Wahine clinch

Ninth-ranked Hawaii is still trying to create a lineup, but it clinched a conference volleyball championship and a place in the NCAA postseason Saturday.

The Rainbow Wahine, who won 13 Western Athletic Conference titles before returning to the Big West this year, swept Cal Poly 25-19, 25-17, 25-19.

They claimed their sixth Big West title — but first since 1995 — before 5,652 at the Stan Sheriff Center. That included a few hundred rowdy OIA middle-schoolers, who played in the arena hours earlier.

Hawaii got 14 kills from national player of the week Emily Hartong, who hit a scorching and season-high .619. She and Jane Croson (13 kills) were joined by four new starters in the final set and the Wahine finally found some semblance of a block — for the first 12 points.

They will need that block in a month, when the NCAA tournament starts. Cal Poly was hitting 100 points over its average the first two sets and often the Wahine were not even touching the ball.

"Our technique needs to get better," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "Our hand positioning is not good. It’s been a struggle all year with our block. There’s a lot of room for improvement and we intend to improve that skill."

UH (21-2, 14-0) still has four BWC matches remaining, an NCAA-best 69-match regular-season conference winning streak to protect and the feeling that it has to win out to have a shot at hosting a subregional. That includes a nonconference meeting with Brigham Young-Hawaii on Thursday.

The Mustangs (3-21) dropped to 2-10 in a conference full of teams constantly beating each other up. None has found a way to finish off the Wahine.

"It’s an honor to win it," said Hartong, who was 3 when UH last won the BWC. "It was cool coming back into the conference knowing we could play a huge role in it. It’s a lot more competitive than the WAC, so it was nice taking care of business."

Shoji was surprised to clinch so soon.

"It says a couple things," he added. "One is the league is pretty balanced in the middle. But there’s no real strong team in there. We’re a one-bid NCAA league and it’s got to get better. We want our conference to get stronger, get two, three, four teams in the NCAA."

Cal Poly has not been to the NCAA tournament since 2008. Its only wins this season came in five sets. First-year coach Sam Crosson will stress discipline in the spring to try to build consistency and skills, and get the Mustangs’ mojo back.

Consistency is also elusive for the new Big West champs.

"There’s times when they look pretty good and execute at a high level for long periods of time," said Crosson, who got six kills from ‘Iolani grad Chelsea Hardin. "Then there’s times like tonight. Not that I think we’re going to challenge them emotionally as much as a Pac-12 team in the postseason."

The Wahine slowly built separation in the opening set, but the only real difference were Hartong’s two blocks in the final moments, four Mustangs ballhandling errors and UH libero Ali Longo’s soft overhand kill from one antenna across the net to the other.

Cal Poly hit .286 in that set — twice its average — and clawed into a 16-all tie in the second. Emily Maeda and Croson served it out, with Croson and Jade Vorster accounting for the final three kills and only two blocks of the set.

The reserves — UH played 17 people — broke ahead 19-8 in the final set before it got sloppy enough that Shoji had to call a timeout. He was one point away from putting Hartong and Croson back in.

The reserves’ early success only underscored Hawaii’s November dilemma.

"There’s a certain point where we probably need to get a set lineup," said Hartong, who has flip-flopped between left and right this season after playing middle her first two. "We can’t be doing this so close to the tournament."

Her coach agrees.

"We’ve got depth, so if someone is not playing well we’re going to try to get someone in there," he says. "But we’ve got to decide here probably in the next two weeks what kind of lineup we’ll be in for the playoffs."

Notes

Fourth-ranked Nebraska lost at unranked Michigan on Friday and unranked Michigan State Saturday. It was the first time since 2009 that the ‘Huskers lost consecutive conference matches.

The Pac-12 also had its share of surprises over the weekend. Unranked California, which gave UH one of its two losses, upset second-ranked Oregon. Fifth-ranked UCLA, which gave UH its other loss, was swept by unranked Arizona on Friday. The same night, unranked Arizona State swept sixth-ranked USC.