Hawaii-Arizona rewind
Yes, I know, UH got outblocked 15.5-6, 5-1 in Set 4. Sounds like that will be the thread as we re-wind. But I gotta head out. will be on later.
this is our breaking news story
Senior hitter Emily Hartong put down 21 kills and No. 10 Hawaii won a hard-fought battle with Arizona 25-20, 25-17, 22-25, 25-23 tonight to claim the championship of the Outrigger Hotels & Resorts Volleyball Challenge at the Stan Sheriff Center.
For the first time this season, the Rainbow Wahine (8-1, 3-0 OHRVC) had four players in double-figure kills: junior middle Kalei Adolpho (career-high 14), sophomore hitter Tai Manu-Olevao (career-tying 11) and freshman hitter Nikki Taylor (career-high 11). A crowd of 7,856 (9,144 tickets) watched Hawaii run its sixth straight when running its record to 12-0 against the Wildcats (7-2, 2-1).
Wahine setter Mita Uiato was named the Most Outstanding Player. Joining her on the all-tournament team were UH’s Adolpho and Hartong; Arizona’s Madi Kingdon and Olivia Magill; Northwestern’s Stephanie Holthus and Portland State’s Kaeli Patton (Radford High).
Kingdon led the Wildcats with 19 kills and was in on six blocks. Setter Penina Snuka (Kahuku High) finished with 37 assists.
Arizona out-blocked Hawaii 15.5-6.
The Wahine finished with a 62-49 edge in digs. Ali Longo had 14, Hartong 13, Uiato 12 and Manu-Olivao 11.
In the earlier third-place match, Northwestern (5-4, 1-2) needed just 70 minutes in sweeping Portland State (3-7, 0-3), 25-17, 25-17, 25-13.
Glad Adolpho made the All tournament team. Nice that Mita Uato made MVP. Let’s hope they’ll be able to win all matches next week in Wichita. Go girls!
This is a win that left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t like it when UH is sloppy and plays down to the competition. UH hitters besides (taylor and the middles) were not hitting smart, Mita wasn’t at her best either.
I was hoping Shoji would play Ashley Kastl because Tai really struggled.
Hope they don’t play down to the competition anymore, especially on this upcoming road trip.
Real positive is the stellar play of Nikki Taylor and Kalei Adolpho who is looking Heather Bown-esque. I really hope Mita sets Kalei a lot more. The way Kalei has been playing she needs to be averaging over 3 kills a set every match like tonight. Jade as well (she isn’t the hardest hitter but she’s hitting over .450 so she is doing something right) Those two need more attempts than Tai IMO.
Actually I’m so impressed with Kalei’s improvement I’d make her option number 1 whenever she is in there. Like USD does with their middles. That would open things up for Emily and the other pin hitters too.
Kalei played great. Making the all tournament team was well deserved. Other than that I have nothing positive to say about the way the Wahine played tonight.
2. you said Uiato wasn’t at her best. the next logical step is that thinking is that her hitters weren’t getting the best of sets? Hard to run the middle when the passing is off as well. Agree that there were times they didn’t hit smart but when you look at Taylor (true freshman) and Manu-Olevao (came out of being red-shirted and made 3 starts when Croson was suspended, played sparingly the rest of the season), they are still learning the collegiate game
4. Don’t feel they played down tonight. They did get a little loose but give Arizona some credit too. They came in with just 1 loss (Kansas was ranked at the time), they didn’t have their No. 2 in kills (Croson) and they put up a big block. 6-8/6-4 at times. The Wildcats often took advantage of the rotation where Hartong was left front, Vorster middle and Uiato right side. That was the rotation at the end of Set 4, they have no right-side attack at that point. Mendoza is right back. Manu-Olevao middle back, Longo is in at libero. Very vulnerable, limited options on offense.
