|
Related Material
|
11.25.03.PDF
|
HAWAII WINS FOURTH-STRAIGHT WAC TOURNAMENT Hawaii defeated San Jose State, 3-0, to take home its fourth-straight WAC Tournament title at Virginia Street Gym in Reno, Nev. The Rainbow Wahine (30-1, 13-0) earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Spartans (10-18, 6-7) were the surprise team of the tournament, knocking off third-seeded Fresno State and second-seeded SMU en route to the championship match.
San Jose State started out strong, pushing the Wahine to the edge in the first game, but falling 30-28. Game two was no different for the Spartans, as they again fell in a close game, 30-26. With the momentum fully on the Wahine side, they cruised to a 30-20 win and the conference title.
Senior Lily Kahumoku hit .318 for the Wahine on her way to the tournament's MVP. She posted 17 kills on 44 attempts versus San Jose State. Senior Kim Willoughby led all players with 21 kills, hitting .333. For the Spartans, Kimberly Noble was outstanding again, posting 19 kills for the team high.
The all-tournament team was announced at the conclusion of the tournament. Kahumoku earned the tournament MVP, leading the Wahine to a fourth-straight title. The following is a complete list of the team.
2003 WAC All-Tournament TeamKim Willoughby, Hawaii, LS
Allison Dillion, San Jose State, S
Kanoe Kamana'o, Hawaii, S
Kristen Fenton, Fresno State, OH
Salaia Salave'a, Nevada, MB
Beth Karasek, SMU, OH
Lauren Duggins, Hawaii, MH
Jessica Mihm, SMU, S
Carrie Nash, San Jose State, L
*Lily Kahumoku, Hawaii, LS
Jessie Shull, San Jose State, L
Kimberly Noble, San Jose State, OH
*tournament MVP
REMATCH OF 2001 FINAL AS HAWAII AND SAN JOSE ADVANCE San Jose State posted its second upset in as many days, advancing to the finals of the 2003 WAC Championship in Reno, Nev. The sixth-seeded Spartans knocked off second-seeded SMU, 3-1, on the strength of Kimberly Noble's 30 kills. Top-seeded Hawaii played one of its best matches of the year, defeating fourth-seeded Nevada (16-15, 7-6), 3-0.
The Spartans have been in the conference semifinals the past four years, but advance to their first finals since 2001. San Jose State fell to Hawaii, 3-0 that season. The win over second-seeded SMU was the biggest upset in the tournament's history, based on seed.
Top-seeded Hawaii played one of its best matches of the year, defeating fourth-seeded Nevada (16-15, 7-6), 3-0. Nohea Tano led the way for the Rainbow Wahine (29-1, 13-0), as she hit .857 with six kills. Senior Kim Willoughby posted a match high 18 kills on 33 attempts.
WAC TOURNAMENT RECORDS Several records were broken at the 2003 WAC Tournament. San Jose State outside hitter Kimberly Noble set the record for attempts with 80 in a five-game win against Fresno State in the quarterfinals. The previous record was 78 by San Diego State's Martina Vitkova-Engels against Wyoming. Fresno State's Kristen Fenton tied the record for service aces in a match with four against San Jose State in the quarterfinal on Nov. 21. In team records, both Louisiana Tech and SMU tied the team record with five ball handling errors in their quarterfinal match on Nov. 21.
NCAA ANNOUNCEMENT The NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship 64-team bracket will be announced on ESPNews at approximately 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time (7:00 p.m. Central, 6:00 p.m. Mountain and 5:00 p.m. Pacific) on Sun., Nov. 30. ESPNews can be found on DirecTV (ch. 207) and on Dish Network (ch. 142). In addition, some cable systems do carry the ESPNews signal. Immediately following the ESPNews announcement, the full bracket can be found on www.ncaasports.com. Last season, three WAC teams advanced to the NCAA Tournament, Hawaii, Fresno State and Nevada.
ACADEMIC AWARDS Several WAC volleyball players were honored with district academic awards.
