Wahine mop up Aggies
BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
UH’s McKenna Granato went for the kill against UC Davis’ Anna Donald on Sunday.
BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hawaii players celebrated after a long rally in the first set against UC Davis.
Homecoming weekend was capped by a team block party inside the Stan Sheriff Center Sunday evening.
No. 17 Hawaii stuffed any chance of a UC Davis upset with 12 blocks in the 25-16, 25-11, 25-15 Big West volleyball sweep. Senior opposite Nikki Taylor tied her career high with eight block assists to go along with nine kills, and freshman middle Natasha Burns had a career-high six block assists in the 89-minute sweep.
HAWAII
0
UC DAVIS
KEY: Nikki Taylor and McKenna Granato lead the Wahine with nine kills in Hawaii’s sweep of UC Davis.
NEXT: Hawaii at UC Riverside, Oct. 28, 5 p.m.
Sophomore hitter McKenna Granato also had nine kills for the Rainbow Wahine (14-5, 7-1), winning their 15th consecutive home conference match dating back to 2014. Senior Annie Mitchem, moving back to left-side hitter from middle, had eight kills, and junior middle Emily Maglio was in on six blocks as Hawaii held an opponent to negative hitting for the fourth time this season (UCD hit -.040).
“Natasha played great tonight,” Taylor said. “When we put Annie on the outside, we trust that she can produce for us, come in and be a strong force.
“Knowing that is a huge advantage.”
It’s as huge as the front line that Hawaii can put up in some rotations with the 6-foot-3 Mitchem, 6-4 Taylor and 6-5 Burns.
“I see it every day in practice,” said Burns, who added five kills when making her fourth start and first since Sept. 8 against Utah Valley. “Tonight was all about controlling my nerves. Everyone was in high spirits.”
So was the crowd of 4,834 who watched Hawaii play one of its more efficient and balanced matches of the season. The Wahine hit .325 when keeping the Aggies (9-10, 2-4) off-balanced most of the night.
Freshman setter Norene Iosia had 26 assists and a match-high 13 digs for her ninth double-double.
Hawaii’s only concern was Taylor, who left the match with the Wahine leading 8-3 in Set 2 after tweaking her injured left elbow on a block. She was evaluated by the team doctor and trainer, had her elbow retaped and returned three rotations later with the Wahine up 15-7.
The issue is something that Taylor said she’ll just live with the rest of the season. She hyperextended the elbow during the team’s scrimmage on Aug. 20 and missed the first three matches of the season.
“It takes the fun out of volleyball but this is kind of my job,” the All-American said.
“I leave it up to the medical staff and her,” Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. “We took her out and I asked her three times if she wanted to stay out. She said no.
“No one likes to see her in pain and if she said ‘no’ to going back in, I’m good with that.”
Had Taylor stayed out, the option would have been either freshman McKenna Ross or junior reserve setter Kendra Koelsch. Ross got in briefly in Set 2 and Koelsch for the last two plays of Set 3, ending the match with a lineshot from the right.
The Aggies got eight kills from freshman hitter Lauren Matias, the reigning Big West freshman of the week. UC Davis had the top two players in the conference in hitting percentage in junior middle Aima Eichie (.460) and sophomore middle Kelechi Ohiri (.408); they were held to .125 and .111, respectively.
The Aggies had taken just one set off the Wahine in four previous trips to Honolulu. They came closest to a second when pulling to 14-13 in Set 3.
Burns had a kill and teamed with Taylor for two blocks during a deciding 4-0 run. Granato’s final kill sent her to the service line where she camped out until Hawaii reached match point at 24-14. UC Davis prolonged it by one play with a kill by Ohiri but not a second as Koelsch’s shot punctuated the Wahine’s 10th sweep of the season.
Hawaii has a bye week and doesn’t play again until road matches at UC Riverside Oct. 28 and Cal State Fullerton Oct. 29. It comes at a good time, Shoji said.
“We’re banged up right now but this is the time of the season where everyone is,” he said. “We’ll take a few days off, go fairly light in practice starting Wednesday.”