Arizona also served short which sometimes took Uiato out because she was forced to take the short serve. So then you have a non-setter setting the ball.
the box online doesn’t give you the total set attempts.but here is the breakdown for the non-setters. Manu-Olevao 1 attempt/0 assists; Mendoza 4/2, Long 1/0, Longo 12/3, Hartong 5/2, Taylor 1/0. That’s 24 sets by non-setters with only 7 kills out of it. that has a major impact on hitting percentage and kill success.
When was Uiato ever forced to take the short serve?
I think the verdict is in: “It wasn’t pretty, but we’ll take it.” (Not that refrain this year, please!)
Disappointed that Hartong is having efficiency problems terminating against taller teams, bringing back bad memories of her blocked hammers against the Dawgs’ (and the nation’s) No. 1 blocker last year. Shoji or Wong will have to decipher the tape with Hartong, who I am sure will be the first to admit she could have hit smarter tonight.
BTW: I may not be the first to observe the following but I think I am the first to come up with the following catchword. There’s a lot of t + w jargon — such as twerk, twitter, twink — so why not call the Wahine the Twahine?
Gooo Twahine! [jk]
Re: 2 I agree with the TV commentators: while the setter is responsible for spotting the hot hitter and thus serving to her again and again until she gets blocked, the setter is also responsible for spreading the wealth, and that Uiato did. The Wildcats had only 1 player hitting for double figure while the Wahine had 4 with Hartong leading all players in number of kills.
6. You’re right. I mistaken about the short serve since the box doesn’t reflect that on S-SR. Thought it was when she was right front in Sets 2 and 4. I may be thinking of her playing the first ball off a tip.
It’s still a very vulnerable rotation. the only other options are: Kastl for Manu-Olevao at back middle, Goodman for Uiato front right with Higgins back row. not sure if you do that with 4 swings at match points (it was 24-20.
7. don’t think you can put this all on Hartong. she had some tough angles to hit against a tall, stacked block. She is best when she can get a better approach. So of thos balls were set quickly back to her with no time to get her feet completely set. They asked a lot of her at the end. and she delivered when it counted. got the kill to make it 24-20. got the kill to end it
I agree with what your saying about Nikki and Tai. Nikki is a freshman with loads of potential but she’s still a freshman. Tai was prematurely activated so really she’s a redshirt freshman.
Tonight I was disappointed with the Wahine defense. The passing and digging just wasn’t up to par. I thought perhaps Arizona was serving tougher than I thought they were. Yes, they were serving short (taking Mita out of the setting and interfering with the Wahine’s attacker’s approach) but the Wahine should have been able to adjust better than they did.
i think Emily played tired tonight. her passing wasn’t great and she had an awful lot of hitting errors. she looks tired to me, but knows she has to suck it up. the Wahine passing was kind of mediocre. we had way too much trouble with the short serve than we should have. a lot of them were like lollipop serves which we should be able to put down most of the time. again, there were way, way too many dinks that the Wahine didn’t pick up. i don’t know if its the players fault or Dave isn’t playing anyone up closer for a reason. there were also about four or five instances where the Wahine just let balls drop, either from confusion or a lack of hustle. and our blocking sucked, again. maybe they are mentally tired also. not a great match by the girls tonight although some did play well. Arizona is a good team but we should have swept them tonight, period.
Everyone needs to take a chill pill with all their negative commentary on what the wahine did wrong, they still won against a quality opponent, who with the addition of a certain player certainly had some helpful pointers on the in and out of the wahine system, although she was not here, I’m sure she was most helpful during the preparations for the match-up. Also every team that comes to Hawaii to play are pumped up to play a ranked opponent in front of the biggest and best fans in the country, With all the parity among the teams now, just to get a decisive win is a credit to the players and coaches, look at Texas vs ASU, USC vs USD, etc, GO BOWS
Cindy. Re: #5. Agree that Hartong and Vorster in the front row turned out to be a bad rotation. It was especially noticeable at the end of the last set when Hartong was blocked three times in a row. I understand that Shoji ordered Uiato to go to Hartong exclusively. My thoughts at that time was, why don’t they arrange it so that Adolpho is placed with Hartong? This means Vorster would be in a three front position with Taylor and Manu-Olevao. Adolpho is rapidly becoming a reliable terminator. She cannot be left with one blocker without being punished. By the way, I don’t think Hartong is getting tired at the end of the match. As I stated before, Arizona tracked Hartong throughout the match with two good, tall blockers. That left the middles and right vulnerable. Fortunately, Hawaii was able to take advantage with nice set distribution and double-figure kills by four Bows.
