Until tonight, Hawaii’s NCAA tournament has been all about playing in front of the Rainbow Wahine’s record-setting and long-suffering volleyball fans, who have only seen their team play at home in the postseason twice since 2003.
Now, it’s all about what those fans can do to help the Wahine extend their season to the mainland.
"This is an incredibly special place to play," said Arizona State coach Jason Watson, whose team plays Brigham Young in the opener tonight at 5.
"Certainly Hawaii is one of the preeminent volleyball programs in the country, but more than that, there’s a fan base here that is passionate about the sport, not just the school.
"I think every college volleyball player at some point and time in their careers should have an opportunity to play at Hawaii because it’s so special. We get the opportunity to play here in the most important tournament of the year and and it’s going to be an environment we’re going to have to overcome.
"There are wonderful crowds in the Pac-12, but nothing like this. I’m excited our team gets to play in front of such fans. They’ll be excited to watch the first match and even more excited to watch the second."
In that second match, Hawaii takes on Big Sky champion Idaho State. Tonight’s winners meet Saturday at 7 p.m. for the right to advance to the Los Angeles regional next week.
This subregional features four of the country’s most dynamic hitters — Hawaii All-American Emily Hartong, Macey Gardner (ASU), Alexa Gray (BYU) and Tressa Lyman (ISU) — and one of the country’s best blocks (BYU).
The Sun Devils suffered seven straight losses and lived to tell about it. The Bengals are making their first NCAA appearance in 23 years and spent their first morning here swimming in the ocean and sending pictures home to Pocatello.
In Los Angeles on Thursday, Big West tri-champion Cal State Northridge upset Colorado State, 25-15, 25-21, 13-25, 18-25, 15-12. The Rams hit .727 in the third to get back into it, but finished their 28-2 season by losing two of the last three. The Matadors won three NCAA Division II national titles before moving up in 1990. This was their fifth Division I NCAA appearance — and first win.
A look at the teams:
NO. 11 SEED HAWAII (24-4, RPI 17)
NCAA Tournament: 75-27
National statistics
Team: Blocks–2.38 (81st), Digs–14.73 (167), Hitting–.279 (14), Kills–14.47 (13), Aces–1.07 (233).
Top 100 individuals: Assists–Mita Uiato 11.15 (28), Hitting–Kalei Adolpho .353 (62), Kills–Emily Hartong 4.64 (8).
Seven seniors have counted their careers down in a blaze of glory, reality and resiliency. The Rainbow Wahine are 7-3 against NCAA tournament opponents this season. Two of the losses came in conference (UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge) and three of the wins came against teams ranked in the Top 25 of this week’s RPI (Texas, Creighton and Arizona).
A lineup "tweak" helped them win their last eight, with huge hitting numbers from All-American Emily Hartong (6-2 Sr. OH) and freshman Nikki Taylor (6-4 OH), who are averaging a combined eight kills and hitting .300-plus in the late surge. Routinely spectacular play from seniors Mita Uiato (5-8 S) — who needs 25 assists to move into fifth on the UH career list — and Ali Longo (5-6 L) has also played a part along with consistent contributions from a lineup that regularly goes 13 deep.
Improved ballhandling has also been crucial in Hawaii’s resurgence, taking pressure off Hartong, who has taken twice as many swings as any Wahine and passed more serves than everyone on the team combined, minus Longo.
"If Emily and Tai (Manu-Olevao) are passing really well it allows us to run multiple things in the offense," said Longo, who passes half the court and still has 141 fewer serve receptions than Hartong. "When we can take that pressure of having out-of-system swings from Emily, it reduces her swings by a lot because it’s not as necessary to go to her.
"No matter what, Emily will be our best hitter and needs to take more swings when we need it. She’s willing to do that, but I think it’s just us controlling the ball that’s allowed Mita to free up the whole offense."
IDAHO STATE (23-11, RPI 102)
NCAA tournament: 0-2
National statistics
Team: Blocks–2.23 (116), Digs–13.99 (235), Hitting–.237 (68), Kills–13.80 (46), Aces–1.45 (48).
Top 100 individuals: Assists–Lori Mendenhall-Lee 10.98 (37), Blocks–Makenzie Filer 1.19 (80), Hitting–Makenzie Filer .369 (44), Kills–Tressa Lyman 3.56 (96).
