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9.3.03.PDF
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WAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK Hawai'i's Kim Willoughby has been named the first Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the 2003 season. The two-time WAC Player of the Year has earned player of the week honors seven times during her career, including twice last season.
The senior left side hitter hit .493 in two matches against ranked teams last week as the Rainbow Wahine defeated No. 13 Minnesota and No. 16 Louisville at the Hawaiian Airlines Volleyball Classic. For her efforts, Willoughby, a native of Napoleanville, La., was named most outstanding player.
Willoughby had 41 kills and 13 digs in two matches as the Rainbow Wahine did not drop a game in the two matches. The senior averaged 6.83 kills per game and 2.17 digs per game. Against Louisville, she had 20 kills along with five blocks and seven digs. Against Minnesota, Willoughby had 21 kills, leading the Rainbow Wahine to the three-game win.
Other nominees included: Kristen Fenton, Fresno State; Cristine Sant'Anna, Louisiana Tech; Tristin Adams, Nevada; Rebeca Pazo, Rice; Kelly Larkan, SMU and Natalia Araujo, Tulsa.
WEEK TWO All 10 WAC teams will be competing in tournaments this week with Hawaii, Rice and Nevada playing host. After five-straight ranked opponents, Hawaii will face Wichita State in the first match of the Ashton Imua Wahine Volleyball Challenge. Louisiana Tech, the WAC's only remaining undefeated squad will take on No. 24 Wisconsin at the Texas State Tournament. San Jose looks to earn its first win at the Cowgirl Classic, while Fresno State looks to win its second-straight tournament at the Sacramento State Invitational.
Hawaii's Willoughby Breaks School career Kill Record In the first WAC match of the 2003 season, No. 2 Hawaii defeated the Kansas State Wildcats, 30-26, 30-23 and 30-23 to advance to the State Farm Women's Volleyball Classic/NACWAA final. Senior left-side hitter Kim Willoughby broke the career UH record for kills, formerly held by Teee Williams. Willoughby got her 28 kills on 39 attacks for a hitting percentage of .564, while adding nine digs. Lily Kahumoku had 14 kills, eight digs and three blocks while hitting .324. Kanoe Kamana`o played well in her first collegiate match, putting up 42 assists, six digs and two blocks. Lauren Duggins added seven kills and six digs while Melissa Villaroman led the way with 11 digs.
VIVAS EARNED 300TH CARRER WIN Head coach Lindy Vivas collected her 300th career win when the Bulldogs opened the year with a three-game sweep over New Mexico. Fresno State opened the season with a victory for the 21st time overall (21-11-1; 6 years of W/L unknown) and is 8-5 under Vivas in season openers. In home openers, the program is 19-7 overall (since records kept in 1978) and 10-3 under Vivas.
RETURNING ALL-WAC PLAYERS Of the 12 first-team all-WAC players in 2002, six will return for the 2003 season, including Hawaiis Kim Willoughby, the WACs Player of the Year, and teammates Lily Kahumoku and Lauren Duggins. Rices Rebeca Pazo and Fresno States Kristen Fenton and Carrie Hartt also return from the 2002 first team. Seven of the second-team all-WAC performers will also return this season, including Hawaiis Karin Lundqvist and Melissa Villaroman. Louisiana Tech has a pair of all-WAC returnees in Lia Mora and Cristine SantAnna. Also returning are Nevadas Salaia Salave`a, UTEPs Jennifer Abbruzzese and Rices Rebecca Kainz.
AROUND THE COURT News and notes from around the league:
With a win to start the season,
Boise State matched last year's win total. The Broncos look to improve on that this week at the Montana Invitational. The competition does not get any easier as the Broncos will have to face No. 11 UCLA. The Bruins just stretched No. 2 Hawaii to five games.
Fresno State was a well-balanced team last week, getting help from everyone. Freshman outside hitter Tuli Peters had 10+ kill performances in two of three matches played, including a season-high 13 versus Idaho State. Junior libero Tina Brennan had double-figure digs in two matches, including one 20+ dig performance with 21 versus Idaho State . Senior outside hitter Stefanie Taelman collected a personal-best 13 digs against Cal Poly . She also tallied 11 kills against the Mustangs to post her second career double-double . Sophomore outside hitter La'akea Campbell posted a career-best 11 digs against Idaho State for her first career double-figure dig match
Hawaii won its second-straight Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic, winning a five-game thriller over UCLA in the championship match. Senior Kim Willoughby was named most outstanding player. Also making the all-tournament team were Lily Kahumoku and Kanoe Kamana`o. Hawaii has played each of its first five matches against teams ranked in the AVCA/USA Today Top 25 poll, beating No. 11 UCLA, No. 13 Minnesota, No. 14 Kansas State and No. 16 Louisville, while falling only to No. 1 USC. Against Louisville on Aug. 31, UH had a great match, hitting .486 as a team with 58 kills and just six errors on 107 attempts. It was the least amount of team errors in a match for Hawaii since Oct. 21, 2000.
