Hawai'i will take on No. 10 Missouri in the NCAA Regional Semifinals in College Park, Pa. Last season, the Rainbow Wahine fell to Wisconsin in five games in Green Bay, Wis. This is the first all-time meetings between the Rainbow Wahine and the Tigers. The other NCAA Regional Semifinal will have host and No. 2 seed Penn State facing No. 15 seed Tennessee. Penn State holds a 3-0 advantage over Hawai'i, including two wins earlier this season. The Nittany Lions defeated the Rainbow Wahine on Aug. 27 and Sept. 2. Hawai'i is 5-0 against Tennessee with its last win comings on Sept. 9, 1999.
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HAWAI'I ADVANCES TO NCAA REGIONALS WITH WIN OVER TEXAS ?“ Hawai'is defeated No. 7 Texas 19-30, 30-18, 30-21 and 30-20 in front of a crowd of 1,526 at Gregory Gym in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, advancing to its eighth-straight NCAA Regional.sJamie Houston led the way, hitting .529 with 20 kills, four digs and three blocks. Sarah Mason added 15 kills, four blocks and two aces while hitting .448. Victoria Prince hit .474 with 10 kills and eight blocks while Susie Boogaard added nine kills, four blocks and a .444 hitting percentage. Kanoe Kamana`o ended the night with 54 assists, 10 digs and three blocks while Ashley Watanabe had 13 digs and one ace.
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.
STATE COLLEGE REGIONALs ?“ss No. 10 Missouri advanced to the regional semifinal, round of 16, of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history after defeating Arkansas in a three-game sweep on Saturday evening. The Tigers (24-4) will face No. 7 Hawai'i (27-6), who won the Austin sub-regional. The Rainbow Wahine of Hawai'i have won 21-straight matches, having gone undefeated in winning the WAC regular-season and tournament championship. This is the first meeting between the Tigers and the Rainbow Wahine.
Tennessee used a dramatic comeback to knock of Minnesota, 3-2, in Knoxville, Tenn. Senior libero Amy Morris broke the school record for digs in a season as her match total of 15 moved her season sum to 455, breaking the former record of 445 held by Stephanie Ehlers (1988). She tied the mark with a dig in the second game which resulted immediately in a kill from junior outside hitter Kelsey Fautschs from freshman setter Chelsea Noble. The record breaker came in the 36th rally of that game. This is the second-straight season that the Lady Vols advanced to regionals. Both timess the Lady Vols traveled to Big Ten cities. Last season, Tennessee travled to Minneapolis to face Ohio State in the regional semifinals. The Lady Vols fell to the Buckeyes in five games.
Penn State last hosted an NCAA Women?™ss Regional in 1999, the same year the squad captured the NCAA National Title with a three-game defeat of Stanford. The Penn State women?™s volleyball team is very familiar with the NCAA Tournament, as the Nittany Lions are one of only four teams to participate in all 24 events since its inception in 1981, joining Pacific, Stanford and UC Santa Barbara. The Nittany Lions hold a 43-23 all-time NCAA Tournament record.The Nittany Lions have hosted at least one round of the NCAA Tournament in 18 of the possible 24 years, including the last 15 consecutive seasons. The Nittany Lions have played 31 NCAA Tournament matches at Rec Hall since 1981, boasting a 29-2 record in those contests.
COMMON OPPONENTS ?“s sThe Rainbow Wahin share two common opponents with Missouri. Both teams come from the Tigers?™s Big 12 Conference. Hawai'i defeated Texas in the second round. The Tigers were 1-1 against the Longhorns. Missouri was 0-2 against Nebraska, while Hawai'i was 0-1.sHawai'i shares three opponents with Penn State having both played at the AVCA/NACWAA Showcase and the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic. The Nittany Lions defeated the Rainbow Wahine in both tournaments. Both teams defeated USC, 3-0. Both teams also defeated Western Michigan and were swept by Nebraska.
sThe Rainbow Wahine and the Lady Vols have shared no common opponents this season.