#12 THANK YOU! you read my mind completely. too much negative comments here. yes, they could have played better. but hey, they won. it wasn’t pretty, but they won. instead of looking at everything negative, look at what’s positive. for one thing, Hawaii won. two, Hawaii got FOUR players with 10+plus kills. I don’t remember the last time that ever happened. so all in all i think people need to recognize the negatives put praise all the positives that happened as well.
sorry Cindy, could you delete comment 14. i wasn’t done. accidentally hit the wrong button.
To Ruffles & Ashley: I concur with both of you that some of these blogs only look at the negative and cannot accept the fact that UH had a tough opponent…WarriorFan always seems to be misguided in his critique of UH Wahines and very rarely can comment on anything positive on the wahines…..I, too, am tired and disgusted of the same common threads of heaping criticisms on certain players and to say Uiato wasn’t at her best, well, I don’t know where WARRIORFAN was watching the game but I thought she set a pretty diversified game as four of the wahines were in dbl. figures in hitting….that’s pretty damm good in divesifying the attack and Arizona was a really tough opponent playing away without their no. 2 hitter etc….cheers to the wahines and hope for the best as they go on the road.
Should be a lot of changes in the top 10 w/ Minnesota being upset …
Wahine had some rough spots,but playing three matches in three nights is not easy.I’m sure they will be much better after next week.Tai,Taylor and the middles improving. Of course the leaders Hartong,Uiato,and Longo. Longo must hurt after every match the way she plays. Good luck to them next week Go Bows !!!
(15) Ashley, couldn’t agree with you more. Na wahine won. We all have bad days. The mark of a great team is their ability to cover for each others bad days. Hawaii shows this characteristic. Witness four team members raising to the occasion with 10 kills each. This team has a cohesion not usually found in most teams. Much
like a den of lioness’ they will unsheathe their claws when their leader is challenged.
(13) Lanai boy, could there be another reason shoji asked Uiato to set exclusively to Hartong for the 25th
point in set 4? Perhaps a message to a certain UA player?
what is wrong when someone honestly opines, even it may be somewhat negative? shoji and the girls will admit that last nights game was not their best, whether it was because of Arizona or their lack of focus. as long as the comments are not vulgar, people’s honest opinion should be allowed. who really wants to read blogs that only say good things, even though most people feel that it is not so? believe that everyone should be realistic. I am sure the team and shoji can handle such honest comments regarding their play, in fact, shoji is much more hard on his team than most. they are adults and know what is what, so to just sugar coat everything is not being fair to them.
I also agree with ruffles and Ashley. Too much negative. The Wahine are not playing in a vaccuum, there’s another team on the court doing their best to win also! Northwestern and Arizona may not be the biggest names in women’s college volleyball, but they are well coached and play in the best volleyball conferences in the country. During conference play they face quality teams nearly every week. They are not going to come into the SSC and just roll over and die for the Wahine. For these teams it’s a special trip to come to Hawaii and they will be motivated to play their best and win. I’ve been following the Wahine since 1982 — yes I’m really old ha ha — and I’m amazed the Wahine have remained this competitive all these years given the vast growth and improvement in women’s volleyball
p.s. Many Mahalos Cindy and Ann for your great coverage of the Wahine
Aside from the blocking, I was disappointed in the breakdowns in passing and defense. As for a positive, it has to be the growth of Kalei Adolpho. She is really becoming a complete middle blocker. So effective on offense and getting great touches on the block.