Asked about how the two conference victories will affect today’s new Ratings Percentage Index, “Every win counts,” he said. “We just hope the other teams we played keep winning.”
Shoji said he’ll continue to evaluate the lineup with Mitchem taking reps at both middle and outside. The X factor, he said, was junior hitter Kalei Greeley, a starter on the left side for most of her career who is still rehabbing from offseason shoulder surgery that has relegated her to mostly back-row passing duties.
Also on the mend is sophomore Casey Castillo (leg) who has played both in the middle and left-side hitter.
BIG WEST VOLLEYBALL
| Conference | Overall | |||||
| W | L | Pct. | GB | W | L | |
| Long Beach State | 7 | 0 | 1.000 | — | 13 | 7 |
| Hawaii | 7 | 1 | .875 | 1/2 | 14 | 5 |
| Cal Poly | 5 | 2 | .714 | 2 | 12 | 6 |
| UCSB | 3 | 4 | .429 | 4 | 12 | 8 |
| UC Davis | 2 | 4 | .333 | 4 1/2 | 9 | 10 |
| CSUN | 2 | 4 | .333 | 4 1/2 | 6 | 12 |
| UC Irvine | 2 | 5 | .286 | 5 | 7 | 14 |
| UC Riverside | 1 | 5 | .167 | 5 1/2 | 6 | 12 |
| CSU Fullerton | 1 | 5 | .167 | 5 1/2 | 6 | 14 |
Sunday
Hawaii def. UC Davis 25-16, 25-11, 25-15
Thursday
Cal State Fullerton at UC Irvine
UC Riverside at UC Davis
Friday
CSUN at Cal Poly
Long Beach State at UC Santa Barbara
Saturday
Cal State Fullerton at UC Davis
Long Beach State at Cal Poly
CSUN at UC Santa Barbara
UC Riverside at UC Irvine
Friday, Oct. 28
Hawaii at UC Riverside, 5 p.m., HST
UC Santa Barbara at Cal Poly
UC Irvine at Long Beach State
UC Davis at CSUN
NO. 17 HAWAII DEF. UC DAVIS 25-16, 25-11, 25-15
AGGIES (9-10, 2-4 BWC)
| S | K | E | ATT | PCT | D | BS | BA | |
| Matias | 3 | 8 | 7 | 29 | .034 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| Walbrecht | 3 | 5 | 4 | 25 | .040 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Eichie | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 | .125 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ohiri | 3 | 3 | 2 | 9 | .111 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Karsseboom | 3 | 2 | 3 | 6 | -.167 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1.000 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Allen | 3 | 1 | 9 | 19 | -.421 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| Donald | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Campbell | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlino | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Graves | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bolko | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTALS | 3 | 24 | 28 | 99 | -.040 | 25 | 0 | 4 |
RAINBOW WAHINE (14-5, 7-1 BWC)
| S | K | E | ATT | PCT | D | BS | BA | ||
| Granato | 3 | 9 | 3 | 20 | .300 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Taylor | 3 | 9 | 5 | 24 | .167 | 3 | 0 | 8 | |
| Mitchem | 3 | 8 | 1 | 17 | .412 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Burns | 3 | 5 | 1 | 7 | .571 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
| Maglio | 3 | 5 | 0 | 7 | .714 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
| Koelsch | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Ponce | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Anderson | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Smith | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Higgins | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Sibley | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Iosia | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 13 | 0 | 4 | |
| Greeley | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Guinasso | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1.000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Kahakai | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 9 | 0 | 0 | |
| Ross | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| TOTALS | 3 | 37 | 11 | 80 | .325 | 38 | 0 | 24 |
Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces).
Service aces — UC Davis 1 (Eichie). Hawaii 3 (Iosia 2, Mitchem). Service errors — UC Davis 7 (Allen 2, Eichie 2, Matias, Merlino, Walbrecht). Hawaii 5 (Granato, Iosia, Kahakai, Mitchem, Taylor). Assists — UC Davis 22 (Mar 13, Merlino 7, Bolko 2). Hawaii 35 (Iosia 26, Kahakai 4, Higgins 2, Greeley, Smith, Taylor). T — 1:29.