The Bengals opened the season 6-6, lost six Big Sky matches then went into the zone in last week’s conference tournament to reach their first postseason since 1990. In wins over Northern Colorado, North Dakota and Portland State, they dropped just one set behind Brighton High School (Salt Lake City) graduates Makenzie Filer (6-4 Fr. MB) and Lori Mendenhall-Lee (5-8 S), the lone senior.
"We just came together as a team at the right time," Mendenhall-Lee said. "We played better and better as the season went on and it’s all about when you peak. We peaked at the right time."
Chad Teichert, Big Sky Coach of the Year the past two seasons, now hopes a team that opened the season in front of a "crowd" of 62 doesn’t disappear in front of Hawaii’s devoted droves tonight. He is looking for the same "focus, intensity and purpose" he saw last week.
Mendenhall-Lee was 2012 Big Sky Player of the year and needs 13 assists to reach third on the career list. This season she and Tressa Lyman (6-1 So. OH) were all-Big Sky. Filer was tournament MVP and her .369 percentage is second-best in program history. Kylee Sessions (5-9 Jr. L) ranks third in career digs.
BRIGHAM YOUNG (22-6, RPI 29)
NCAA tournament: 34-24
National statistics
Team: Blocks–2.98 (6), Digs–15.28 (118), Hitting–.263 (25), Kills–13.39 (8), Aces–1.12 (210).
Top 100 individuals: Assists–Camry Godfrey 10.81 (49), Blocks–Whitney Young 1.54 (6) and Kathryn LeCheminant 1.29 (47), Kills–Alexa Gray 3.83 (57).
The Cougars lost 6-foot-7 All-American Jennifer Hamson to basketball before the season, then swept San Diego less than a month after the Toreros beat Hawaii. Hiccups at Saint Mary’s and Santa Clara and a five-set loss at USD two weeks ago cost them the WCC championship, but apparently provided plenty of inspiration.
"They best thing we have going for us is our refusal to give up," said Kathryn LeCheminant (6-2 Sr. MB). "We had some pretty good dogfights in the past and we will continue to dogfight to get what we want and what we’ve worked so hard for."
She and WCC Freshman of the Year Whitney Young (6-0 MB) anchor the country’s sixth-best blocking team. BYU is also among the nation’s Top 25 in hitting behind Young (.407), LeCheminant (.303) and Alexa Gray (6-2 So. OH), who averages nearly four kills and is hitting .311. She and LeCheminant were all-WCC selections. Tambre Haddock (6-0 Jr. OH), averaging 31/2 kills, is honorable mention.
The Cougars won a home subregional last year, then lost to Oregon at regionals.
ARIZONA STATE (19-13, RPI 49)
NCAA tournament: 8-16
National statistics
Team: Blocks–2.30 (102), Digs–16.62 (37), Hitting–.218 (120), Kills–13.48 (78), Aces–1.01 (266).
Top 100 individuals: Assists–Bianca Arellano 10.77 (54), Digs–Stephanie Preach 4.69 (72), Kills–Macey Gardner 4.52 (13).
The Sun Devils swept their first seven matches, then swept Texas only a few hours after falling in five to 14th-ranked Illinois — joining UH as the only teams to beat the defending NCAA champions this season. They rose as high as 15th in the poll, something they hadn’t accomplished in nearly 20 years. A roller-coaster conference season followed that included seven straight losses, but ASU got the call late Sunday as a record ninth Pac-12 selection. It is their first back-to-back NCAA appearance since 1999-2000.
"One of the things I really admire about this group is its ability to be mindfully engaged," said coach Jason Watson, who guided BYU to three NCAA tournaments before going to ASU. "That’s a shift that occurred since early November that we are starting to get a return on. I like the way they compete, like the way they prepare and I thought we got better at that as the season went on. Now, in the month of December I feel really good about our process … we’ve greatly matured. It hasn’t been easy, of course. We were probably the last team invited to the tournament, but nobody cares now because we’re in."
Arizona State got here thanks to 4.5 kills a set from all-Pac-12 selection Macey Gardner (6-0 So. OH) and 41/2 digs from Stephanie Preach (5-8 Sr. L), who needs 15 more to reach 2000 in her three-year career. BreElle Bailey (6-4 OH) is on the conference All-Freshman team and Nora Tuioti-Mariner (6-1 Jr. OH) lit up Cal for 16 kills on .640 hitting. Punahou graduate Shannon McCready (5-7 Jr.) is a backup setter.
