For the second-straight season,s the Western Athletic Conference had three teams advance to the NCAA Volleyball Tournament. WAC Tournament champion Hawai'i, Utah State and Nevada all advanced to the tournament beginning Dec. 1.sHawai'i, the overall No. 7 seed, will travel to Austin, Texas to take on Texas State in the first round on Dec. 2. The winner will take on the winner of the match between host Texas and LSU. Hawai'i has advanced to 24 of 25 NCAA Tournaments. Last season, the Rainbow Wahine advanced to the regional semifinals, losing to Wisconsin in Green Bay. Nevada advances to postseason for the second-straight season. Last year, the Wolf Pack lost in the first round to Wichita State in Lincoln, Neb. This is the third time in four years that Nevada has advanced to the NCAA Tournament.ssIn its first season in the WAC, Utah State earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament after advancing to the WAC Championship match. The Aggies (21-12) will take on fourth-seeded Arizona in Salt Lake City. The winner will face either host Utah or Loyola Marymount.s It will be Utah State?™s third-ever postseason appearance as it participated in the 2000 and 2001 NCAA Tournaments.ssBoth Nevada and Utah State are part of the Palo Alto Regional on the campus of the University of Stanford. Hawai'i is part of the Penn State Regional in State College, Pa.
Click here for a PDF of the WAC release
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AGAINST THE FIELD ?“ The three WAC teams have a record of 12-25 against the 64 teams in the tournament. Hawai'i has a 9-6 record against teams in the tournament. The Rainbow Wahine has wins against USC, UCLA, Loyola Marymount, Nevada and Utah State. Hawai'i?™s only losses this season have come against top-seeded Nebraska, second-seeded Penn State, third-seeded Washington and LMU.sUtah State is 2-10 against teams in this year?™s tournament field with wins against Nevada and UC Santa Barbara. The Aggies have losses to Saint Mary?™s, Arkansas, Stanford and three to Hawai'i.sNevada is 2-9 against the teams in the tournament. The Wolf Pack have wins against California and Utah State. Their losses include teams like UCLA, BYU, Sacramento State and Hawai'i.
FIRST ROUND OPPONENTSs ?“ss Hawai'i will take on Texas State in the first round. The two teams have met only one other time when the Rainbow Wahine defeated the Bobcats, 3-0, on Dec. 5, 1991. The Rainbow Wahine have not lost a first-round match since losing to Loyola Marymount in 1997 in Long Beach.
sNevada will once again take on defending champion, Stanford. In the 25-year history of the championship, nine schools have been crowned champion, eight of which are in this year?™s bracket, including the defending champion Stanford. The Cardinal has won NCAA titles six times (1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2004).
sUtah State will take on fourth-seeded Arizona. The No. 4 seeding is the highest ever for the Wildcats, who are making their 10th-straight appearance in the single-elimination tournament. Utah State and Arizona will be meeting for the 15th time this weekend, with the Wildcats owning a slim 8-6 all-time advantage. The last time the two schools played one another was on Sept. 6, 1996 in Tucson with the Wildcats notching a three-game win. Overall, Arizona has won five-straight matches played in the series. The last time Utah State defeated the Wildcats was on Oct. 9, 1980 in Tucson in three games. This will be the 10th time that the two schools will have met on a neutral court and Arizona holds a 6-3 advantage in those contests.
COMMON OPPONENTS ?“s Nevada shares two common opponents with Stanford. Both teams have faced the Pac-10?™s UCLA and the WAC?™s Utah State. The Cardinal was 2-0 against the Bruins and 1-0 against the Aggies. The Wolf Pack was 0-1 against UCLA and 1-1 against Utah State.
sUtah State played three of the same opponents as Arizona, including Stanford, UC Santa Barbara and Fresno State. Both the Aggies and the Wildcats were 1-0 against UC Santa Barbara. Arizona was 2-0 against Stanford, while Utah State was 0-1. Arizona was 1-0 against Fresno State, while Utah State was 1-1.
sHawai'i doesn?™t share and common opponents with Texas State.
HAWAI'I IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT ?“ Hawai'i is making its 24th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, as it has missed only one in the 25 years of the tournament?™s existence. UH has now made 13-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. The Rainbow Wahine are 56-20 (.737) in the NCAA Tournament all-time. They are 17-2 (.895) all-time in first round matches (UH had a bye in the first round four times), but are just 5-2 in first round matches away from home. UH is 11-0 in second round matches since the tournament was expanded past 32 teams in 1993 (prior to that, the second match of the tournament was in a regional). Hawai'i has advanced to eight NCAA Championships and 21 NCAA Regionals, including the last seven.