Officials — Margie Ray, Ryan Sakagawa. A — 4,834.
29 responses to “Wahine mop up Aggies”
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Keep Annie at OH; Burns at MB.
Agree. Both have room for improvement but that will come with more practice. To bad this is Annie’s last year but we will have Burns for cpl more years unless for some reason she leaves.
To bad about Taylor. There were times when she was talking to Burns on the floor, maybe giving her some advise and possible building her confidence.Sign of a true leader.
Cindy, you got something going with the cow chewing gum player? You have her photo like she was the star. Give it a rest. It is getting obvious she can do no wrong!
Kiragirl did Granato steal your boyfriend or give you a six pack? You rip on her daily. Even when she does good. You sound like a wounded female dog.
Check the other players’ kill percentage. .300 against a weak team is peanuts. Taylor was injured last night. Her gum chewing too makes me nauseated. We shall see eventually if she is a contributor or a detriment to the team.
Lol. Nice contribution from “no where near ready for prime time” Burns. Ruminates gotta boo. Of course, the ruminate will moo, “It’s only Davis.” Yup. Ruminates gotta moo.
n.b. Comment not related to ↑ previous comment about gum or chewing. Was only thinking of 4-footed cockroach with hooves who obsessively scratches hupo nui abt program, coaches & players.
Wow, you actually believe last night was “prime time”?
LOL, your “prime time” performances caused UH to drop in standing with powerful opponents ranked in the 140s. Please, could you learn the game first so that you don’t come across so not-so-smart?
Forget about the scores, forget about any player except Taylor. The REAL story is the Master’s abuse of the superstar and putting all the pressure on her to keep on playing. She’s now admitted that playing is no fun and only why she’s doing it is she’s obligated to do so. The Master said he asked her 3 times if she wanted to come out and leaves the decision to her and the doctors. NO, NO, NO – it’s your decision to do what’s right. Of course a hurt player is going to say they can continue, it happens in ALL sports, the exceptional players feel obligated to perform and don’t want to come out, that’s the nature of the beast. It’s like in the old days of football when a coach asked the groggy player “you good? how many fingers” and the player responds “l’m good coach, I got ten fingers”. Taylor is in pain ALL the time, it’s not going to get better, only worse. Go see that old movie “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They” then tell me this is right. For all you koolaid drinkers who’s gonna get back at me with “You ‘ain’t the doctor carp”, I hope you all go through the constant searing pains in your favorite pastime.
I concur with all your comments about the Master and his cohorts overworking Taylor. It started during preseason when they had their first scrimmage and Jeff Hall, stood there like a dummy, watching Higgins set Taylor over 58 times…..why the heck do you need to set her that much in a scrimmage….geezus, then in game time, every year, its the same old story, they set Taylor so many times that I’m surprised her arm hasn’t fallen off and THERE WAS NO REASON TO INSERT TAYLOR BACK IN THE LINEUP LAST NITE WHEN HE COULD HAVE RESTED HER…..Geeus, of course, Taylor is going to say she wants to return but there comes a time she needs to be more discipline and sit down and rest…..I know Shoji is trying to pump up Taylor’s stats so she makes all BW & All-American but he is doing it at the expense of her health…I just wish that this team can get its act together…or should I say the coaches can get their act together in preparation for a return match with Long Beach because right now, I still don’t believe UH can beat Long Beach although with Annie playing outside, that just might make a difference………..GO WAHINES!!!
It’s sickening, isn’t it? Is this what “big time” athletics is all about? Is this what “big time” coaching is all about? Give me a “small time” coach who truly cares about the student-athletes anytime if this is the case.
Jeff Hall IS a KA dummy.
When did she say that playing is no fun?
You probably meant that it’s you personally that’s it no fun to watch the Wahine play when they’re not perfeckt.
