Wahine rewind
A very bad road trip for the team. first time since 1993 they’ve dropped consecutive conference matches. That was back when it wasn’t a home-and-home. lost twice to Long Beach State in Klum.
This is my story from the website. pretty shocking.
Senior hitter Emily Hartong put down a match-high 29 kills and sophomore hitter Tai Manu-Olevao added 14 but it was not enough as No. 8 Hawaii dropped a second consecutive five-set match in Big West play tonight, falling to UC Davis 25-21, 25-23, 19-25, 15-25, 15-9, in Davis, Calif.
It was the first time that the Aggies (12-9, 4-4) had defeated the Wahine (15-4, 5-3) in three meetings. It was also the first time since 1993 that Hawaii dropped consecutive conference matches and the first time since 1994 that the Wahine have lost three matches in conference play.
Hawaii is now 1-4 in five-set matches this season with all of its losses coming in five sets.
Hartong finished with her 11th double-double of the season when adding a career-high 21 digs. Manu-Olevao also finished with a double-double with 11 digs in the 2 hour, 16 minute match.
Hawaii out blocked UCD 10-7.5 with sophomore middle Jade Vorster in on seven and freshman hitter Nikki Taylor six. Senior setter Mita Uiato also had a double-double with 55 assists and 12 digs, senior libero Ali Long had 14 digs and junior defensive specialist 11 digs.
Mary Schroeder led the Aggies with 17 kills and Devon Darmelio 13 kills and 13 digs.
The Wahine return home to host UC Irvine Friday and Long Beach State Saturday. Both matches start at 7 p.m.
Minor correction, I think the scores should read 25-21, 25-23, 19-25, 15-25, 15-9. Thank you for your coverage Cindy.
Could it possibly be Manu-Olevao and Taylor is trying too hard and that is why they are hitting the balls all over the place?
could be. Taylor is still just a freshman and Manu-Olevao a sophomore.
didn’t see the match so can’t tell you where the sets were.
The two of of them got it together for Wichita State. If you remember what their coach said about the two when they played his Shockers, that they were not the players he had seen on tape. Meaning they were not they were much more consistent against his team than they had been in previous matches.
Don’t know what has happened to the passing. It was pretty bad when they lost to UCSB.
Doesn’t seem like they’ve recovered from that.
Well this is a tough one for both the women and fans of Hawaii having to swallow.
This is something I would have never thought would ever happen. Losing one was very difficult, losing two was painful, but losing three I am numb. Anyways, the coach and team have a nice long 5 hr plane ride to reevaluate themselves. Now, there is no expectations set on them except to see if they can shut up all the doubters and sad die hard fans by turning things around and get far into the NCAA TOURNEY. Last thought, it is only a game . There are way more important things in life to be grateful for. Go BOWS
1. thanks Brian. major correction.
One has to realize that Manu-Olevao and Taylor are first-time starters at the Division I level. Hawaii is a perennial top 10 team and there are tremendous expectations for the team each year. Perhaps this year the expectation was too high. The three seniors, Hartong, Longo, and Uiato are the heart of the team and have pretty much played up to expectations. However, the other team members are just not at the elite level jusrt yet. They should be much improved next year. However, the above seniors will be, alas, gone. Perhaps, in the future Hawaii fans will have to set their sights lower, like being in the top 25 instead of top ten. Hawaii increasingly face challenges in competing with the BCS funded schools. It almost never enrolls top ten high school recruits like Penn State, Texas, Stanford, Nebraska, and USC do practically every year.
Still time for UH to pull out of this funk and catch fire…They should peak at the end of the season anyway & there is time for that to happen…
Believe the Wichita coach called them error prone. Perhaps this is the way the team was supposed to have been. Maybe at the beginning they were playing off the newness of the team, now reality has set in.
#6 Sorry, I have to disagree. Even Hartong and Uiato haven’t looked that great during the past two weeks. Sure Hartong was good tonight, but she didn’t play that well against UCSB and Northridge.
