Photo Gallery: Sports Extra: UH vs. USC

Southern California All-American Alex Jupiter was too much for 10th-seeded Hawaii and some 9,600 of its closest, loudest volleyball friends Friday.

Jupiter’s 33 kills lifted the seventh-seeded Trojans to a 19-25, 29-27, 19-25, 25-23, 15-12 win in a semifinal of the NCAA Women’s Championship Honolulu Regional.

The tournament’s most compelling third-round match was played before 9,692 at a sold-out Stan Sheriff Center (10,300 capacity). It was Hawaii’s first volleyball sellout in eight years.

That’s not nearly as long as it’s been since a Rainbow Wahine home match was NOT televised. Before ESPN3’s "streaming video" effort Friday, it had been more than 25 years since Hawaii fans were not able to watch a home match on a linear TV channel.

Those who couldn’t see it missed out, big time.

The Wahine, coming in with a 26-match winning streak, appeared totally unintimidating and unintimidated by the much taller Trojans.

UH frustrated Jupiter early, let her get away at the end of the second and fourth sets and paid for it in the fifth. She had more than half the Trojans’ points in the final set with eight kills.

"By that time it was pretty clear nobody was going to give up," Jupiter said. "By that time we knew it would be a battle, who wanted it most, would hustle most. You had to be ready for everything and still stay calm and in control.

"It was a very good experience. As a senior, I’m glad I got to play that game. I’ll remember it the rest of my life."

Hawaii will remember her. The Wahine had more balance, used four more players and got contributions from every one. But Jupiter’s career highs in kills and digs (26), and her passing, which UH could never break down, were the difference.

"She is a heck of a player," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "We did a really nice job on her for a long time, but you’re not keeping a player like that down for an entire match. We knew it was a matter of time before she’d straighten it out and she did; 33 kills is amazing.

"She’s a tough kid and a good player and they kept going to her, which I knew they would, and she worked herself out of a little funk and at the end was just unstoppable."

Through all that, the Wahine just kept coming. They got 21 kills from All-American Kanani Danielson and 25 more from freshman Jane Croson. Both had 23 digs. Those two and Jupiter all had double-doubles by the end of the second set.

The Wahine’s season ended 31-2. The Trojans (28-4) and Pepperdine play in tonight’s regional final at 7 p.m. It is scheduled to be shown live on ESPNU.

The 15th-seeded Waves (25-6) swept Kansas State 25-18, 25-12, 25-23 in Friday’s opener to reach the elite eight for the second time in 21 NCAA appearances. The Wildcats (22-11) upset second-seeded Nebraska last week.

The Wahine ended three of the USC’s previous five seasons and had a shot at doing it a fourth time Friday.

Hawaii ripped to an 11-5 advantage in the first set behind Danielson’s hitting and Brittany Hewitt’s blocking, and refused to let the Trojans catch up. USC got as close as one, only to have Croson — UH’s other left side — lift the Wahine to seven of the last eight points.

Danielson and Croson each had six kills in the set, with Croson going error-free and adding six digs. Hewitt dropped in on all four UH stuffs, holding Jupiter to three kills and four errors. Hewitt would finish with 11 of UH’s 15 blocks.

Jupiter, the Pac-12 Player of the Year, fell into a deeper hole in the second set, collecting three more hitting errors early as Hawaii pulled into a 16-13 lead.

Then she found a way through the UH block and a defense that collected 91 digs.

Jupiter crushed three straight kills to tie it. There would be six more ties before USC got a swing for it at 24-23.

It missed that serve and, after Jupiter’s ninth kill of the set, got another serve for it.

That, too, went into the bottom of the net, but Hawaii could not take advantage. Danielson’s 11th kill stopped a third set point and Croson’s 12th negated another.

After that 17th tie of the set, the Trojans blocked Croson, then went to Katie Fuller — their only other hitter with more than seven kills — who found the floor for set point on the fifth try.

Jupiter was error-free on her final 18 swings of the set, putting down seven kills while Fuller had five.

"There were probably 10 or 15 critical plays, but I would probably put the difference on that second game," USC coach Mick Haley said. "If we were down 0-2 we would have had a problem. That grit to win the second set and stay in the match was probably the difference."

And Jupiter was just getting going.

"I was kinda stuck in the state of mind of pounding," she admitted. "Thankfully, my coach snapped it out of me a little bit. I had to go into an uncomfortable place of trying to place the ball more. I usually have more control hitting harder, but obviously that was not working. I had to go with things I’m not used to doing and everything worked out."

For most of the season, Hawaii had been the team to work everything out in the end. This would be different.

"A lot of it was just finishing the games," Danielson said. "We had a lot of nice runs, had some cushion to finish and we just couldn’t find the itty bitty plays. That’s easy to take care of in the WAC. Against a good team like SC you can’t get away with not doing those easy things.

"We need to show good technique at the bitter end. Our passing broke down a little at the end of each game we lost. … It could have gone either way. If we did make those little plays we’d be the winner tonight."

The wild momentum shifts were only beginning.

With Croson and Mita Uiato serving, the Wahine went on two runs to bust out to a 16-9 advantage in the third, forcing USC to burn both timeouts.

In a matter of minutes, and four Jupiter kills, the Trojans caught Hawaii at 17. Only this time UH was ready.

Croson drilled three kills and Hewitt and Chanteal Satele stuffed Jupiter twice to make it 22-17. The teams traded points until Croson’s 17th kill gave her the serve for the set.

She aced it. The roar from the crowd was so loud you could feel it.

It didn’t faze Jupiter. She brought the Trojans back yet again, tying the fourth set at 23 with her 24th kill and adding another to get USC to set point. After a timeout, the Wahine watched the serve land inside the court for an ace.

The Trojans scored five straight points, with Jupiter serving to go ahead 7-3 in the decisive set. The Wahine kept coming, closing their deficit to 13-12.

After a timeout, Jupiter’s final kill gave her the serve and Sara Shaw buried match point to end it after 2 hours, 33 minutes.

"It was a heck of a match between the seventh- and 10th-best teams in the country," Shoji said with a wry grin. "That’s a joke. It’s so disappointing this match had to be played in the third round of the NCAA tournament. These are two great teams, two teams worthy of the final four."

Satele had 12 kills in her final UH match. Emily Hartong had 10 kills and libero Emily Maeda 17 digs, with senior Alex Griffiths getting nine.

Notes

UCLA, coached by former Hawaii assistant Mike Sealy, plays top-seeded Texas in today’s Lexington (Ky.) Regional final, which will be shown live at 11:30 a.m. on ESPNU. The Bruins swept four-time defending national champion Penn State on Thursday.

All four regional finals will be on ESPNU today. The Gainesville (Fla.) final follows, between third-seeded Illinois and Florida. The Gators swept Michigan. The Fighting Illini beat Ohio State in four.

Florida State, seeded 12th, upset fifth-seeded Purdue 3-1 to reach the Minneapolis final. It will play fourth-seeded Iowa State, which rallied to defeat 13th-seeded Minnesota in four.

USC DEF. HAWAII 19-25, 29-27, 19-25, 25-23, 15-12