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WAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK Hawai'i's Lily Kahumoku has been named the Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week. Kahumoku earned her second player of the week of the season after being named player of the week once during the 2000 season.
The junior left side hitter hit .418 in two matches last week as the Rainbow Wahine defeated both Fresno State and San Jose State to clinch the WAC regular season title. Hawai'i also earned the No. 1 seed in the WAC Tournament. The Rainbow Wahine end the WAC season 13-0 and extend their conference-winning streak to 65-straight matches.
Kahumoku had a career-high 33 kills in the five-game win over Fresno State, while hitting .418. The junior added a double-double against San Jose State with 16 kills and 10 digs, while hitting .400. For the week, she hit .412 with 49 kills. The Lubbock, Texas, native added 19 digs and three blocks in eight games.
Other nominees included: Kristen Fenton, Fresno State; Megan Rush, Louisiana Tech; Michelle More, Nevada; and Rebeca Pazo, Rice.
FINAL POINT STANDINGS The current point standings for seeding in the WAC Tournament are as follows:
Hawaii 18
Fresno State 15
Nevada 12
SJSU 11
Rice 10
UTEP 8
SMU 7
Louisiana Tech 5
Tulsa 4
Boise State 0
HAWAII AND RICE CLINCH DIVISION TITLES With wins on Friday, Hawaii and Rice each clinched divisional titles. Hawaii also clinched the top seed in the 2002 WAC Tournament along with the Western Division title. The Eastern Division title was the Owls second-straight. The Rainbow Wahine completed another undefeated WAC season, defeating San Jose State, 3-0, on Saturday. Hawaii has lost only one match this season to current No. 1 Stanford. The Owls were in a tight race with UTEP and SMU all season for the Eastern Division title. The Owls won six of their last eight WAC matches to pull away from the pack.
HAWAII'S KAHUMOKU NAMED NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK The Western Atheltic Conference earned its third AVCA/Sports Imports Division I National Player of the Week honor of the season when Hawaii junior Lily Kahumoku earned the award. Nevada's Michelle More earned the honor the first week of the season, while Hawaii's Kim Willoughby earned the award Oct. 28.
Kahumoku, a 6-2 junior outside hitter for second-ranked University of Hawai'i (25-1), hit .412 and averaged 6.12 kills per game in two matches last week as the Rainbow Wahine clinched their seventh-straight WAC regular season title.
She registered a career-high 33 kills, nine digs and two blocks, while hitting .418 in a five-game win over Fresno State. Kahumoku followed with a double-double in 16 kills and 10 digs as her squad swept San Jose State. She was selected as the WAC Player of the Week for the second time this season. Kahumoku has helped Hawai'i to an undefeated conference season at 13-0, as well as to extend the team's conference win streak to 65 matches.
UTEP'S DAVIS BREAKS WAC RECORD Sarah Davis set a pair of WAC records Sunday, but UTEP's road inconsistencies continued, as Tulsa swept the Miners, 30-26, 30-28, 30-26, in the season finale for both teams. Davis record 19 digs in the match to establish both the UTEP and WAC record for digs in conference matches, finishing conference play with 267 digs for a 5.34 digs per game average.
Davis' 5.34 digs per game average shatters one of the oldest existing records in the WAC, which was set by Jai Bruno in 1991, when she recorded 4.65 digs per game. Davis also eclipsed the mark for total digs, which was established by Susan Stonebarger in 2000, when she recorded 254 digs.
TOTAL TURNAROUND Tulsa and Louisiana Tech completed two of the biggest one season turnarounds in the nation this season. Last season, the Golden Hurricane ended the season 9-15. This season the Hurricane finished the season 20-13 for an 11-match turnaround. The Lady Techsters finished 2001 8-20 and have already won 19 matches this season for an 11-match turnaround.
NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS WAC teams faced at least 21 teams that participated in last years NCAA Tournament. Hawaii so far this season has played the most (6), including San Diego State, UCLA, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Colorado and defending national champion Stanford. San Jose State faced four teams, including Stanford. Fresno State was next (3) along with Nevada (5), Rice (2), SMU (1) and UTEP (1). So far this season, the WAC is 91-51 (.641) against non conference opponents. So far this season, the WAC is 5-3 against teams ranked in the top 25. Hawaii leads the way with a 3-1 record with wins over No. 9 Ohio State, No. 7 UCLA and No. 20 Colorado. Hawaii still has No. 6 Stanford on the schedule at home on Nov. 10. Hawaii fell to No. 4 Stanford at home on Nov. 10. Nevada upset then-No. 23 BYU and then No. 25 Colorado State.
WAC AMONG NATION'S LEADERS Hawaii is first in the nation in three categories as of Nov. 10 The Rainbow Wahine lead the country in kills (18.18), assists (16.64) and hitting percentage (.342) in the latest NCAA statistics. Tulsa ia 26th in service aces (2.11 sapg), while the Fresno State is 26th in blocks (2.76 bpg). The Rainbow Wahine are also 15th in digs (18.50 dpg). Nevada is also 19th in kills per game (16.46).
Hawaii's Kim Willoughby, who led the NCAA in kills per game last season, is second this season (6.30 kpg). Nevada's Michelle More (5.37 kpg) is ninth, while Hawaii's Lily Kahumoku (5.26 kpg) is 14th. Nevada's Jill Couwenhoven (13.17 apg) is 13th in assists.
HAWAII PASSES 100,000 IN ATTENDANCE Hawaii had a strong final home weekend with three matches over 7,500 fans a match. The Rainbow Wahine ended the regular season drawing 146,001 in 20 home matches this season. Last season, Hawaii ended the season drawing 104,222. The Rainbow Wahine came just short of topping their 2000 attendance of 153,688
Hawaii also holds eight of the top 10 attendance figures this season, including the top spot with 10,252 fans in the loss to Stanford on Nov. 10. In the season opener, 9,495 fans saw Hawaii defeat Ohio State. Against UCLA (9/2), Hawaii drew 8,604 for the second spot, and the match with Washington (9/7) took third, drawing 7,365. On the road, the Rainbow Wahine are also drawing a crowd. During the last week of the regular season both Fresno State and San Jose State drew season-high crowds for their matches with the Hawaii.
Top 10 National Attendance
School Avg. MP Total
1. Hawai'i 7,300 20 146,001
2. Nebraska 4,464 12 53,562
3. Wisconsin 3,453 13 44,891
4. Florida 2,520 14 35,281
5. Minnesota 2,343 15 35,149
6. Penn St. 2,310 14 32,333
7. Arizona 2,178 13 26,142
8. LBSU 2,070 13 26,910
9. Illinois St. 2,069 15 31,036
10. Stanford 1,977 11 21,748
TWO WAC TEAMS ACKNOWLEDGED BY POLLS Hawaii is the only WAC team to appear in both the USA Today/AVCA and Volleyball Magazine polls. This week, the Rainbow Wahine is No. 2 in the USA Today/AVCA poll. This is the ninth week that Fresno State has received votes in the coaches poll, receiving nine this week. Volleyball Magazine has not had a new poll since Oct. 21.
THE BIG DANCE The NCAA announced that ESPNEWS will air nine different NCAA Championship team selection announcements. The NCAA Division I womens volleyball bracket will be announced on Dec. 1, 3:00 p.m. (EST). ESPNEWS reaches 40 million households and will have the exclusive right to have the first announcement of the nine team brackets. The official NCAA championship web site, www.ncaasports.com, will post the team brackets immediately following the television announcement.
AROUND THE COURT News and notes from around the league:
Boise State Boise State ended the 2002 season fifth in the Western Division. The Broncos finished the season with a 1-23 record overall and 0-12 in the WAC. The win came against Eastern Kentucky, 3-0, on Aug. 31.
Fresno State Fresno State is a combined 37-7 against its bracket opponents in the all-time series. The Bulldogs are 8-0 against SMU, 14-6 versus Nevada and 15-1 against UTEP. This season, Fresno State split with Nevada, while winning its only meeting against SMU and UTEP. Senior outside hitter Christy Burnett collected her 1,000th career dig against Nevada and became the fifth Bulldog volleyball player to post 1,000 career digs. Picking up her 60th career double-figure dig match against the Wolf Pack, Burnett tallied a team-best 33 digs last weekend and moved into the No. 5 spot all-time at Fresno State in career digs with (1,019).