Vorster and Adolpho are also making too many unforced errors lately. They were both hitting above .400 during the pre conference schedule, but against Big West teams who you wouldn’t think were as tough they are struggling. Adolpho in particular should be having a field day against the Big West, but for some reason is making a lot of hitting errors lately.
No offense, but the team and coaches should have high standards of being in the top 10 every year. Setting sights lower is a defeatist attitude IMO. The one thing that worries me though is that Ben Jay absolutely cannot make a mistake in hiring Shoji’s successor.
9. haven’t they always had high standars. not sure why you think the’ve set their sights lower.
Whatever is going on, I just feel so sad for the whole team.
No quotes from the Icon ?
LC, Cindy said Ann Miller was at the game, you’ll have to wait for tomorrow’s paper for any quotes.
13. I am not at the game. I’m sure Ann will have them in her story. She was at UCD.
What has Shoji done to you that you have to be so rude and disparaging?
#9. I should have been more clear in my post. The coaches and members of the team should always have the highest possible goals, and that is for Hawaii, a national championship. However, an objective observer has to be realistic. In Division I sports, the reality is “money rules” and members of BCS schools make tremendous amount of money from its bowl games. Money, however, does not guarantee success; for example, a recent story in Sports Illustrated, describe the obscene amounts of money that Texas spends on its sports programs, especially its football team. That money has not translated to success in football. However, over time money WILL speak. Dave Shoji talks about this all the time—how difficult it is to attract top recruits to Hawaii and other mid-major schools. Shoji says that Hawaii attracts “projects,” raw kids with a lots of potential, local kids who want to stay home, or those who have some sort of ties to Hawaii, like Hartong.
#15 in response to LB, there are two main reasons why I think Hawaii can continue to remain a volleyball power even if they have less resources than the BCS schools
1. Is the unique volleyball atmosphere, something you can get at very few places (maybe only someplace like Nebraska). Most PAC 12 schools get generally lousy fan support. Hawaii will always attract some recruits because of the great fan support and unique atmosphere that you can’t get anywhere else.
2. The ability to keep top local recruits home. Schools like Long Beach can’t out recruit the PAC 12 and other BCS schools for top California recruits, however Hawaii can out recruit a lot of the big schools for local players since many of them have dreamed of playing for Hawaii in front of friends and family. I remember Dave Shoji said Nikki Taylor got recruited by Nebraska, but she committed early to Hawaii. Kanani Danielson could have started for just about any team in the country, but she chose Hawaii. To use a football analogy Kanani staying home in volleyball would be like Manti Teo staying home and playing for UH. Can you imagine how good the football team would be if they kept the same proportion of top recruits home as the volleyball team does?
Many of the posters seem to think that losing to Northridge and UC Davis are huge upsets. The Big West plays a lots of its pre-conference matches with Pac 12 teams. Must I remind everyone that Northridge took Washington to four sets; Washington fans (on VT) were highly impressed by Northridge for giving their team a battle, especially its floor defense. UC Davis beat Cal, a very good team. I mentioned earlier that the two mid-major conference teams from the WCC and Big West are well-known for (1) being scrappy, not allowing balls to fall to the floor easily, (2) being well-coached with well-developed defensive and offensive schemes, and (3) being from West coach schools and clubs with a lots of players with high levels of volleyball skills and volleyball IQ if not the physical traits (height and power) of playersf from power conferences such as the Big Ten and Pac 12.
Cindy one question arose about the starting lineup for set 5. Sets 3 and 4, Hartong started left front, but in set 5, back right. Why? By the time Hartong got to the front left the score was already 6-10. We all know because of the short set to 15, it’s very important to get off to a fast start.
I kept reading that Big West teams must improve to get our RPI better. Now they kept beating us instead. I think they got us figured and unless something drastic change their will be more losses. But I love our volleyball team regardless of what happen this season. Courage Wahine
The Wahine played over their heads in the beginning of the season. Now they have come back to earth and are still a good team but not a great team.