Louisiana Tech is off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 1990. LouisianaTech has now won two- straight regular season tournaments dating back to last season. Tech is now 17-2 against Louisiana schools under Heather Mazeitis and Tech has not lost to a Sun Belt Conference school since joining the WAC. Lia Mora also earned all-tournament honors over the weekend averaging 11.67 assists per game in the three wins while tying a school record with seven aces versus Alcorn State. Mora also had 13 kills on the weekend as Tech hit .295 as a team in three matches.
Nevada looks to get back on the winning track this week at home. After winning its first two matches of the season, the Wolf Pack has now lost three-straight matches, including a three-game loss to No. 15 Long Beach State on Sept. 1. This week, Nevada will host the SBC/Sands Regency Tournament next weekend Sept. 5-6 at the Virginia Street Gym. Arizona State, Gonzaga, and Tennessee will travel to Reno for the tournament with the Pack taking on Tennessee on Sept. 5.
Rice opened the season to the tune of a 1-2 record, falling to UC Riverside and UC Irvine and recording a victory over San Diego State. Sophomore Kristina Hoban made her debut at setter, recording a personal-best 54 assists against UCR, adding 16 digs for her third career double-double and the first of the year. Rebecca Kainz knocked down a personal-best 17 kills against UC, hitting .452 (17-3-31) for the match. This week, Rice will face Stephen F. Austin on Tuesday, Sept. 2 at home before hosting the Crowne Plaza/Rice Invitational where the Owls will face Duquesne, McNeese State and Purdue.
San Jose State looks to record its first win of the season on Sept. 2 at home against instate rival San Francisco. Last week, the Spartans were swept by Santa Clara in San Jose. The Spartans were led by Kimberly Noble and Kristina Conrad with 18 kills each. Libero Jessie Shull added 20 digs. Freshman setter Allison Dillon had 50 assists and 14 digs. Sophomore Jessica Wlodarczyk led the team with eight blocks.
SMU sophomore Kelly Larkan collected career-high numbers in her first competition since the 2001 season (she redshirted the 2002 season); posted double-double figures in kills (24) and digs (10) in SMU's win over Tennessee Tech. Her 24 kills were a career-high mark; she currently is second on the squad in attack average (41.8%). The Mustangs continue their road swing and go out west to compete in the Cal Poly Invitational - teams participating are host Cal Poly, UT-San Antonio, Saint Mary's, and SMU.
UTEP opened the season with a win for the first time since 1998 when it upended Stephen F. Austin, 3-1, at Memorial Gym in the first game of the Borderland Invitational. Senior Jennifer Abbruzzese recorded her 48th career double-double with 16 kills and 17 digs. But it was the freshmen who stole the show. Middle blocker Ashley Ripple recorded 11 kills without an error (.524), while setter Krystal Gabriel dished out 43 assists as the Miners hit .241 including a .366 clip in the fourth game.
Tulsa bounced back from two losses in its first two matches of the season, to defeat Stony Brook in the third-place match of the Dayton Flyer Classic. Tulsa lost to host Dayton, 3-0 (35-33, 30-22, 30-23) on Friday. On Saturday, Towson won the battles of TUs, 3-0 (30-19, 30-24, 32-30) before Tulsa cam back to defeat the Seawolves in four games (30-27, 28-30, 30-26, 30-22). Senior Nathalia Araujo provided TU with much needed senior leadership at the Dayton Flyer Classic, and earned a spot on the all-tournament team. The second-year starter led the Hurricane in hitting percentage with a .458 percentage in three matches. She also finished second on the squad for the tournament with 31 digs.
PERSONNEL CAPSULE Every team returns at least three starters for the 2003 campaign. Fresno State, Hawaii and Rice return the most letterwinners with 11. The Rainbow Wahine and UTEP return the most starters with six. SMU and Tulsa also bring back a double-digit number of letterwinners with 10, including five starters. Boise State and San Jose State bring back the smallest number of letterwinners with the Broncos returning three and the Spartans bringing back five. The following is a breakdown of each teams letterwinners returning and lost and starters returning and lost.