NEVADA IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT ?“ Nevada has qualified for the NCAA Tournament five times all coming under the direction of ninth-year head coach Devin Scruggs. The Wolf Pack?™s first NCAA Tournament appearance came in 1998. Nevada has qualified four of the last five years, 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005. Nevada is still seeking its first tournament win. The first round match against the Cardinal will mark the third time the Wolf Pack have played an NCAA Tournament match at Stanford, playing first round matches in 2001 and 2002. In 2001, Nevadas lost 3-0 to Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif. In 2002, the Wolf Pack lost in five to Pacific at Stanford. Overall, Nevada is 0-4 in NCAA Tournament play. Last season, Nevada was swept by Wichita State in Lincoln, Neb.
UTAH STATE IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT ?“s Utah State is making its third-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament (2000, 2001, 2005). Utah State will be making its third trip to the NCAA Tournament after a four-year hiatus. Utah State is 2-2 in the NCAA Tournament. The Aggies?™ first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament was during the 2000 season when it defeated Missouri (3-2) in the first round before losing at BYU (3-0) in the second round. The Aggies went back to the NCAA Tournament in 2001 and upset 19th-ranked BYU (3-2) in the first round before losing at Utah (3-1) in the second round.
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KAMANA`O FIRST IN CAREER ASSISTS ?“ Kanoe Kamana'o broke the Hawai'i career assists record against Boise State on Nov. 24 at the WAC Tournament, passing UH great Martina Cincerova with more than a season left in her career. She is also the career leader in assists per game at 13.71. The junior now has 4,742 assists, placing her seventh all-time in the WAC. She is only 1,131 behind Analisa Saylor of Colorado State (5,873s from 1994-97) for the WAC record and trails the NCAA mark by 1,892 (Tammys Roberson, UAB, 6,650 from 1989-92).
WAC TOURNAMENT RECORDSs ?“ There was only one WAC record broken at last week?™s tournament. New Mexico State?™s Tanya Allen tied the record for service aces with four against San Jose State in the quarterfinals.
RAINBOW WAHINE DOMINATE WAC TOURNAMENTs ?“ Hawai'i has won the last six WAC Tournament titles after fallings to BYU in the championship match in 1996 and 1997. The Rainbow Wahine have a 22-2 record (.917) in the tournament overall. Since the revival of the tournament in 2001 after a two-year hiatus, Hawai'i has recorded 12 sweeps in WAC tournament play, only giving up a game three times (to Nevada in 2002, 2004 and 2005).
HAWAI'I CLINCHES 10TH-STRAIGHT WAC REGULAR SEASON TITLE ?“s WAC play enters its final week with Hawai'i having clinched its 10th-straight regular season title. With two more wins, the Rainbow Wahine (14-0) will have their seventh-straight perfect WAC season. Hawai'i has secured the top spot in the WAC Tournament. No other seeds are determined yet. Utah State hass a vital match with Nevada to end the season.s The Aggies could end up as high as the No. 2 seed and as low as the No. 4 seed. New Mexico State hass one more match left against No. 7 Hawai'i.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK ?“ Hawai'i?™s Victoria Prince has been named the Xbox Live Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Nov. 28. This is the final Player of the Week of the year. This is the second WAC Player of the Week honor for Prince this season.sThe Kennewick, Wash., native, led the Rainbow Wahine to their sixth WAC Tournament title, hitting .436 for the tournament. Prince averaged 1.40 blocks per game and 4.20 kills per game. The transfer from Washington State had a total of 78 kills to lead the tournament. She now has 18 double-digit kill matches this season. Prince also has 16 matches where she hit over .400. Hawai'i earned the WAC?™s automatic bid and will travel to Austin, Texas to take on Texas State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, Dec. 2.
REGIONAL SITES SET ?“ The 2005 NCAA Volleyball Championship will be the 25th. The NCAA Division I Women?™s Volleyball Committee has announced the following sites for regional competition of the 2005 NCAA Division I Women?™s Volleyball Championships. The first sight is the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb., along with thes Recreation Building in University Park, Pa.; the Maples Pavillion in Stanford, Calif., and the G. Rollie White Coliseum in College Station, Texas. The University ofs Nebraska, Penn State University, Stanford University and Texas A&M University are the hosts for the regionals, which will be held December 8-11. The first and second rounds will be held December 1-4 in sites yet to be determined. The Final Four will be held December 15-17 in San Antonio, Texas.