It was mentioned by one of the OC 16 commentators that even the Wahine themselves were not all that pleased with parts of their efforts.This is actually a good thing when a team can evaluate themselves,it means that they want perfection and to be the very best that they can be.
The same goes for fans. It’s not that they are being mean or negative it’s because they want them to be the very best also.
In reply to Warriorfan’s question of who the recruit was. All I got was she’s 6’3″. No name, position or where she’s from. It is not Kendra Koelsch, Emily Maglio, Kalei Greeley or Annie Mitchem. I’m guessing that she would be a 2014 class. I have no knowledge of NCAA regs on what class recruit can be on official trips in what months of the year.
23. Thanks for the info roofer68 ,whoever she is, I hope she liked the UH program on her visit.
24. You’re welcome. The recruit and her mom (I assumed, mom, is just as tall) and was at both Friday and Saturday matches and also at the potluck after. She seemed to be friends with Nikki, they were sitting together.
nothing i have read so far has anybody trying to bash the Wahine. it is just honest criticism. i have been watching the Wahine since Klum Gym days. this year, i think they can be great. but to get outblocked that badly by a team that is not necessarily bigger than you is a concern. those blocks kept Arizona in the match, otherwise, despite as poorly as UH played at times, it would have been a sweep. yes, that four Wahine were in double digit kills is a very good thing. but when Arizona only has one or two in double digit kills and they almost take it to a fifth game, that is not good. (sorry, haven’t read the boxscore so i don’t know if that is correct.) and i still say Emily was tired. she was off in her passing and hitting all night. she got blocked by Snuka two or three times and Snuka is what, about 5’8? maybe it is mental fatigue. and who can blame her as hard as she plays and with the burden of winning pretty much on her shoulders. strangely enough, the Wahine don’t seem to have much trouble with the bigger teams but more with the smaller, scrappier teams that play more like them, teams like USD and Arizona.
#20 you are right, nothing wrong with voicing your opinion on this blog, that’s what makes it fun to read, some people are just positive and some are negative, that’s just the way it is.
So keep voicing your opinion cause as long as it’s not vulgar like you said or personally attacks any one on OUR team who are trying their best to defeat everyone 25-0, it’s entertaining! GO BOWS!
Hope the recruit is a good one, this team will miss these seven seniors. The “Game On” TV segment prior to the Arizona match was informative, Shoji shared a few things. What great wins this weekend. Let’s wish the team well this coming week… -Go Rainbow Wahine…
2 & 3. How can Adolpho and Vorster be given more sets when the passing is off? And if those two get more sets, you can bet their hitting percentage are not going to hold up.
28,. Me too, I hope someone can track down who she is.
7 seniors sounds like a lot but really its just three who are main contributors and I have a lot of faith in Higgins and kahakai/Mendoza as replacements next season, just need to find someone to replace Hartong, which will be tough.
29. I think Mita is a good enough setter to get the ball to the middles even when the passing is a bit off, I think this year the passing has been good, better than previous years. Hartong has really improved her passing.
If the middles hitting percentages go down, that is fine with me because I bet they will still be putting the ball down at a higher percentage than any one on the team still.
Next season I see Tayler dishing out the sets more evenly. I see no OH stepping up and do what Emily is doing this season taking on 33% of the sets. I see the sets distributed more evenly and more, if the pass is decent, to the middles. Tayler has the feel to set the middles and needs to work more on locations to the outside hitters.
32. I definitely can see next year being like 1998, when UH fed it’s middles as much as they could.
23. not Mitchum, who likely will be 2015 IF she gets her AA first.
22. thanks for going back to LC and not your hyphenated name. It was kicking your posts into spam.
13. I’m sure they’ll look at that particular rotation. Not sure if swapping Vorster with Adolpho in the lineup is the right move. They consider blocking pairings, who can hit what sets as well as who is on the other side of the net. I feel Adolpho is better on the slide, she hits a heavier ball than Vorster. Vorster has the ability to hit the high quick set because of her height and it throws off the block in the middle.