Team LR LL SR SL
Boise State 3 5 3 4
Fresno State 9 5 3 4
Hawaii 11 1 6 1
Louisiana Tech 8 2 5 1
Nevada 8 4 5 3
Rice 11 3 5 1
San Jose State 5 7 2 4
SMU 10 2 5 1
UTEP 7 3 6 2
Tulsa 10 2 5 1
HAWAII AND NEVADA INCLUDED IN 2003 CSTV VOLLEYBALL SCHEDULE College Sports Television (www.cstv.com), the first 24-hour college sports network, and the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) will present a national volleyball match of the week package,Sunday Night Spike 2003, this fall that will boast 15 teams who competed in the 2002 NCAA Championships, including national semi-finalists Florida, Stanford and Hawaii. The schedule commences Sunday, Sept. 7 with Florida at Stanford and will include an October 26 doubleheader featuring Santa Clara-Pepperdine and Utah-Colorado State.
The WAC will have at least two teams featured when Hawai`i takes on Santa Clara on Sept . 28 in California. The Rainbow Wahine and Nevada will be featured on Oct. 5 in Honolulu. Finally, the WAC Tournament Championship match will be televised on Nov. 23 in Reno, Nev.
Five teams featured within the Sunday Night Spike 2003 schedule have won volleyball national championships (Hawaii in 1982, 1983, 1987; Nebraska in 1995, 2000; Pacific in 1985, 1986; Stanford in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001; Texas in 1988) and seven won conference titles in 2002 (Florida, Hawaii, Northern Iowa, Notre Dame, Pepperdine, Sacramento St., Utah). In addition, Colorado State and Eastern Washington won regular season conference titles.
Sunday Night Spike 2003 (all times ET)
Sept. 7 6 p.m. Florida at Stanford
Sept. 14 6 p.m. Pepperdine at Pacific
Sept. 21 7 p.m. Illinois State at No. Iowa
Sept. 28 4 p.m. Hawaii at Santa Clara
Oct. 5 6 p.m. Nevada at Hawaii
Oct. 12 6 p.m. Sacramento State at Eastern Washington
Oct. 19 6 p.m. Texas at Kansas State
Oct. 26 4 p.m. Santa Clara at Pepperdine
Oct. 26 6 p.m. Utah at Colorado State
Nov. 2 6 p.m. Northern Iowa at Nebraska
Nov. 9 6 p.m. Miami (Fla.) at Notre Dame
Nov. 16 6 p.m. Best of Sunday Night Spike
Nov. 23 6 p.m. WAC Championship
NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS WAC teams could face at least 27 non-conference teams that participated in last years NCAA Tournament. Hawaii could play the most (10), including defending national champion USC, 2001 champion Stanford, as well as Florida, UCLA and Minnesota. Nevada could face six teams, including California, Utah and Long Beach State. Fresno State is next (4) along with Louisiana Tech (3), Rice (3), San Jose State (2), SMU (2) and UTEP (1).
So far this season, the WAC is 16-16 against non-conference opponents. Hawaii is 4-1 against ranked teams with wins over Louisville, UCLA, Kansas State and Minnesota. San Jose State fell to No. 20 Santa Clara, and Nevada fell to No. 15 Long Beach State.
TERRIFIC TOURNAMENTS Two teams captured home tournaments the during the first full week of the season. The Bulldogs won the Fresno State Invitational and Hawaii won the Hawaiian Airlines Classic by defeating three ranked teams. Louisiana Tech also took home a tournament title at the UL-Lafayette Tournament. The following players have also been named to all-tournament teams:
Kristen Fenton , FS Fresno State Invitational
Lily Kahumoku , UH State Farm Classic
HAL Volleyball Classic
Kanoe Kamana`o, UH HAL Volleyball Classic
Kim Willoughby, UH State Farm Classic
HAL Volleyball Classic*
Lia Mora, LT UL-Lafayette Tournament
Cristine Sant'Anna, LT UL-Lafayette Tournament*
Tristin Adams , UN CS-Fullerton Tournament
Salaia Salave`a, UN CS-Fullerton Tournament
Nina Reeves, UTEP Borderland Invitational
Kari Stacy, UTEP Borderland Invitational
Natalie Araujo, TU Dayton Flyer Classic
*Most Outstanding/Valuable Player
2003 Division I Volleyball Attendance
School Avg. Total Matches
1. Hawaii 8,190 16,319 2
2. Wisconsin 3,186 9,560 3
3. Florida 2,482 7,445 3
4. Pacific 1,735 1,735 1
5. LBSU 1,598 3,195 2
6. Colorado St. 1,429 4,288 3
7. Georgia Tech 865 2,595 3
8. Fresno St. 638 1,913 3
9. Wash. St. 523 1,569 3