They have to have everything going for them to win against elite teams and that is not going to happen 6 times in a row if they get to the playoffs.
Shoji shouldn’t have raised expectations earlier in the season when he said this team could go all the way.
The only certainty is that Hartong and possibly Longo will be All League. I don’t know anymore about Uiato but she still has an outside chance.
Dave needs to recruit more raw athletes like Texas has. At the end of the year the Texas hitters will still be going up and over eveybody when a kill is needed and when it really counts.
Hawaii can only go to Hartong and that isn’t enough.
#18, a huge number of fans have made the same complaint in this blog and VT. I think that Shoji remembered other previous 5-set matches. In those matches Hartong just took over near the end of the 5th set when she was in the front row. I think Shoji wanted to make sure that Hartong was there at the end, not the beginning of the set. The tactic didn’t work. Hartong was stuck in the back because Hawaii started slow and could not side out frequently enough to bring Hartong to the front. That’s my take on what Shoji was thinking.
21. Even starting Hartong back left or back middle would have gotten her to the front earlier. Anticipating a slow start by your team should also be considered when making a decision to start her back right.
When athletes choose a college ,Hawaii has great fans (too nice at times especially in creating a home advantage) and fills the whole arena. They get leis from the aunties every game and lots of love in public wherever they go…But when people fly, they would love to fly 1st Class and not Economy. Our facilties for student-athletes might even be below a Kamehameha or Punahou or Kamehameha standards. Tough one for athletes to choose huh
As we all know, Hawaii has three losses in the conference at this time. Looking at the full schedule until the end of Nov. and assuming that Hawaii will win all its remaining matches and both UCSB and CSUN will lose 2 matches each, these 3 teams will have identical losses. UCSB and CSUN will square off one more time on Nov. 16. My question is will these 3 teams be declared co-champions? If so, then all three will be in the NCAA tournament. Please correct me – anyone? At this time, hosting a 1st and 2nd round is out of the picture but I am very positive that NA WAHINE will still be in the tournament. Go Bows!!
17. They are big upsets to me. I don’t know about you but I thought UH was equal or better than UW and Cal isn’t a top 25 team so their loss to Davis is somewhat understandable.
The most disappointing thing is that the wahine are clearly not learning from the previous losses and instead it’s like they have given up on the season.
I’m waiting to see what Shoji does. IMO he needs to change something or send the team a message of some sort, because the way they have been playing the past four matches, they will be embarrassed in the first round.
24. pacesetterhawaii. I addressed the issue of a tie at the top in the previous thread, A New Day, A New Thread. The BW has a rule for a tiebreaker in case of a tie, I don’t know the answer and had no answer.
90% of Hawaii’s games are televised or on the web making them the easiest team to scout. If the Wahine plan on returning to their winning ways, Hawaii needs to diversify its offense. Run combos, have Mita attack on two more, have serving specialist mix up their serving styles ( floaters, line-drives, top-spin, jumper, etc. ).Losing during conference play is a blessing; you live to play another day. Learn from it.
there is something going on with the team…either there is tension or conflict. Dave’s style is this… The lord helps those who help themselves. IF he sees the attitude of sloth and complacency, then his lesson is simple. I have a few things to say as the match starts and then its on you as a team to figure it out. Honestly the one he is trying to reach is Manu. It may have been a few others before, but now its about her. Coaching a girls team is very difficult if there is a lot of attitude and emotions. With a boys team, you can appeal to them via competition. The best female athletes are the ones that are as competitive as the boys. To Dave, playing for him is not about just winning, but it is about being student, a contributing adult and an athlete who will have character and respect in their lives. Spoiled, lazy, trouble makers and disrespectful players are not welcomed. This is a lesson he is teaching the team.