My opinion is that from day one of her injury, there has been a massive cover up to minimize the extent of her injury from the public. The master pom pom girl Cindy has done NOTHING to dig into the detail and, in fact, has been used as a front to deny the public from knowing the true extent of Taylor’s injury. Cindy, do your job, give the public the true story on how much therapy Taylor goes thru, medications, shot, and other treatments she’s given, and what the medical diagnosis is.
Cindy, nothing you ever wrote or will ever write matters unless you find the intestinal fortitude to get to the bottom of Taylor’s injury. It’s not about the game of volleyball anymore, it’s about the Master’s legacy, fair treatment of student-athletes, cover ups and denials, and the sickening attitudes of win at all cost.
Dr. Oxtail, you don’t know jack. What is your medical credential? 35 years of marriage. I really feel for your wife.
I know you’re one very unhappy sect member whose defense of fellow members have blown up in your face. That’s my creds – want to deny it?
Oxass, there you go spouting your “I know it all crap! If you don’t like Cindy’s article don’t read or write your own blog. There are some points I would agree with you on but you come off as a conceited fool it makes me want puke. Is this how you behave in public? You must be involved in a lot of scraps because if you’re doing this face to face someone going to rearrange your attitude and face. Its’ okay to disagree but keep it civil. Goodness, grow up!
Well, I do know a lot but I don’t know the extent and severity of Taylor’s injury and no one’s telling, are they? Therefore, don’t you think Cindy the pompom girl should put down those things and do some REAL reporting?
Oxtail01 and Hossana raise a legitimate question about Taylor’s welfare and Coach Shoji’s assessment of her left elbow injury. Still, I believe there are legal limits to what the coaches can divulge to the media re Taylor’s physical condition. I also believe that the coaches are correct in relying on the trainers and the players themselves to determine their fitness to play. As a coach, if your trainer tells you that a player is fit to play, then the next test is the player herself. If she says she’s fit to play, then you, as the coach, have no reason to keep her off the court — especially if she can contribute. The coach is not a medical professional, and the coach cannot read the minds and hearts of his players. He has to rely on what his trainers and players say. As a fan, I trust that Coach Shoji will do his best for his players first and foremost. I’ve been following the ‘Bows from the very beginning, and in all those years I haven’t seen him do anything to diminish that trust. In fact, it’s the other way around. He treats his players like family. Mahalo to Oxtail01 and Hossana for their concern for Taylor. We’ve all watched this keiki o ka aina grow up and blossom into a world-class player before our eyes, and we can’t ever forget that she chose to stay home and play for us. We’re all concerned for her. But we also need to trust the trainers, Taylor herself, and Coach Shoji to make the decision that’s best for Taylor and the team.
I agree! Fans voicing their concern for player’s welfare is great. With medical confidentiality laws in place everyone needs to be mindful of protecting the medical status of players.
In the Master we trust. Is that why so many are questioning his personnel moves, probably including you?
Well, somebody is saying “nobody wants to see her in pain” but that person actually loves seeing Taylor in pain because he subjects her to it almost every day. So what he essentially is saying is, “don’t be a sissy, just suck it up and take one (or many) for the team (me)”.
Oxtail01, I think it’s obvious to most of us that you’re trolling for a reaction from Coach Shoji. Sorry, but it’s never going to happen. You should know by now that he’s not easily provoked. In fact, I can’t recall a single instance in which he’s lost it. You bring a lot of energy to these discussions. Without your posts, I think our discussions would be a lot less fun. You’re insightful and always seem to find the pukas in stories and arguments. We might hate you at times, but we look forward to reading your rants, which are often works of art. Keep ’em coming, and, if you must, continue to bait Coach Shoji, but I think you’re wasting your time. You might want to search for another fishing hole.
Would you know if other top twenty teams have their players play at not 100%?
Sorry, but college are the glory years for volleyball players. You don’t know about them after college unless they play for the U.S.A every four years for two weeks.
Hey, today is Tuesday and the Dodgers just won another shutout gm. over the Cubs and are now 2-1 in the NLDS…..Shoji must REALLY be a happy camper……hey, SO AM I……ha..ha..ha……GO DODGERS!! GO WAHINES!!!