RAINBOW WAHINE VOLLEYBALL
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
UCLA's Nana Meriwether, left, helped put an end to the Rainbow Wahine's season on Saturday with a kill past the outstretched arms of Hawaii's Kari Gregory and Jamie Houston, right, during the NCAA Regional final match at the Stan Sheriff Center. CLICK FOR LARGE
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UH overachieved
The Rainbow Wahine made it farther than last year without 3 injured starters
For the third straight year, Dave Shoji heads to the NCAA women's volleyball championship without his team.
The Hawaii coach leaves tonight for Omaha, site of this week's final four, with a mixed plate of emotions. It was a season of great expectations that, given season-ending injuries to three starters, ended up exceeding expectations of just a few months ago.
Highlights
» Hawaii led the country in attendance for the 12th straight season. Saturday's season-high of 9,572 (tickets) pushed the attendance mark to 150,614, the most since 2003.
» Kanoe Kamana'o finished with 6,528 career assists, ranking her first in UH and WAC history, seventh on the NCAA list. On other UH career lists, she is first in assists per game (13.61), third in digs (1,203), fifth in block assists (403), seventh in total blocks (228) and ninth in aces (96).
» On the UH single-season lists, Sarah Mason, with 19 double-doubles, is third in aces (64) and Kari Gregory fourth in block assists (184). Jayme Lee finished second in digs (457) and Jamie Houston fifth in kills (670).
» Kamana'o holds four of the top six single-season assist marks (Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 6) and four of the top six single-season assist averages (No. 2, 4,5,6).
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"It flashed through my mind that we wouldn't make the postseason," said Shoji, who ended his 32nd year at Hawaii with Saturday's loss to UCLA. "We started off poorly (5-4), got beat pretty badly by UCLA, Florida and Stanford. And the loss to Cal Poly was not a good loss.
"It crossed my mind that we might have to win the WAC (tournament) to advance (to the NCAAs).
"We did pull things together."
The Rainbow Wahine regrouped from the early losses of junior hitter Tara Hittle and sophomore middle Nickie Thomas -- and sophomore hitter Jessica Keefe in the middle of conference play -- to finish the regular season on an 18-1 run before heading to the WAC tournament. They won their 11th straight Western Athletic Conference championship, following it up with their seventh consecutive WAC tournament title.
The regular-season WAC winning streak did end at 112, in a five-game marathon at New Mexico State, but Hawaii more than made up for it by defeating the Aggies twice in 12 days to earn the WAC's automatic berth and exorcised some ghosts of tournaments past when defeating host Long Beach State in the NCAA second round to make it home for last week's regional.
Friday's emotionally draining five-set win over USC pushed Hawaii into the regional championship match for the first time since 2003. Making it farther than the previous two teams was one goal the Wahine did realize.
Shoji will be watching UCLA, the team that ended Hawaii's season, go against top-seeded Nebraska in one semifinal Thursday. In the other, defending champion Washington takes on Stanford, the third Pac-10 team in the final four.
"I wish UCLA and Andy (coach Banachowski) the best," Shoji said. "It's hard to believe they haven't been there since 1994.
"This week is wide open. Nebraska is home but they've had their struggles. Everyone has had their struggles this year."
But no one overcame what Hawaii did to make it to the final eight of the NCAA field. Shoji admitted that not many programs could have absorbed the loss of three starters and still managed a 29-6 record, the 13th year in a row the Wahine had 25-plus wins.
A big part of that success was due to departing seniors, setter Kanoe Kamana'o, hitter Sarah Mason and reserve utility Cayley Thurlby. Kamana'o, the UH and WAC career assist leader, is a lock to become Hawaii's second four-time All-American later this week; Mason, who finished strong, has an outside shot.
The trio takes with them 25 percent of the kills, 97 percent of the assists, 49 percent of the aces, 48 percent of the blocks and 34 percent of the digs.
"We do lose a lot of offense in Mason," Shoji said of the hitter who led the team with 64 aces and was second in kills and digs. "We'll have to make that up somehow with who we have coming back.
"Kanoe is the most glaring loss. Whoever we have at setter will be young and inexperienced."
Shoji said he is in the process of bringing in another setter, either out of junior college or a true freshman. Redshirt freshman Dani Mafua has been taking reps all season and is an athletic 5-foot-10.
"She's got the physical ability," Shoji said. "All she needs is technique and confidence."
At the post-match press conference, Banachowski took a slight jab at his longtime friend.
"Dave is always saying what a great setting coach he is," the UCLA coach said. "We'll see if he can prove that next year."
Shoji, with at least one more scholarship to give, said the needs are another setter and one more outside hitter. Signing earlier were Punahou's Liz Ka'aihue, specifically recruited to be a libero, and 6-3 middle Amanda Simmons from Illinois, who will be behind Kari Gregory and Juliana Sanders -- both returning as seniors -- and Thomas, who'll be listed as a junior.
Thomas, Keefe and Hittle are all expected to return next season as well as the team's kill leader, Jamie Houston, back for her junior year.
Houston, ranked sixth nationally in kill average, likely will become Hawaii's 23rd All-American later this week.
Other starters back are All-WAC freshman team members Jayme Lee, a libero, and right-side hitter Amber Kaufman. Elise Duggins and Raeceen Woolford head a plethora of defensive specialists expected to return. The others are Rayna Kitaguchi, Kelly Ong and Makana Recca.
