Wahine tame Lobos

A day after an erratic and exhausting win over Michigan State, fourth-ranked Hawaii made New Mexico look like it belonged in the middle of the WAC pack last night.

The Rainbow Wahine remained unbeaten with a 25-15, 25-14, 25-21 victory over the Lobos at the 23rd annual Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic. It is Hawaii’s first 5-0 start since 2004.

A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,986 (6,332 tickets issued) watched a sweep that was as easy as the scores implied. The Lobos (2-4), who have lost their last four, looked little like the team the Wahine took out in the first round of the NCAA tournament nine months ago.

Instead, the team picked to finish fourth in the Mountain West Conference looked much like all the Western Athletic Conference opponents who have been chasing the Wahine for the past 12 years, but never catching them.

The slide started when UNM lost to third-ranked Stanford last week and picked up speed when the Lobos let a match point get away Thursday in a loss to MSU.

"Then we just went completely south," UNM coach Jeff Nelson said. "What I told the girls at halftime tonight was I didn’t care about the outcome, I cared about them starting to get their game back. Our team is a ‘pesky’ team. We’re the team that can usually keep the ball in play until the other team makes a mistake."

Not against the Rainbow Wahine, who play 10th-ranked Southern California tonight at 5 for the Classic championship. The Trojans swept MSU in last night’s opener. Hawaii has ended three of their last four seasons.

"They," UH coach Dave Shoji said, "have a lot of incentive."

Hawaii’s match with New Mexico was close for 16 points. After UNM stuffed UH freshman Michelle Waber twice in a row, the first set was tied at 8-all and Waber was 0-for-8.

The Rainbows scored the next seven, with Emily Maeda serving and Kanani Danielson dazzling. The Lobos had no answer.

The Wahine began to score at will. They closed out the opening set when freshmen Mita Uiato and Kaela Goodman connected for Hawaii’s 15th kill. UNM had seven.

By the middle of the second set all five UH hitters had at least four kills, Waber had buried five consecutive swings and senior libero Elizabeth Ka’aihue had become the 12th Rainbow Wahine to collect 1,000 kills.

"That," said freshman Emily Hartong, "is something to live up to."

Hartong did her share from the front row last night. She finished with a team-high 12 kills, hitting .474. The Lobos simply couldn’t keep up with her.

"Just working as hard as I can, mostly to open up the other hitters," Hartong explained. "Moving the defense around and if it’s open Dani (Mafua) finds me. Last night there was a lot of pressure on Kanani. Dave talked to the middles about working harder and getting up."

A night after salvaging a UH win with 32 kills, Danielson needed just 10 timely ones this time, to go with three aces, 13 digs, three blocks and almost all the passing with Ka’aihue.

"We needed to not exert Kanani Danielson after all she did last night," Shoji said. "We needed to make sure she didn’t have to work so hard."

His players took that to heart, particularly the freshmen. Waber’s turnaround was dramatic.

"She’s just got to keep working to create kills and she does," Shoji said. "She’s a pretty resilient kid. She doesn’t ever hang her head. She started to hit some shots she knows she needs to hit."

Hawaii scored 10 of the final 13 points in Set 2 and sent Goodman in full-time for Chanteal Satele in Set 3. Satele rested with seven kills and a .357 hitting percentage.

New Mexico, challenged by their coach, made a desperate charge to make it interesting, taking a 19-18 lead in Set 3.

In the next nine serves, Danielson crushed four kills and teamed with Brittany Hewitt for two stuffs to end it.

Taylor Hadfield, one of five upperclassmen UNM starts, led the Lobos with 13 kills.

NO. 10 USC 3, MICHIGAN STATE 0

Alex Jupiter put down 17 kills and Falyn Fonoimoana added 10 as the Women of Troy (5-0) swept the Spartans in 77 minutes. Jupiter and Lauren Williams each were in on six blocks and libero Natalie Hagglund had 11 of the team’s 25 digs.

Becca Zlabis led Michigan State with nine kills. It was the first HAL Classic match that didn’t go five for the Spartans.