So for some reason my post about the Northridge loss was deleted from this blog, but just as well as the following post is almost exactly the same. After every loss this season, we are hearing the following from Team Shoji: “We need to take this loss and learn from it” (not those exact words, but you get the drift).
Q: So after the 5-set loss to San Diego, what was learned? A: We learned we need to improve. Q: And after the 5-set loss to UCSB, what was learned? A: We learned we need to get better. Q: And after the 5-set loss to Northridge? Q: And after the 5-set loss to Riverside?
So now we start the LAST CHAPTER a.k.a. SECOND HALF OF THE CONFERENCE SEASON. This will define the trajectory (MO and PEAK). It will tell us if all the blah blah blah about the 2013 version of the Rainbow Wahine having heart and having team-togetherness on and off the court really matters in terms of what the fans are concerned:, and most fans could give a sh*t about who’s a prima donna or who’s high maintenance as long as that person SHOWS UP come game day/night.
Na Wahine needs to think of this home stretch as a time to go inward because something has got to change if they expect to make a serious run for the roses (or hibiscus), and that something begins by looking inward. Doesn’t mean you sit on your ass all day in the lotus position. It does mean that you stop the blah blah blah (“Hear me out!”) and face the facts. Contrary to what Team Shoji may fantasize, Hartong cannot carry this team to the Final Four on her shoulders alone. She needs someone to HAVE HER BACK IN EVERY MATCH cuz every opposition team knows that if you stop Hartong, you stop the Bows dead in their track.
This is not a time of urgency or panic.
(And hope all the UH students had a HAPPY HOMECOMING 2013.)
24: The Big West has tie-break rules so only one team will be declared conference champion and have the automatic berth.
26: The tie-break rules are in their bylaws here (pdf file): http://www.bigwest.org/code_book/2013/2013-14%20BWC%20Manual%20Section%2020-VB8.1.13.pdf
25: I don’t think they’ve given up but they’ve definitely lost whatever game/rhythm they had at the beginning of the season and the scary part is I don’t think they themselves really know what happened or how to fix it yet.
A very frustrating week.
With apologies for my sloppy #29 post:
Re: “So for some reason my post about the Northridge loss was deleted from this blog” … Apologies to Cindy, had I known my original post would have been posted eventually I would not have written the above, which seems redundant (not that anyone cares lol).
Re: “5-set loss to Riverside.” Don’t know where that came from. Guess that Colorado State Homecoming game just drained me out.
Upcoming Matches of Interest on 10/27 (Sunday)
* Washington @ USC … USC takes on Stanford on 10/30 (Wednesday)
* Missouri @ Texas A&M … Mizzou of the SEC and Colorado State of the Mountain West remain the nation’s only undefeated D1 teams
* Cincinnati @ Rutgers …. BearCats are 0-22, which is the second worst W-L record in NCAA D-1 (after Savannah St, which I’ve never heard of).
22. from what i heard taylor and oleveao were flipped in set 3 and 4. with tai hitting more on the right.
is that true? something must have been done with the rotation other than a simple ‘gut’ check in order to flip the scores so radically toward hawaii in those two sets. does anyone know? something to review and go back to….
Distribution is the problem. I like Kastl and don’t disagree throwing her into the lineup earlier (during this funk at least) might help.. but at the end of the day, it comes down to our 2 middles and Nikki Taylor at OPP. In 3 matches against Texas, USD, and UCLA.. Vorster/Adolpho went 42-8-91 = .451 (@ 4.08/kps) [and USD was a loss!] — in the last 3/4 matches against UCSB, CSUN, and UCD.. Vorster/Adolpho went 37-22-94 = .160 (@2.47/kps) I include USD because despite being a loss, it was against a ranked opponent. When comparing the same matches with Nikki Taylor’s results.. she really hasn’t really done well since Texas. Against Texas, USD, UCLA she went 25-11-69 = .237 (not bad but still not great considering she was .500 against Texas). In the last 3/4 matches that were losses, Taylor went 29-21-83 = .096
I like Taylor and think she will turn out into an outstanding player for UH, but perhaps it’s time to re-consider a lineup which had Olevao at OPP and Kastl at OH. If Shoji is hesitant to start Taylor at OH because she’s a freshman, he might as well go with experience and try out this lineup. I think Olevao is actually a pretty solid pin blocker and am curious to see how she contributes offensively on the right. I like Taylor but her bright moments at this point in the season have faded and are too far and few between.