Fresno State's Tina Brennan was named to her first Academic All-District VIII Team, as voted by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), this morning. Brennan was named to the six-member First Team All-District VIII Team, which encompasses the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and the province of British Columbia. Majoring in liberal studies with a cumulative 4.0 GPA, Brennan has been an integral part of the Bulldogs' defense since her arrival in 2001.
Catherine DuPont, Rebeca Pazo and Rebecca Kainz were named to Academic all-District VI teams as selected by CoSIDA. This is the second first-team honor for DuPont, as she was named to the district team last season, and was also named a third-team academic all-America in 2002. Pazo was a second-team all-district selection last year, and this is the first honor for Kainz. DuPont, a junior, owns a 4.00 grade point average in sports medicine and Spanish. Pazo is an economics and Spanish major with a 3.417 GPA. The junior is a two-time all-WAC selection, and was twice named to the academic all-WAC team. Kainz owns a 3.442 GPA in English and policy studies.
Nevada outside hitter Christine Harms has been named to the Academic All-District VIII second team. Harms carries a 4.00 grade point average in Civil Engineering.
NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS So far this season, the WAC is 85-64 (.570) against non-conference opponents. The WAC is 7-7 against ranked teams. Hawaii is 7-1 with wins over Louisville, UCLA, Kansas State, Stanford, Minnesota, LMU and Santa Clara. San Jose State fell to No. 20 Santa Clara, and Nevada fell to No. 15 Long Beach State. Boise State and Louisiana Tech also have losses to ranked teams. Rice has lost to formerly ranked Ohio State, and Fresno State lost to No. 23 Long Beach State.
FENTON REACHES 40-KILL MARK Fenton made history two weeks ago when she recorded her first career 40-plus kill match. With 41 notched against CS Northridge on Nov. 12, she tied the national mark for most kills collected this fall, became just the fifth player in the country to post a 40-kill match this season and became just the ninth player overall in Division I history to total at least 40 kills since rally scoring was introduced in 2001 at that point in time. Against CS Northridge, Fenton collected a match-high 41 kills and hit .323 (41-10-96) with two assists, 14 digs and three blocks. The 41 kills was a new rally scoring school record for a five-game match as well as a breaking a 12-year old school record and North Gym record (old mark was 36 by Paola Paz-Soldan, 36 vs. New Mexico, Sept. 5, 1991). Since Fenton's mark was established, there now are seven Division I players to have reached the 40-kill plateau this fall since Nov. 16.
AROUND THE COURT News and notes from around the league:
Boise State played its final match of the season losing to Fresno State in three games. The Bulldogs upped their record to 21-6 overall and 10-3 in the conference with the 30-18, 30-26, 30-23 win. Kelsey Young led the Broncos with 10 kills. Cameron Flunder and Christina Moore each added nine kills. Christina Melvin added 34 assists. Megan Tranter had seven digs.
Fresno State junior Kristen Fenton was named to her second straight WAC all-tournament team. Pounding out a match-high 35 kills to go along with 14 digs, two assists, four service aces and four blocks, Fenton tallied her 28th consecutive double-figure kill match, third 30+ kill performance and 15th double-double of the season. Senior middle blocker Carrie Hartt and Fenton were named to their second-straight first team all-WAC team, while junior middle blocker Tiffany Bishop and sophomore setter Robyn Keune were selected second team. This marks the fourth time in the history of the Bulldog volleyball program in which at least four all-conference selections were honored in the same season as well as it being the third time under head coach Lindy Vivas in which at least four Bulldogs were honored.
Hawaii has now won 78-straight WAC matches, dating back to 1998. Hawaii also won their eighth-straight WAC regular-season title. All-American Kim Willoughby earned the all-tournament MVP honor the last two seasons as well as WAC Player of the Year honors. This year, senior Lily Kahumoku earned tournament MVP honors. This is the fourth-straight season that a Rainbow Wahine earned MVP honors with Heather Bown earning the award in 1998. The Rainbow Wahine have won their fourth-straight WAC Tournament with a 3-0 win over San Jose State.