Hawaii Hawaii extended its conference winning streak to 65 matches. The Rainbow Wahine also won their seventh straight WAC regular season title and eighth straight conference regular season title (one in the Big West). Melissa Villaroman had a strong weekend, notching 33 digs at Fresno State and 16 digs at San Jose State, while also picking up a rare libero kill at San Jose State. Kim Willoughby also had a solid week, posting 30 kills, three aces and 11 digs at Fresno State and 19 kills, five blocks and 11 digs at San Jose State.
Louisiana Tech In Louisiana Tech's two matches with SMU this season, there were eight games played and five of those were decided by 30-28 scores with the Mustangs winning four of the five . Cristine Sant'Anna has 53 aces on the year, which is currently second best in school history. Setter Lia Mora finishes the regular season with 1,334 assists, fourth best single season total in school history . Sant'Anna's 427 kills in currently the fifth best single season kill total. Louisiana Tech came within one win of its first 20 win seasons since 1994 and posted its first winning season since 1996. Lady Techsters head coach Heather Mazeitis improved her career record to 15-2 over in-state opponents with a win over Centenary on Nov. 12.
Nevada Wolf Pack head coach Devin Scruggs earned her 100th career victory all coming at Nevada as the Wolf Pack swept Boise State 3-0 Saturday. Scruggs career mark is 100-66 a winning percentage of .602. Nevada was led by senior Michelle More. More set a new Nevda single-season record with 473 kills this season. She averaged 5.43 kills, as Nevada split its two matches last
week. The middle blocker has increased her total kills each of her four seasons at Nevada with 256 as a freshman, 335 as a sophomore, 351 as junior and at least 473 as a senior.
Rice Rice rebounded from two losses on the road with a win at SMU and a victory over UTEP on senior night. With the UTEP win, Rice repeats as WAC Eastern Division champs, and secured the fifth seed in the conference tournament. Sophomore Rebeca Pazo is 88 kills shy of cracking the Rice all-time top-10 list. She has 465 so far this year. Setter Rebekah Neal notched her 15th double-double of the year with 46 assists and 14 digs against the Miners. Neal served up the Owls only two aces of the match against UTEP. Catherine DuPont had her first two career double-doubles this week, recording 10 kills and 18 digs against the Mustangs and 12 kills and 11 digs against UTEP. Her 18 digs against SMU is a new career record.
San Jose State San Jose State made a push for the third seed last week, but a loss to Hawaii secured the fourth seed. The Spartans defeated Boise State to ensure that they end the WAC season above .500. San Jose State ended the regular season 13-14, but 7-6 in the league. Wins against the Eastern Division helped San Jose State land the No. 4 seed. The Spartans will face No. 5 Rice in the first round.
SMU Senior Kristen Peterson is having one of the strongest defensive seasons in Mustang history. Peterson, a libero, has now taken the season dig record with 456. Peterson is on the verge of breaking the WAC record for digs per game. She currently averages 4.34 dpg (103 games, 456 digs), while the record is 4.29 dpg by Diana Nalbandian of Fresno State in 1997.
UTEP On the season, Davis now has the second top-total at UTEP for digs in a season with 371, averaging out to a school-record 4.26 digs per game. Her 4.26 digs per game average ranks as the third top total in WAC annals. As for the Miners (11-13, 6-7 WAC), it was their fifth straight road loss of the season, dropping UTEP to 3-10 on the road in 2002. Conversely, The Miners finished the season 8-3 at home, marking the most wins in El Paso since 1989.
Tulsa Tulsa ended the season with a bang winning three of its last four WAC matches. The Golden Hurricane ended the season just one point shy of making the tournament. Tulsa ended the last week of the regular season with sweeps of both Louisiana Tech and UTEP at home. Tulsa ends the season as one of only three WAC schools to reach the 20-match win plateau.