It’ll be miracle if Na Wahine is still in the top AVCA 10 poll tomorrow … Maybe lucky to be in the top 25 ~
33. max13. On Taylor, it doesn’t matter if she’s a freshman or any class, you just put your best OH2 in the lineup. Taylor has the best stats of the three, .292 overall/.312 BW, Olevao .187/.167, Kastl .154/.121. Only negative is that she has to come out when rotating in the back. Can’t imagine what being a freshman is going to hold any coach to starting their best player any position.
35. Mei Mei. The way the AVCA coaches votes I see them at 15/17 come Monday.
36. mauna. I agree with you on the AVCA coaches votes – maybe 13/15. When Michigan State lost 2 games on the road, they went from 5th to 10th. I am hoping NA WAHINE will rebound back and win the rest of the season. Their biggest obtacle will be winning at UCSB. But I am confident and very positive that they will. GO BOWS!
sounds like we were out coached. ann’s article this morning did not give any more clarity on questions in
32.
30. Thanks for the link. Very informative.
The wahine descent is telling for several reasons: first, it comes deep into the season and at the hands of conference foes, heretofore, conference fodder for the high flying wahine program. Turn-a-round? Unlikely. The forensics for our losses repeat a pattern of doing the same thing, with the same players and expecting a different result. Unreasonable? Einstein would say that’s insane. Look, I cant add anything more to the litany of comments on this thread that lament the same cry to Coach Shoji: if it’s broke, fix it! But not with the same players.
30 rayson thanks. got it now.
Wahine will fall in the polls tomorrow between 12-16.
I see a lot of posts criticizing Mita not setting the middles enough. Anyone who has ever played volleyball knows you cannot set the middles when your setter is chasing down bad pass after bad serve receive. At some point Dave needs to realize that although Kastl doesn’t bring enough offense she doesn’t hurt the team with her bad passing and getting aced all the time on serve receive. Tai’s offense is decent but her passing is really hurting the team. When Dave put Kastl in in set 3 she stabilized the passing and that righted the ship. Why Dave chose to start Hartong right back at the start of the 5th is the most important question in this loss…..
I apologize up front for the length of this post, but I think I have something worthwhile to contribute.
First of all, congratulations to the UC Davis Aggies.
They played an inspired, smart, efficient match and on this night the best team on the court won the match.
Although I attended UH over 40 years ago, I had never attended a Wahine volleyball match till last night at UC Davis.
And because I work mostly at night, I’ve never watched a complete match on TV.
While living on the mainland there were a few opportunities to see Na Wahine play road matches, but I never managed to make it to a match till last night’s.
Thus my observations are limited to this match only.
A couple of things stand out.
First, Wahine have no effective blocking and I see from past posts this has been discussed extensively before so this is not a new problem.
Second, the Wahine offense seemed to be slow with many sets too high to the outsides thus it gave the Aggies time to get in position to form their block. The Aggies hitters on the other hand seemed to be set quicker so they had less trouble beating the Wahine block or maybe that is part of the problem mentioned previously.
Third, Wahine hitters consistently hit directly into that well-formed block and again I see this has been brought up before.
Fourth, there seemed to be lots of confusion/miscommunication amongst the Wahine on who should be covering loose balls returned often by a good defensive play by the Aggies.