Louisiana Tech finished the regular season at the WAC Tournament. The seventh-seeded Lady Techsters fell to the second-seeded SMU Mustangs, 3-0. For the second-straight season, the Lady Techsters finished the season with at least 15 wins. It is also the second-straight season that Louisiana Tech has finished with a winning record (16-15).
Nevada junior Salaia Salave`a was named to the 2003 all-WAC tournament team. It was the second consecutive year Salave`a was named to the team. The Wolf Pack went 1-1 in the tournament hosted at Nevada's Virginia Street Gym this past weekend. The Pack won 3-0 over Rice on Nov. 21 and fell 3-0 to second-ranked and top-seed Hawaii on Nov. 22. Salave`a averaged 4.17 kills, 1.17 blocks, 1.17 digs and hit .321 in the two tournament matches. In the Rice match she had 13 kills, five digs, five blocks and hit .417. She followed that with 12 kills, two service aces, five digs, two blocks, and a .241 attack percentage versus Hawaii.
Rice had a five-match win streak stopped at the WAC tournament. With a 30-18, 33-31, 30-21 victory on Nov. 21, Nevada ended Rices volleyball season in the first round of the tournament. Rice entered the match looking for its first win in the WAC tournament since the 1998 season, when the Owls defeated New Mexico in the first round.
San Jose State became the lowest seeded team to reach the finals, as the sixth-seeded team faced Hawaii in the WAC Tournament final. The Spartans defeated No. 3 Fresno State in five games and No. 2 SMU in four in games to reach the finals. Senior Kimberly Noble led the Spartans, ending the tournament with 73 kills and 37 digs in three matches. Noble and teammates Jessie Shull and Allison Dillion were named to the all-tournament team.
SMU completed one of its winningest regular seasons in school history since the program's inception, eight years ago. The Mustangs are 23-7, 11-2 in WAC play. The last time the Mustangs won 20 games was in the 1999 season. SMU fell to San Jose State in the semifinals of the WAC Tournament. The Mustangs await the Nov. 30 NCAA Tournament selections.
UTEP wrapped up its season last week as it was swept by the SMU Mustangs. In failing to win at least two games over its final two matches the Miners did not make the 2003 WAC Tournament in Reno, Nev. UTEP finished the season 8-22, 2-11 in the WAC. Although the Miners had three points during the season to tie Tulsa, they were edged from the tournament due to the WAC tie-breaker.
Tulsa ended its regular season on Nov. 21 with a WAC Tournament loss to defending champion Hawaii, 3-0 (30-17, 30-12, 34-32). It was the first time Tulsa had lost in the first round of the WAC Tournament. Tulsa now holds a 1-2 record in two tournament appearances. The Golden Hurricane were 1-1 in the 2001 tournament held in San Jose, Calif. Tulsa did not advance to the 2002 WAC Tournament.
PACKING THE STANDS Once again, Hawaii is leading the nation in attendance. The Rainbow Wahine have drawn 140,144 in 19 home matches so far this season for an average of 7,376. The Rainbow Wahine have led the nation in attendance the last eight years. Hawaii also holds 14 of the top 15 single-match highs this season, including the nation's second best, 10,300 fans that saw No. 2 Hawaii defeat San Jose State. The attendance for UH's win over Stanford was 8,740 on Sept. 13. On Oct. 4, 8,529 fans saw the Rainbow Wahine sweep Nevada.
2003 Division I Volleyball Attendance
School Avg. Total Matches
1. Hawaii 7,376 140,144 19
2. Wisconsin 4,289 55,757 13
3. Nebraska 4,246 59,437 14
4. Penn State 2,890 37,575 13
5. Florida 2,653 34,493 13
6. Minnesota 2,342 32,871 14
7. Kansas State 2,097 27,262 13
8. Texas A&M 1,889 22,664 11
9. Stanford 1,866 20,522 11
10. Northern Iowa 1,787 19,661 11