Hawaii's Victoria Prince tried to block a hit by Washington's Alesha Deesing last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Huskies hit UH hard
No. 2 Washington proves it is
for real with a sweep of the
sixth-ranked Wahine
This time, the bite was worse than the bark.
Much worse.
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Washington ran its record to 8-0 -- 24-0 in games -- in topping the late-charging Rainbow Wahine 30-18, 30-24, 30-28 in 95 minutes at the Stan Sheriff Center. For a good part of the night, the Huskies kept the crowd of 6,757 (8,056 tickets) out of it as Hawaii (5-4) lost its second home match of the year, as many as in the previous three years combined.
If this had been a graded exam, the Huskies would have received Advanced Placement credit. They held the Wahine to a dismal .158 hitting percentage, not even as good as the .165 by Montana State, the team to have the most success against UW so far this season.
"The first two games we played like we weren't ready," said Wahine middle Victoria Prince, who led the team with nine kills and was in on six blocks. "There's no excuses -- we just got outplayed.
"We made some adjustments in Game 3, played them close. We need to start off tomorrow where we ended tonight. They weren't doing anything we haven't seen, nothing incredibly fancy. It was the basic stuff -- passing, setting, hitting."
But basically, the Huskies were better when it counted. Washington remains one of six undefeated Top 25 teams heading into tonight's 6 o'clock rematch.
Hawaii remains in search of the magic that led to last year's 30-1 record.
Some of it returned in Game 3 when UH coach Dave Shoji abandoned the plan of using Tara Hittle as libero, reinserting senior Ashley Watanabe. The change was good, as the Wahine enjoyed their first real success of the night, leading by as much as 18-14.
UH's Jamie Houston hit the ball against Washington last night at the Stan Sheriff Center. Houston finished with four kills.
The Wahine couldn't hold on. Morrison capped a match-high performance with her 18th kill and setter Courtney Thompson was good on her only dump shot to end it in crowd-silencing fashion.
"I thought we stabilized some things at the end," UW coach Jim McLaughlin said. "Our passing kept us in the game. We've got to serve better (8 aces, 16 errors).
"I anticipate a much tougher match, but we'll be prepared. This is such an awesome environment. We'll prepare like it's a Pac-10 match."
Sanja Tomasevic added 14 kills and Hagerty 13. Candace Lee finished with 13 of the Huskies' 51 digs and four of the eight aces. Five of UW's eight aces came in the 24-minute Game 1 in which Hawaii scored just 18 points for the third time this year.
Kamana'o had 14 digs and Watanabe 13.
"I hope that third game was more indicative of how we can play than the first two games," Shoji said. "I felt Ashley was probably the only one who played up to her capabilities. She kept us in the game.
"She played well (at libero) last week and I should have put her back there sooner. She'll be back in there tonight."
Who will be at left-side hitter is the bigger question. Sarah Mason hit negative .067 with seven kills, Jamie Houston .000 with four kills and Susie Boogaard .192 with seven kills. Alicia Arnott had one kill in five swings in a brief appearance in Game 2.
"We had too many opportunities where we'd dig balls and couldn't score," Shoji said. "It wasn't pretty for a long time. That's disturbing. It means we've got a long way to go.
"Our team wasn't prepared tonight and that's the fault of the coach. Tactically, we need to turn it around. I think we'll play hard tomorrow, but that in itself won't be good enough to win."
Note: This was the first time Hawaii had been swept at home in 45 matches, dating back to the 2002 NACWAA final against eventual NCAA champion USC.
Washington def. Hawaii
30-18, 30-24, 30-28
Huskies (8-0) g k e att pct. bs ba d Deesing 3 8 1 20 .350 2 5 1 Thompson 3 1 0 1 1.000 0 1 10 Morrison 3 18 3 37 .405 0 3 9 Hagerty 3 13 2 32 .344 1 2 3 Myhre 3 5 1 11 .364 0 7 0 Tomasevic 3 14 5 29 .310 0 7 8 Aratani 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Lee 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 13 Danicic 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 6 Totals 3 59 12 130 .362 3 25 51 Rainbow Wahine (5-4) g k e att pct. bs ba d Sanders 3 8 1 19 .368 1 2 1 Boogaard 3 7 2 26 .192 0 3 6 Houston 3 4 4 14 .000 0 0 1 Kamana'o 3 3 1 6 .333 0 1 14 Prince 3 9 3 19 .316 2 4 2 Mason 3 7 9 30 -.067 0 2 2 Hittle 3 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 1 Arnott 1 1 1 5 .000 0 0 1 Watanabe 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 13 Thurlby 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Ong 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Woolford 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 3 40 21 120 .158 3 12 43 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- UW (8): Lee 4, Morrison 2, Danicic, Deesing. Hawaii (1): Watanabe. Assists -- UW (57): Thompson 52, Deesing 2, Hagerty, Lee, Tomasevic. Hawaii (39): Kamana'o 34, Thurlby 2, Boogaard, Hittle, Woolford.
T -- 1:45. Officials -- Ernest Ho, Dan Hironaka. A -- 6,757.
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