UTAH STATE AND NEVADA FALL IN FIRST ROUND OF NCAA TOURNAMENT ?“s Nevada will have to wait another season to capture its first NCAA Tournament win. Nevada was knocked off by the defending champion and fifth-ranked Stanford in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Palo Alto, Calif. The Wolf Pack lost by scores of 30-25, 30-20, and 30-21 to end their season at 18-13.ssPlaying in her final match at Nevada senior Salaia Salave`a led the Pack with 12 kills, and hit .391. Setter Tristin Johnson dished out 26 assists, and libero Christine Harms posted a match high nine digs.sErin Graybill led Utah State with 12 kills and hit .269, but it wasn?™t enough as the Aggies lost to sixth-ranked Arizona in the first round of the 2005 NCAA Volleyball Tournament in three games (26-30, 27-30, 20-30). Hodge finished with nine kills for Utah State, while Carolyn Forbush and Ingrid Roth each had six. Kristina Baum led Arizona with 13 kills, while Jennifer Abernathy added 11 kills and 10 digs. Utah State hit .130.ssWith the loss, Utah State ends its season with a 21-13 record, while Arizona improves to 23-5 with the win and advances to the second round.
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 58-20 (.744) in the NCAA Tournament all-time. They are 18-2 (.900) all-time in first round matches (UH had a bye in the first round four times), but are just 6-2 in first round matches away from home. UH is 12-0 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 22 NCAA Regionals, including the last eight.
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 4,838 assists, placing her seventh all-time in the WAC. She is only 1,038s behind Analisa Saylor of Colorado State (5,873s from 1994-97) for the WAC record and trails the NCAA mark by 1,812 (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 TOURNAMENT ?“ 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 Hawai'i won its 10th-straight regular season title. The Rainbow Wahine (16-0) had their seventh-straight perfect WAC season.
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.
sHarms, 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.
sKamana`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).
CHOI NAMED ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICAN ?“ New Mexico State junior setter Jackie Choi has been named to the 2005 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Volleyball Team as announced by CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America).
Choi (Corpus Christi, Texas), who was named to the seven-member first team, has a perfect GPA of 4.00 in her dual major of accounting and economics. In her three-year career, Jackie has now earned academic honors in three different conferences as she played for TCU her freshman year before joining the Aggies in her sophomore year as a member of the Sun Belt Conference. In 2004, Jackie was named the Sun Belt Conference Newcomer of the Year and a first team All-Sun Belt selection finishing third in the conference in total assists and assists per game. She was also named a third team CoSida Academic All-American and named to the Sun Belt Conference Commissioner?™s List. As a freshman at TCU, Jackie earned the Conference USA Commissioner?™s Academic Medal and named to the Conference USA Commissioner?™s Honor Roll.
sThis season, Jackie was named an Academic all-District selection while also being named to the Preseason All-WAC Team. At the WAC Tournament last week, Choi was named a First Team all-Conference pick as well as being named to the all-Tournament Team. Also this season, Choi moved from ninth place to fifth place in all-time assists at NMSU as she now has 2,478 in her career passing Jill Hendry by 143. Choi now needs 553 more assists to take the number four spot on the list. She finished the season with 1,173 assists, good enough for the ninth spot in NMSU single season records, while also tallying 121 kills, 29 service aces, 191 digs and 59 total blocks.
RAINBOW WAHINE TOP 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 (27-6, 16-0 WAC)
Hawai'i advanced to its eighth-straight NCAA ... the Rainbow Wahine defeated both Texas and Texas State in Austin ... 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.
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 (18-13, 10-6 WAC)
The Wolf Pack fell to No. 5 Stanford in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Palo Alto, Calif. ... 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 (20-13, 11-5 WAC)
The Aggies fell to No. 4 Arizona in three games in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Salt Lake CIty, Utah ... Utah State had a very successful first season in the WAC advancing to the finals of the WAC Tournament and making the NCAA Tournament ... Utah State has recorded 2,113 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 1,942 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.
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