33. Was hoping Mitchem would get her AA this year and transfer for next season with three years of eligibility left, so that Emily Maglio could redshirt.
very off topic, but i don’t know where to ask the question. Cindy noticed that there was so much talk about stauber & croson leaving during the off season. i knew hagins had left but also noticed only now that katie spieler was also gone. did she choose to play elsewhere. i know she wasn’t a very talked about player but i was just curious, same with hagins too actually. sorry if its off the topic it just popped into my head when i was looking at the roster.
it’ll take mitchem 3 years to get her AA? crazy
39. she is working on things. believe she’d have 2 years of eligibility. if you look at the IVC roster-indoors, she is listed as a freshman. 6-2 middle
37. Ann mentioned Spieler sometime last month, that she had moved strictly to the sand team. She was on the indoor roster in 2012, redshirted, rehabbing an injury.
37. Additionally, Hagins is playing for Idaho, and the team’s eighth senior, Kristina Kam, left to play for Azusa Pacific.
Hagins has yet to play in a match.
Kam is back in Hawaii rehabbing an injury. not sure if she’s going to have to retire or apply for a medical hardship since she used up her redshirt year.
42. I read her telling a friend that she was back home due to her injury, which yes requires surgery and rehab. that she was staying the year, & flying up next summer. Medical hardship could be a possibility. Would suck if she had to retire.
42. She is no longer listed on Azusa Pacific’s roster.
41. I meant she transferred to Idaho, not literally “playing right now.”
47) I know what you meant just say’n interesting that she has yet to play in a match.
Yes. Especially since she could’ve been a contributor at UH this season.
You will like the Wahine ranking this week.
21. there’s been some negative comments, but not as bad as it has been. Think it’s been more that Hawaii played so well Friday against Northwestern and struggled against a tall Arizona team. but no points awarded for style. Bottom line is they won.
49. I don’t see that Hagins would have contributed this season any more than she did last year. Tuaniga solid at the No. 3. but always good to have a fourth MB in practice.
Mita nominated by UH for Big West Athlete of the Week.
I can see Wahine back in the top ten this week.
53. they never left.
Wahine + 3 in the poll,wait and see.
Agree only positive comments would make for aboring read, but uneccessary “piling on” and endless repetition does also. This team will do what pst teams have done which is find a way to win. It won’t likely be with dominance but more likely with guile and guts and a never say die attitude. As past teams have said, they play for themselves, their families, and fans. If one or the other is unhappy with a loss, its nothing to what the women feel themselves. Every game is winnable given the right adjustments and tweaks to game plan and alignment in certain rotations and personnal matchups. Those things are the coaches domain as a player can’t elevate their game too much, but must do their job and execute without fail when called upon to so so. In that respect, I think this team and it’s seniors are doing well. Go Wahine!
# 54 you’re right,what was i thinking. When you get to my age you start to forget. Tnx for reminding.
Penn State #1 (45 1st place votes)
San Diego #2 (13 1st place votes)
Texas #6
Hawaii #7
UCLA #11
Creighton #23
AVCA deviated from its normal practice. San Diego, from a mid-major conference, jumped Washington, a traditional power and BCS school, to attain a 2nd place ranking. This is warranted I believe. San Diego has a more impressive record against ranked teams. Washington may be very good, but relatively unproven. That will change soon with the upcoming Pac 12 schedule. Washington will be a co-favorites with SC and Stanford for the title.
see new post. was updating our breaking news.
59. I suppose you could say deviated but the coaches had to take notice that USD’s win over No. 1 USC, which validated USD’s win at Hawaii, couldn’t be ignored.
still think they’re ignoring UH’s win over Texas. or maybe they have started thinking Texas isn’t that good. who knows. 60 voters, some with agendas, some who pay attention.
51. Nevertheless, she still contributed. And last year, she was ahead of Tuaniga in the depth chart. 33 sets vs. 26, Hagins even got a start.
62. some of that was due to Tuaniga reinjuring her shins. she might have contributed. she did put up a big block