BACK IN THE TOP 10 ?“ On the heels of an 19-match winning streak, Hawai'i is back in the top 10 in the AVCA/CSTV top 25. With a brutal non-conference schedule and several injuries in the past, the Rainbow Wahine are back on track. This week, the Rainbow Wahine are No. 7 in both the AVCA/CSTV and in the RichKern.com poll. The current top three teams, Nebraska (No. 1), Penn State (No. 2) and Washington (No. 3) were three of the four teams to hand Hawai'i losses this season. Both the Huskers and the Huskies have one loss heading into postseason.
GRAYBILL BREAKS RECORD ?“ Utah State senior middle blocker Erin Graybill has 150 total blocks this year and is tied with Lisa Grandmaison (1984) for the single-season record in that category. Graybill also has 131 block assists which ranks second in school history and is just five block assists shy of tying Denae Mohlman (2000) for that record with 136. On the year, Graybill is averaging 1.33 blocks per game, which ranks third in the Western Athletic Conference.
RAINBOW WAHINE KEEP WINNING STREAK ALIVE ?“ Hawai'i has a lengthy conference winning streak. The Rainbow extended their WAC winning streak to 107-straight matches, becoming just the second team in NCAA history to record 100 consecutive conference wins. It is the longest streak in the nation. The Rainbow Wahine?™s streak became the longest after Florida?™s NCAA-record conference winning streak of 145 was broken last season. The Gators streak ran from Sept. 20, 1995 to Nov. 12, 2004.
ACADEMIC HONORS ?“ University of Nevada senior libero Christine Harms has been named to the ESPN The Magazine District VIII Academic Volleyball Team as selected by the members of the College Sports Information Directors of America. Harms?™ name will now appear on the national ballot to determine the Academic All-America team. Hawai'i junior setter Kanoe Kamana`o was named to the All-District third team in district eight.
Harms, from Placerville, Calif., carries a 4.00 grade point average in engineering. She was named to the first-team District VIII squad last year, and was a second-team selection as a sophomore. Three times she has been named to the Western Athletic Conference Academic team.
Kamana`o is averaging 13.84 assists per game, 2.81 digs per game and 1.02 blocks per game thus far this season, giving her more blocks and digs than any other setter in the top 10 of the country in assists. The junior was named a second-team academic all-district in 2004 and is a two-time all-WAC honoree. She?™s also a two-time AVCA All-American and was named the 2004 WAC Player of the Year.
sThe players named to the district eight first team were Christine Harms of Nevada, Candace Lee and Courtney Thompson of Washington, Kim McGiven of Santa Clara, Kayla Mulder of Cal Poly and Alexis Crimes of Long Beach State. The second team consisted of Sarah Watkins (Arizona State), Kym Murphy (UC Riverside), Sanja Tomasevic (Washington), Taylor Peyton (Long Beach State), Courtney Schultz (Stanford), Kristen Castillo (San Diego State) and Lindsy Hartsock (Brigham Young). Joining Kamana`o on the third team were Lizzy Mellor and Andrea Verdoljak (Eastern Washington), Valerie Bueno (UC Riverside), Anna Cmaylo and Cassie Perret (Santa Clara), Ellie Butterford (Northern Arizona) and Murphy McClenahan (Portland).
RAINBOW WAHINE TOPS 100,000 ?“s For the 11th-straight season, Hawai'i leads the nation in attendance. The WAC has another team in the top 15 with New Mexico State taking the 11th spot. New Mexico State set a school record in attendance on Oct. 1 against Hawai'i when 7,115 packed the stands. It more than doubled their previous school record. There were 3,183 fans in the Pan American Center to see the Aggies season opener on Aug. 29. The Aggies have drawn 22,377 in 10 matches.
sHawai'i continues to pack the stands with 115,753 fans packing the Stan Sheriff Center this season for an average of 7,235. The 8,499 that saw Hawai'i?™s match against No. 10 UCLA on Sept. 10 was the seventh-highest attended match in the nation this season.
AGAINST THE BEST ?“ The WAC is 4-13 against non-conference ranked teams this season. Hawai'i captured the league?™s first win against a top 25 opponent when it swept then No. 7 USC. Hawai'is also has a win against No. 10 UCLA, 3-1. The Rainbow Wahine have two losses to Penn State and a loss to top-ranked Nebraska. Hawai'i also lost twice to No. 2 Washington. Nevada is 1-2 with losses to then-No. 18 San Diego and then-No. 13 UCLA. San Jose State fell to then-No. 10 Wisconsin and then-No. 15 Santa Clara. At the Circus Circus/Molten Invitational, the Wolf Pack defeated then-No. 21 California in five games. Fresno State lost twice to ranked teams at the Santa Clara Tournament to No. 18 UC Santa Barbara and No. 15 Arizona.
