FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's Jamie Houston, right, and Victoria Prince went up for a block during last night's match against Penn State at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Penn State
stops streak

The Nittany Lions top Hawaii,
ending the Wahine's home winning
string at 39 matches

PENN ST. 3 HAWAII 2 NEXT UP vs. W. Mich., tomorrow

Seven days after getting hammered by No. 5 Penn State in Omaha, Neb., No. 4 Hawaii couldn't return the favor. Not even a crowd of 6,139 (7,573 tickets) could will the Rainbow Wahine past the Nittany Lions, nor prevent Hawaii from seeing its nation-leading home winning streak end at 39.

Behind freshman Nicole Fawcett's career-high 26 kills, an attack that found pukas in the Wahine block late and a defense that seemingly dug everything, Penn State continued its ownership of Hawaii. The Nittany Lions claimed the title of the 18th Hawaiian Airlines Classic, rallying to defeat the Wahine 22-30, 17-30, 30-27, 30-18, 15-11, in 2 hours and 31 minutes.

Penn State (4-1) continued to make itself at home in the Sheriff Center (5-0), where it won its only NCAA title in 1999, running its record to 3-0 over Hawaii.

Hawaii (1-3) goes for the runner-up trophy, taking on Western Michigan (2-2) in tomorrow's 4 p.m. tournament finale. In yesterday's first match, the Broncos fell to No. 7 USC 30-20, 30-26, 30-15.

Although it was Honolulu and not Omaha, the Nittany Lions had their 3-2 season-opening loss to Stanford at the Qwest Center in the back of their minds.

"We did not want to lose two big matches in five," Penn State senior setter Sam Tortorello said.

And they didn't.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Ashley Watanabe made a pass off a Penn State serve last night as teammate Juliana Sanders watched.

The Nittany Lions began their comeback after getting hammered in Game 2, where they hit .088 to the Wahine's .433. They took the lead in Game 3 for good, breaking a 16-16 tie with three straight points that jump-started an 8-1 run for a 24-17 margin.

Down 29-23, Hawaii held off four game points, getting two kills from Jamie Houston and two blocks. But the surge was too little, too late, with Fawcett finishing it off with one of her match-high kills.

The Wahine were never in Game 4, falling behind early and unable to make the same kind of comeback they had in Game 3. The pattern continued in Game 5, where Penn State took the lead for good at 3-2.

Victoria Prince, who struggled most of the match, kept Hawaii in the game with two kills that pulled the Wahine to 11-10 and out of negative hitting percentage. But the Nittany Lions would not fold and, with the clock nearing 4 a.m. in State College, Pa., Penn State finished off the comeback with a 4-1 run.

The loss spoiled a career night for UH freshman Houston, who finished with 23 kills. But as Houston went, so did Hawaii; the freshman had 19 kills through Game 3 and just four the rest of the way. Susie Boogaard added 17 and Prince 12. For Penn State, Melissa Walbridge finished with 14 kills and was in on seven of the team's 14 blocks, with Kate Price adding 12 kills.

Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said Thursday that his team needed to find a way to close out Penn State after taking leads. His worst fears were realized when the Wahine couldn't.

"We played about as good as we could play for two games with a makeshift lineup," Shoji said yesterday of using junior setter Cayley Thurlby as a hitter in place of an ailing Alicia Arnott. "We couldn't close games in Omaha and we couldn't close the match tonight. I know I need to coach my team better. All the skills went out the window after Game 2.

"They executed down the stretch better than we did."

"We needed to start playing like we wanted to win the match," Thurlby said after her first collegiate start as a hitter. "We didn't take care of our side of the court.

"We had something to prove, worked hard at every play in the beginning. We lost focus and weren't mentally tough enough at the end."

USC 3, Western Michigan 0

WMU's best showing of the night came in Game 2, where the Broncos had no hitting errors in their first 35 attempts in taking a 24-23 lead. Three straight WMU hitting errors helped USC close out the game with a 7-2 run en route to the sweep.

Diane Copenhagen added 12 kills for USC. Shaylen Jackson led the Broncos with 10 kills.

Penn State def. Hawaii

NITTANY LIONS (4-1, 3-0 HAL)

	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Fawcett	5	26	10	74	.216	1	3	8
Walbridge	5	14	5	34	.265	2	5	4
Harmotto	5	10	4	29	.207	0	4	2
Brown	5	0	0	0	.000	0	0	5
Tortorello	5	1	2	9	-.111	2	2	17
Price	5	12	4	38	.211	0	1	17
Holehouse	3	0	1	1	-1.000	0	0	4
Fidler	2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Holloway	5	0	0	0	.000	0	0	3
Walters	5	0	0	1	.000	0	0	26
Case	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Salyer	5	10	3	32	.219	0	3	2
Totals	5	73	29	218	.202	5	18	88

RAINBOW WAHINE (1-3, 1-1 HAL)

	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Sanders	4	4	4	15	.000	0	4	0
Boogaard	5	17	10	57	.123	0	1	16
Houston	5	23	7	57	.281	1	1	3
Kamana'o	5	2	1	4	.250	1	6	14
Thurlby	5	6	0	15	.400	0	5	15
Prince	5	12	4	31	.258	0	6	3
Hittle	5	0	1	6	-.167	0	0	9
Gregory	4	2	1	6	.167	0	3	1
Keefe	3	1	0	6	.167	0	0	1
Thomas	2	0	1	3	-.333	0	0	0
Watanabe	5	0	0	0	.000	0	0	25
Ong	5	0	0	0	.000	0	0	2
Woolford	2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	2
Totals	5	67	29	200	.190	2	26	91

Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.

Aces -- PSU (1): Walters. Hawaii (4): Boogaard, Kamana'o, Prince, Thurlby. Assists -- PSU (66): Tortorello 63, Fawcett, Salyer, Walters. Hawaii (65): Kamana'o 61, Watanabe 2, Boogaard, Thurlby.

T -- 2:31. Officials -- Ernest Ho, Wayne Lee. A -- 6,139.