Fifth, by NO means am I targeting a single Wahine as many did not play to their potential, but at this stage of her career Tai Manu-Olevao is just not ready/able to perform consistently at this level (although I don’t know if the match stats show her as having no worst a match than the team as a whole). I’m actually surprised that she was not called for lifts or double contacts on several serve receives.
Most of these things have been talked about on this blog, but it was enlightening to see it firsthand.
Being but a casual fan I will leave it to the team members and coaching staff to address the technical aspects of the team’s performance.
We know from past matches this season the team has the skills and talent to perform at a very high level so it’s not as though they aren’t capable of doing so again.
One last comment about the venue and the crowd.
The venue is called The Pavillion at the ARC (activities and recreational center) and is a very nice facility, very well maintained, very good sight lines.
I’ve been there several times for other events.
Walk up adult tickets are $10 although many people seemed to have will-call tickets purchased on the web but I don’t know if there is a discount for that.
Student admission is free.
The ticket office did say it was an unusually large crowd because Hawaii was the opponent plus the UC Davis football team was not in town.
At worst this was a neutral court.
There was a dedicated student section (at most about 240 seats), but at least a third and maybe as much as half of the rest of the crowd appeared to be for Hawaii.
Most of the Hawaii fans however seemed content to sit on their hands and wait to be entertained.
To those Hawaii fans and for that matter all other Hawaii fans who attend the road matches I say:
YOU FOLKS NEED TO GET UP OUT OF YOUR SEATS AND MAKE SOME NOISE.
There was a critical moment at the start of the last set where Na Wahine needed a boost.
Na Wahine needed your support, your energy, your MANA.
You could have made a difference.
At least Dave Shoji has a sense of humor. Per his twit “the wounded girls are limping home, don’t give up on them yet, we are determined to turn things around”.
43. Dave may have started Hartong in the backrow for many reasons. He could have switched a matchup blocking wise to try and stop another player or to avoid hitters going over Uiato. It also could have been that he thought UC Davis was going to rotate their starters so he did too.
This loss, or well these past two losses really sting for Hawaii because, not only are they for all intents and purposes, not going win the conference this year, but they are not going to host, which is the major killer.
They do have a good team as others have mentioned, and obviously we’ve seen stellar performances against Texas and UCLA, (plus winning the Wichita St. tournament). So this really really really bad weekend isn’t thhe end of the world. If I were to think positively, if they get put into a favorable bracket, i.e. on the East Coast (ala Penn State), hey there’s a pretty good chance, of doing well.
But I think the question is, what does the team do now? Where do they go from here?
AND, side question, does this really really really bad weekend equate to improving the overall strength of the Big West Conference (especially for the future)?
31. don’t know why there was a delay in your post showing up. it was never deleted.
Agree with the comments that Hawaii is the easiest team to scout.
we’ll see later today where UH drops to.
As for the Big West being a better conference … wasn’t that what was hoped for?The biggest question is if the computer that dictates the RPI catches up.
#44. Regarding the high outside sets….Hawaii is supposed to be committed to a quick offense, unlike the “moon-ball” offense of the Willoughby and Kahumoku era. However, if you are “out-of-system” with poor passing the sets more than likely will be moon balls. This is what has been happening in the three Hawaii conference losses. Weak serving and poor passing on Hawaii’s part and strong servings and great blocking and floor defense on the opponents’ part. Dave Shoji reiterated what the fundamentals of volleyball is in his post-match comments. Volleyball is a serving and passing game. Hawaii fell down on both, resulting in an almost non-existent middle attack and desperate moon balls to the outside.
48. Agree that we want Big West to be a better conference, but UH only benefits if conference foes have good records against non-conference opponents. Without this, UH’s RPI will have the double whammy of a conference loss to a low/lower RPI conference foe.
The computer (technically, it is the RPI formula itself that dictates how RPI is calculated–the computer is a mere tool) will not show a dramatic increase in conference foes’ RPIs because of wins over UH. Such wins will be largely offset by all other conference foes’ records that make up the second component of the RPI calculation. Playing/scheduling UH gives all conference opponents a bump in their RPIs. But a win over UH only has 0.008 positive impact on a team’s RPI (first two RPI components considered only, assuming 28-game schedules).