Boise State Broncos (8-18, 3-13 WAC)
Boise State ended the season with a solid performance at the WAC Tournament ins Reno ... for the first time in tournament history, a team had to play two matches in one day ... as the No. 8 seed the Broncos played No. 9-seeded Louisiana Tech, defeating the Lady Techsters in three ... it was Boise State?™s first WAC Tournament win ... later on Nov. 24 the Broncos fell to No. 1 Hawai'i in three ... senior middle blocker Cameron Flunder earned both all-WAC honors and all-tournament honors ... Flunder is a three-time all-WAC honoree.
Fresno State Bulldogs (7-21, 4-12 WAC)
Fresno State lost to second-seeded Utah State in the first round of the WAC Tournament, 3-1 ... head coach Ruben Nieves ended his first season at Fresno State with a 7-21 record ... junior outside hitter Alison Pitton earned second-team all-WAC honors ... the Bulldogs ended the season winning three of its last seven matches.
Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine (25-6, 16-0 WAC)
The Rainbow Wahine won their 10th consecutive WAC regular season championship .... it?™s also their 11th-straight conference title overall, as UH won their last year in the Big West ... UH?™s last lost in conference play came to Brigham Young on Oct. 10, 1998 ... since then, the Rainbow Wahine have also won all six WAC tournaments that have been played (1998, 2001-?™05), running their overall streak against teams in the WAC to 122 matches won ... senior Ashley Watanabe has a good chance to break the UH single-season digs record, as she has 433 digs, just four shy of Teee Williams?™ 437 in 1988 ... the first team all-WAC honoree averages 4.12 digs per game.
Idaho Vandals (16-14, 8-8 WAC)
This season?™s WAC tournament was the first time the Vandals competed in a conference tournament since the 1997 season, the last year that the Big West held a tournament ... in that season the Vandals were defeated by Cal Poly, 3-0, in the first round ... this season, the No. 5 Vandalss fell to No. 4s Nevada, 3-0 ... freshman Haley Larsen earned two postseason honors ... Larsen was named to the all-WAC second team as well as earning all-freshman honors.
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (15-17, 2-14 WAC)
Louisiana Tech played in its first WAC Tournament since 2003 ... the Lady Techsters will have to wait another season for their first WAC Tournament win ... theys also competed in the 2001 and 2002 tournament ... Ambra Hayes was named to the all-tournament team ... the Lady Techsters end the season 15-17.
Nevada Wolf Pack (18-12, 10-6 WAC)
Nevada qualified for the 2005 NCAA Volleyball Tournament and will play the defending champion Stanford Cardinal on Friday in Stanford, Calif.s ... the Wolf Pack have qualified for the NCAA Tournament five times all coming under the direction of nine-year head coach Devin Scruggs ... Salaia Salave`a became a four-year all-WAC selection when she was named to the first team ... sophomore Karly Sipherd and junior Teal Ericson were named to the second team ... setter Tristin Johnson and Salave`a were named to the all-tournament team.
New Mexico State Aggies (20-7, 11-5 WAC)
Freshman Amber Simpson was named WAC Freshman of the Year ... the Aggies fell in the semifinals of the WAC Tournament in the only five-game match of the tournament to Utah State ... New Mexico State, Boise State and Utah State all earned their first WAC Tournment wins ... the Aggies defeated San Jose State in four to capture its first tournaments win ... Jackie Choi and Kim Oguh earned first team all-WAC honors, while Alice Borden, Amber Simpson and Jordan Bostic were named to the second team ... Simpson was also named to the all-freshman team.
San Jose State Spartans (12-17, 7-9 WAC)
Sixth-seeded San Jose State lost in the quarterfinals of the WAC Tournament to third-seeded New Mexico State ...s Jennifer Senftleben led all Spartan hitters with 20 kills ...s Niki Clement recorded a double-double with 15 kills and 16 digs ... libero Jessie Shull contributed 14 digs in the loss ... Shull earned her third-straight all-WAC honor when she was named to the second team ... Senftleben was named to the first team ... the Spartans placed to players on the all-freshman team, Colleen Burke and Brittany Collet.
Utah State Aggies (20-12, 11-5 WAC)
Utah State has recorded 2,071 kills this year which is a new single-season school record ... the previous record for kills in a single year was 1,910 set during the 2000 season ... those 2,071 kills also ranks seventh all-time for a single-season in the WAC ... Utah State has recorded 1,904 assists this year which is a new single-season school record ... the previous record for assists in a single year was 1,746 set during the 2000 season ... those 1,904 assists also ranks sixth all-time for a single-season in the WAC ... Utah State has recorded 2,007 digs this year which is a new single-season school record ... the previous record for digs in a single year was 1,844 set during the 1986 season.
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