Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
* Hawaii
Volleyball Wraps Up Regular-Season In Exciting Fashion
11/16/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 15, 2002
FRESNO, Calif. - In what might have served as a peek into the future of the weeks to come, the Fresno State volleyball team played through the mystique of Hawai'i volleyball and responded with a five-game thriller that saw the third-ranked Rainbow Wahine work diligently for a Western Athletic Conference win tonight in the North Gym.
Fresno State, which had its six-match WAC win streak stopped, and Hawai'i, which wrapped up the regular-season title this evening, battled it out but UH came out on top with a 30-19, 30-24, 25-30, 22-30 and 15-10 victory.
It took 21 matches and 65 games until Fresno State became the first WAC opponent to take a game off Hawai'i. The last time a team took a single-game from the Rainbow Wahine was Nevada on Oct. 27, 2001 in Honolulu.
The last time the Rainbow Wahine lost two games in a match was against San Jose State on Oct. 18, 2001 in San Jose, Calif.
To Fresno State's credit, the Bulldogs pushed UH to five games in regular-season WAC play for just the fifth time in Rainbow Wahine history.
In addition, Fresno State also took back-to-back games in regular-season action from Hawai'i this evening. The last time a WAC opponent took back-to-back games was 1998 when BYU captured the first two games from UH in Honolulu.
Hawai'i (24-1, 12-0 WAC), which lost just a total of five games in WAC play last season, has only played five extra-game contests since joining the conference in 1996. Tonight, the Bulldogs ended the Rainbow Wahine's streak of 16 consecutive WAC three-game sweeps since Oct. 28, 2001.
Fresno State had four players in double-figure kills and double-figure digs. The Bulldogs were led by sophomore outside hitter Kristen Fenton, who had 22 kills (her second career 20-kill match) and 12 digs. Senior outside hitter Christy Burnett and Carrie Hartt each had 16 kills while Burnett chipped in 17 digs and Hartt had four blocks. Senior middle blocker Java Johnson picked up 12 kills while sophomore setter Whitney Arena and sophomore libero Tina Brennan had 11 and 19 digs, respectively.
As a team, the Bulldogs hit.282 with 77 digs and nine blocks. Hawai'i hit .318 with 81 digs and 11.5 blocks.
UH was led by its All-America outside hitters in Kim Willoughby and Lily Kahumoku, who accounted for 63 of the team's total 87 kills. Willoughby had 30 kills and 11 digs while Kahumoku had a match-high 33 kills and hit .418 (33-5-67).
"We have played well against them," head coach Lindy Vivas said. "We had confidence and I thought we could have won that match tonight. I thought it would be to our advantage to take them (Hawai'i) to five at home but we got stuck in a rotation and just couldn't get a side out.
"We had some good, tough serving and we had key blocks. I was very impressed on how tough we played them in game four.
"Hopefully the NCAA will take notice. There are not a lot of teams that take Hawai'i to five games. It's got to make a statement and impression on the committee.
"Our goals tonight was to serve tough and block. Our defense was good but we could have picked up some easier shots to help ourselves out.
"Against a team of this caliber, it takes a team performance like this. We needed a team effort and we got it."
Fresno State (22-5, 10-3 WAC) will enter the 2002 WAC Volleyball Championship Tournament as the No. 2 seed next week in Reno, Nev.
