Gators bowl over UH

Dave Shoji will have to wait at least a day to get his 900th win after a sweep by Florida

No. 900 will have to wait for another day.

Led by junior Marcie Hampton's 14 kills and 10 from junior Amber McCray, No. 5 Florida chomped down on No. 7 Hawaii last night, denying Rainbow Wahine coach Dave Shoji a milestone career victory on his first attempt.

Florida Hawaii 3 0 Next up vs. Colorado, tonight

A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 6,911 (8,138 tickets) saw the Gators (3-0) defeat the Wahine (2-1) for the fourth straight time -- the first time in straight sets -- 30-20, 30-26, 30-23 in 109 minutes, the first time Hawaii lost the opener in 19 Hawaiian Airlines Classics.

The Classic opened yesterday with No. 10 UCLA sweeping Colorado 30-25, 30-25, 30-25. The Bruins (4-0) face the Gators in today's first match at 4:30 p.m. followed by Hawaii taking on Colorado (1-1).

Buffs coach Pi'i Aiu had hoped that Shoji would get his 900th last night "instead of putting the pressure on us," the Kamehameha Schools graduate said. "Hawaii's going to play with a lot of emotion to get him that win."

"That wasn't part of history we wanted to be part of," Florida coach Mary Wise said of keeping Shoji at 899. "We drilled in them all week about having focus. Up 2-0, we talked about it, that Hawaii could come back even if they were down 0-3. I've seen it."

It didn't happen last night as it did last week when Hawaii came back against Pepperdine twice. The only similarity was that both the Gators and Waves wore blue and orange.

"Obviously, we made too many unforced errors," Shoji said. "Whether it was hitting out, serving out at crucial times, not keeping a free ball in play.

"We have great athletes, but we're not playing great volleyball. Florida pretty much exploited every weakness. We had difficulty stringing anything together. We just have to forget this match and move on."

Hawaii takes another swing at it against Colorado, hoping to find a more balanced offense than last night. However, the shaky passing left setter Kanoe Kamana'o few options except to go to the outside, particularly to sophomore Jamie Houston.

Houston again led the team with 16 kills, but had 12 errors on 51 swings. Tara Hittle added 12 kills and 14 digs.

"Florida's a good team of athletes," Hittle said. "It took us a while to make the adjustments. It was a weird chemistry out there. Some plays were just chaos."

Hampton, who had a career-high 25 kills in last week's win over Utah, continued her hot arm in Game 1. She had eight kills in 11 swings with no errors (.727) over the first 20 minutes, helping Florida to its first double-digit lead at 22-12.

Hawaii didn't get out of negative hitting percentage until Houston's kill brought the Wahine to within 26-18. The Gators only needed to play side-out ball to close it out.

The Wahine began to slow Hampton a bit in Game 2 and appeared to have settled down when going ahead 20-18. But faster than one can say "Bad rotation," Gator setter Angie McGinnis camped out on the service line, nailing an ace during a 4-0 run that put Florida ahead for good at 23-20.

Sarah Mason's kill capped a 3-0 spurt that pulled the Wahine to within 27-26, but Hawaii got no closer as the Gators finished it off with three unanswered points. Florida had only 10 kills in Game 2, but seven of its 12 blocks.

It was more of the same in Game 3. Hawaii took a lead midway through, only to have Florida come back hard. The Gators went up 19-18 and it was pretty much over.

UCLA 3, Colorado 0

In a matchup of offensive-minded setters, Bruin sophomore Nellie Spicer won the battle against the Buffs' Ashley Nu'u at both ends of the court. Spicer's serving runs -- including 6-0 in Game 2 and 5-0 in Game 3 -- as well as four kills helped UCLA pull off the sweep in 83 minutes, 30-25, 30-25, 30-25.

Senior hitter Katie Carter had 10 kills to lead the Bruins (4-0), while senior middle Nana Meriwether was in on 10 of the team's 14 blocks.

UCLA coach Andy Banachowski used 12 players as he continued to search for a set lineup.

"I was really impressed with Colorado's attack," Banachowski said. "They served really well ... when they got the ball in. That took some of the pressure off us.

"I thought we played OK."

Colorado (1-1) had nine aces -- four by Mallori Gibson and three from Amber Sutherland -- but also 10 service errors, many at critical points in the match.

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