UCLA takes tourney title

Hawaii drew its largest volleyball crowd in five years Sunday. That only meant more fans were disappointed when 12th-ranked UCLA upset the 10th-ranked Rainbow Wahine 25-20, 28-26, 20-25, 25-17 to win the 24th annual Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic.

The Bruins have won nine Classic titles — as many as Hawaii, which now leads one of the sport’s best rivalries, 36-33. The Wahine have not won their most prominent tournament since 2004.

A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 7,339 showed up to see if they could do it, with the 8,525 tickets sold the most since 8,611 paid to watch senior night against New Mexico State in 2006.

Hawaii (5-1) could not. UCLA (6-0) was too tall and far too composed to let the Wahine back in the 2-hour, 14-minute match. It won a riveting second set by denying UH set point three times, then came back strong after dropping the third.

Most striking was the fact that the bigger Bruins’ ballhandling was what beat Hawaii. Their serving and passing were dramatically better than UH’s, and though the dig totals were all but even, UCLA frustrated the Wahine at crucial moments with its block and defense.

Bruins head coach Mike Sealy, starting just his second season in Westwood after four years as Dave Shoji’s associate coach here, still has no idea how good his team can be.

"I don’t even know who or what we are yet. I have no idea" said Sealy, who lost just one starter from last season but has both middles coming back from offseason surgery, nine underclassmen and 6-foot-5 Minnesota transfer Tabi Love. "My philosophy is ‘We are what we are.’

"It is what it is. You’ve just got a lot of extra bodies to throw in there, and duct tape and smoke and mirrors every now and then."

What he did say about his team, which played breathtakingly well for extended periods, is that it will improve "exponentially."

That is now the challenge for Hawaii, which threw a dozen players at UCLA but could never find the consistency to beat what could be the last ranked opponent it faces until the postseason.

Middles Brittany Hewitt and Emily Hartong gave the Wahine their only "moral victory" by combining for 26 kills and .404 hitting.

The outside was not as successful. All-American Kanani Danielson had a double-double before the end of the second set and finished with a match-high 17 kills and 19 digs, but Chanteal Satele and Jane Croson struggled.

Not coincidentally, so did the Hawaii passing. Even more alarming was the silence that surrounded a team coming off a gutsy five-set win over Long Beach State.

"Even in the first game … it was flat from the beginning," Hewitt said. "Something wasn’t clicking between us. We woke up for just points in the match."

Hawaii was also the first to admit that UCLA was awfully good from the opening serve.

"They played an amazing match. They were digging things I didn’t know it was possible to dig," Hewitt said. "And two of those girls were just pounding the ball. They played great."

Those two were Rachael Kidder, the Classic’s most outstanding player thanks to her hitting, passing and defense, and Love, who could hardly breathe at the end of the second set Sunday, but caught a second wind.

"We just didn’t match up," said Shoji, whose starting hitters are all sub-6-footers. "They pretty much controlled the match."

Kidder is one of a trio of 6-3 attackers Sealy started, to go with the 6-5 Love. He brought in two more 6-3 attackers when UH rallied.

A 5-0 surge fueled by Kidder put the Bruins in control of the opening set, at 18-12. The Wahine never cut their deficit below three with eight hitting errors — all from the outside — killing all momentum.

The Bruins snuffed three set points in the second, then got a kill from Sara Sage and two from Love to steal it away. There were 13 ties and three five-point runs, two by the Wahine.

The first came early while the Bruins, who had just two hitting errors in the opening set, committed three to fall into a 6-2 hole. The last one tied it at 20 and led to the late shootout.

Hawaii threw everything at the Bruins, including freshman subs Monica Stauber and Kalei Adolpho. It wasn’t enough, with two late net violations by UH negating two late UCLA service errors.

The Wahine didn’t let the third set get away. They broke from a 15-all tie with reserve Alex Griffiths serving and coming up with two spectacular digs. The Bruins couldn’t catch them, with Hewitt and Danielson scoring six of the final seven points.

UCLA torched the comeback by running away early in the fourth on a 7-0 surge.

Long Beach State captured third place with a 25-21, 23-25, 25-16, 25-21 win over Ohio State.

NO. 12 UCLA DEF. NO. 10 HAWAII 25-20, 28-26, 20-25, 25-17