes, she deserves it, she served us off the court,' " Nevada coach Devin Scruggs said. "It wasn't just tough serves, but she caused us to overpass a lot.
"She got hurt (in Game 4) and then came running back in. I'm glad she wasn't hurt, but I wished she had stayed on the bench a little longer."
Watanabe turned an ankle on the play where Hawaii took a 3-2 lead in Game 4. The Wahine trailed 6-4 when she returned; Watanabe promptly served an ace to bring UH to 6-5. Her last ace hit the back line for a 19-17 lead.
Watanabe's real damage came in Game 1 to set the tone of the match and at a critical time in Game 3. Hawaii opened a 12-4 lead in Game 1 behind five straight serves by the libero.
In Game 3, a kill by Boogaard broke an 18-18 tie and put the ball into Watanabe's hands. When she was done, Watanabe had two aces and the Wahine had a 27-18 lead and the momentum to make sure the match didn't go to five games, as it had the two times the teams had met this season.
"We were pretty fired up," said Prince, who hit a phenomenal .653 for the tournament (49 kills, 2 errors, 72 attempts. "After Nevada beat Rice (in Saturday's semifinal), we heard the Nevada players saying, 'Three's a charm.'
"I was thinking, 'Yeah, three's a charm because it's not going five this time.' "
Prince did her part to make sure of that. The transfer from Washington State was untouchable on her step-outs, beating the Nevada block with her speed to the outside and the speed of her arm swing.
She put on such a clinic that Scruggs said she was going to take the tapes of Hawaii's matches and have her middles learn the move.
"Prince jumps well, has a quick arm swing and great vision," Scruggs said. "The thing is, we knew it was coming. We still couldn't stop it. She's the one who really hurt us the most."
Prince also had two aces and was in on seven of Hawaii's 15 blocks last night.
"I owe it to my really smart setter," Prince said of Kamana'o. "I hit off the best setter in the country and I owe her and my teammates the biggest thank yous because of their passing. Every middle block knows if the pass isn't there, you're not going to get set.
"We were so fired up for this. Nevada really wanted this. We wanted it more."
It didn't come in the sweep the Wahine had hoped for.
Hawaii had chances to break its Game 2 slump where, in the 10 matches that had gone to four games, the Wahine had lost six. Hawaii fell behind by as much as 20-11 before roaring back behind two kills by Boogaard and two blocks of Salaia Salave'a to close to 22-21.
Boogaard's service error started a 3-0 run that gave the Wolf Pack a cushion they would cling to. The Wahine would again pull within two twice, the last at 29-28 when holding off Nevada's first attempt to end the game.
The Pack needed only one more swing to tie up the match when Karly Sipherd's shot landed just inside the back line.
Salave'a finished with 18 kills for Nevada (20-8) while Teal Ericson and Carly Sorensen added 11 and Sipherd 10. Salave'a, Sipherd, Sorensen and setter Tristin Adams were named to the all-tournament team.
"I certainly hope we can qualify three teams from the WAC," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "Nevada's a good team. I'm hoping Rice (25-4) can get in. The bubble teams have to include Rice and Nevada."
Hawaii doesn't have to worry about advancing to the tournament. What the Wahine need to avoid is a letdown this week when taking on Utah State tomorrow and No. 19 Utah on Wednesday.
Shoji was to fly back today to attend his father's funeral. He will rejoin the team in time for the Utah match.
"It's still ... well, the whole family situation is unsettling for me," Shoji said. "But I felt that I didn't want to leave the Utah match up to my assistants. It's not fair to them. I expect that we will be challenged by Utah. If we go down to them, I want to be there."
Hawaii def. Nevada
30-21, 28-30, 30-22, 30-27
Rainbow Wahine (26-0) g k e att pct. bs ba d Boogaard 4 19 10 51 .176 0 3 10 Hittle 4 14 5 29 .310 0 4 9 Gregory 2 2 0 4 .500 0 4 0 Arnott 4 17 10 43 .163 0 6 11 Kamana'o 4 0 0 3 .000 0 2 7 Prince 4 16 1 26 .577 0 7 1 Sanders 4 4 4 14 .000 0 4 1 Eckmier 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Watanabe 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 11 Fotu 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 3 Thurlby 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Totals 4 72 30 170 .247 0 30 54 Wolf Pack (20-8) g k e att pct. bs ba d Ericson 4 11 9 46 .043 0 1 3 Salave'a 4 18 7 41 .268 1 4 6 T. Adams 4 0 2 5 -.400 1 0 7 K. Adams 4 6 6 19 .000 0 10 6 Holda 4 1 0 3 .333 0 0 5 Sorensen 4 11 5 31 .194 0 1 2 Nielsen 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Sipherd 4 10 2 18 .444 0 8 0 Burton 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Harms 4 0 1 1 -1.000 0 0 20 Totals 4 57 32 164 .152 2 24 51 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- Hawaii (7): Watanabe 5, Prince 2. Nevada (3): K. Adams 2, T. Adams. Assists -- Hawaii (61): Kamana'o 55, Hittle 3, Boogaard, Watanabe, Fotu. Nevada (53): T. Adams 47, K. Adams 2, Harms 2, Holda, Sorensen.
T -- 2:09. Officials -- Eric Asami, Kent Kitade. A -- 1,364.
