Warriors picked 9th in MPSF

The Hawaii men's volleyball team was ranked No. 9 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation preseason coaches poll announced yesterday.

The Warriors finished last season 11-16 overall and 8-14 in the MPSF.

NCAA runner-up Pepperdine and UCLA shared the top spot in the poll, with the Waves receiving four first-place votes and the Bruins two.

Rounding out the top eight were Long Beach State, Cal State Northridge, UC Irvine, USC, Stanford and BYU. Behind the Warriors are UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego and Pacific.

Hawaii begins the season hosting the 15th Outrigger Hotels Invitational, Jan. 8 to Jan. 10. USC and defending national champion Penn State meet in the 4 p.m. opener followed by Ohio State against the Warriors at 7 p.m.

Kanekoa earns first WAC award

Hawaii point guard Keisha Kanekoa was named the WAC player of the week for women's basketball yesterday.

The sophomore from Honokaa averaged 18 points, 8.3 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 3.7 steals in three games last week. Kanekoa finished off things off with the first double-double of her career with 19 points and 11 rebounds in a win over UC Irvine.

PACWEST PLACE

Seasiders take lead in Commish Cup

Brigham Young-Hawaii leads the Pacific West Conference Commissioner Cup with its three titles in the fall season.

BYUH won conference titles in women's cross country, women's soccer and volleyball to take the lead by 4 1/2 points over Hawaii Pacific.

The Sea Warriors won the men's cross country title in the fall.

The conference gives out an award in the spring that recognizes the top program. UH-Hilo won it last year but is third so far this year.

DeMaestri selected PacWest's best

UH-Hilo forward Jay DeMaestri averaged 28.5 ppg over two games to be selected the PacWest player of the week for men's basketball yesterday.

The senior hit 14 3-pointers in wins over Holy Names and Alaska Fairbanks. He also pulled down 18 rebounds.

IN BRIEF

Raiola tired of lousy Lions fans

Dominic Raiola

ALLEN PARK, Mich. » Detroit center Dominic Raiola says he has no remorse for making an obscene gesture toward Lions fans because their heckling went too far.

“;I don't take one thing back,”; he said yesterday.

NFL spokesman Randall Liu said the league will look into it.

Raiola, a Saint Louis School grad, said fans have been particularly hard on him because he's been with the team since 2001, when it started a slide that has become the NFL's worst eight-season stretch in more than a half-century.

Raiola made the gesture Sunday during the winless Lions' 20-16 loss to Minnesota.

“;I'm just so frustrated,”; Raiola said. “;I'm tired of being a doormat for people to just talk to us how they want to talk to us. I'm just not going to put up with that anymore.”;

Raiola said he wishes he could give some fans his home address. “;I'd do that, but you can't,”; he said. “;Nobody plays with fists. Everybody wants to play with metal.”;