"We've got a solid group of returnees and I think Liz can help us immediately," Shoji said.
The one impact player who got away was the No. 1 high school player in the country. Alix Klineman chose Stanford last month.
"It was a long shot and we gave it a really good effort," Shoji said. "She had great choices."
And, Shoji, newly turned 60, is thinking about his. He's No. 2 in career victories (926) behind Banachowski (1,037) and "I'm on the other side of the mountain, coming down," Shoji said. "I'm 60 now and I need to look at how I want to spend my next decade. But I still enjoy this.
"Next season, we won't be favored to make the final four but we'll have the same chance as we did this year."
And this year?
"We talked about getting one more victory than we did the last two years and we did that," he said. "It was huge that we were able to play at home (in the regional) and the win over USC has to be one of the biggest wins in the program's history."
And, as Thurlby said when her career was over Saturday, there is the pride of wearing a Wahine uniform.
"I know (UCLA setter) Nellie Spicer and she may win a national title but I feel I had the better experience," Thurlby said. "There is no other place like this, no other program like this.
"This is such a feeling of sisterhood, of generations of women who have shared this. I know that I can come back on vacation some day and someone might remember me."
SEASON RECORD
DATE |
OPPONENT |
W/L |
SCORE
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Aug. 25 |
PEPPERDINE |
W |
3-2
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Aug. 26 |
PEPPERDINE |
W |
3-2
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Sept. 1 |
FLORIDA |
L |
0-3
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Sept. 2 |
COLORADO |
W |
3-0
|
Sept. 3 |
UCLA |
L |
0-3
|
Sept. 7 |
FAIRFIELD |
W |
3-0
|
Sept. 8 |
NORTHWESTERN |
W |
3-1
|
Sept. 9 |
STANFORD |
L |
0-3
|
Sept. 14 |
CAL POLY |
L |
2-3
|
Sept. 15 |
CAL POLY |
W |
3-2
|
* Sept. 23 |
FRESNO STATE |
W |
3-0
|
* Sept. 29 |
at Fresno State |
W |
3-0
|
* Sept. 30 |
at San Jose State |
W |
3-0
|
* Oct. 6 |
UTAH STATE |
W |
3-0
|
* Oct. 8 |
NEVADA |
W |
3-0
|
* Oct. 9 |
BOISE STATE |
W |
3-0
|
* Oct. 11 |
at Louisiana Tech |
W |
3-0
|
* Oct. 13 |
at New Mexico State |
L |
2-3
|
Oct. 16 |
NOTRE DAME |
W |
3-0
|
Oct. 17 |
NOTRE DAME |
W |
3-1
|
* Oct. 27 |
IDAHO |
W |
3-1
|
* Oct. 29 |
SAN JOSE STATE |
W |
3-1
|
* Nov. 2 |
at NEVADA |
W |
3-0
|
* Nov. 4 |
at Utah State |
W |
3-0
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* Nov. 10 |
LOUISIANA TECH |
W |
3-0
|
* Nov. 12 |
NEW MEXICO STATE |
W |
3-1
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* Nov. 15 |
at Boise State |
W |
3-1
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* Nov. 17 |
at Idaho |
W |
3-1
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Nov. 22 |
vs Fresno State |
W |
3-0
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Nov. 23 |
vs San Jose State |
W |
3-0
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Nov. 24 |
vs New Mexico State |
W |
3-1
|
Dec. 1 |
vs Oregon |
W |
3-0
|
Dec. 2 |
at Long Beach State |
W |
3-1
|
Dec. 8 |
vs Southern California |
W |
3-2
|
Dec. 9 |
at UCLA |
L |
0-3
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TEAM STATISTICS
|
HAWAII |
OPP
|
ATTACK
|
Kills |
2025 |
1817
|
Errors |
723 |
924
|
Total Attacks |
4888 |
5239
|
Attack Pct. |
.266 |
.170
|
Kills/Game |
16.1 |
14.4
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SET
|
Assists |
1889 |
1653
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Attempts |
4605 |
4829
|
Assist Pct. |
.410 |
.342
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Assists/Game |
15.0 |
13.1
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SERVE
|
Aces |
188 |
161
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Errors |
252 |
270
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Attempts |
3485 |
3075
|
Serve Pct. |
.928 |
.912
|
Aces/Game |
1.5 |
1.3
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SERVE RECEPTIONS
|
Errors |
161 |
188
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Errors/Game |
1.3 |
1.5
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Attempts |
2766 |
3201
|
Reception Pct. |
.942 |
.941
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DEFENSE
|
Digs |
2064 |
1884
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Digs/Game |
16.4 |
15.0
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BLOCKING
|
Block Solo |
82 |
64
|
Block Assist |
724 |
408
|
Total Blocks |
444.0 |
268.0
|
Blocks Per Game |
3.5 |
2.1
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Block Errors |
127 |
60
|
Ballhandling errors |
51 |
79
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ATTENDANCE
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Total |
141,042 |
20,904
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Dates/Avg Per Date |
20/7,052 |
10/2,090
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Neutral site #/Avg |
5/1,496
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Current win streak |
0 |
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Home win streak |
11 |
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