Again, the way to have a better RPI conference overall is for Big West teams to schedule and defeat strong non-conference opponents. As for this year, that train has already left the station.
18. HC, sorry for the delay.
the UH lineup in St 5 had Uiato as the first server, which has been a strong rotation. but UCD served first and took a 3-0 lead. before Uiato served.
Don’t know what was the coaches saw to flop the lineup as they did. best serving rotation in Set 4 was Mendoza then Longo. They started Set 4 with Manu-Olevao serving, Taylor right-front. Vorster MB, Hartong left-front, Uiato left-back.
# 13 in the AVCA Poll says Digg’n Na Wahine blog
Hartong nominated for BW POW by UH.In spite of the double loss she had some great stats.
“43. View from afar”, thank you for your observations. That they are in sync with many of those who are regular contributors on this blog tells me that you are too modest in your “casual observer” self-assessment.
Most of the matches can be viewed live and later at http://www.bigwest.org/story.asp?story_id=16042, so enjoy!
I was at an away match in which the opposing fans crowded near the UH bench and shouted all manner of jeers during the timeouts. I have never seen this unsporting conduct against an opposing team at SSC. Heck, da aunties give ’em leis! So, bravo UH fans for your class at home and for UH fans on the mainland, let’s turn up the volume some. It can make the difference. Thank you, “View from afar,” for this reminder.
“42. HAPAGUY”, your comment is spot on regarding Mita! There were at least two plays (vs UCD) where Mita had to dash half-way across the court to set a shanked pass while the nearby OH stood waiting to be set. Perhaps Mita had called “Mine!” on those passes. Perhaps our OH’s could watch some tape on Carly Kan.
I realize it’s only two points, but that could have transformed a 3-2 loss to CSUN into a UH sweep.
50. “Don’t know what was the coaches saw to flop the lineup” maybe someone can ask?…..
What the Wahine didn’t have this road trip was the double sub for blocking with Goodman and Higgins. Not saying it would have won the game but has got some critical late set points for Wahine when they and Mita looked to be struggling and to my thinking it is like the 6-2 offense and makes block ‘look’ different for opponents LH. Just a thought. And while enjoy sitting at the SSC cheering along with a full house I’m beginning to think that kind of adrenalne boost can’t be duplicated on the road without strength of mind from the Wahine and especially from freshmen and sophmores players. Go Wahine!
So many experts we have 🙂
56. they used the double sub, but very sparingly.
51. thanks. see new thread. was waiting for more info on the whole poll.
The most important thing is that the team doesn’t give up .
57… i like to think of it as VERY passionate fans of Na Wahine 🙂
“53 ‘ohanaInBellingham”, thank you for your comments.
Hopefully it will not be another 40 years before I attend my second Wahine match; don’t think I’ll live that long.
I’ve attempted to watch some matches on BigWest TV, but found that I really miss the whole picture since so much of the enjoyment of a match is the atmosphere that can not be caputred by the small screen. But given the difficulty with attending in person, I might have to do that.
I made my closing comment about the crowd because so often competitive matches are about momentum and emotion.
Na Wahine had expended a lot of physical and emotional energy during the first two sets and had just clawed their way back to win the third and fourth sets. I got the sense they were emotionally spent. As a fan, I can’t tell the team how to fix whatever problems they are having; that’s the coaching staffs job.
But the ONE thing that I can do to affect the outcome is to offer up as much vocal encouragement as I can muster at the right moment. If you were at the match, just as the teams were taking the court for the final set, there was a skinny old guy who was going up and down the asiles on the sections where there seemed to be large groups of Hawaii fans (on the side behind both benches which was opposite from the Davis student section) imploring fans to get up out of their seats, make some noise (“This is it, Na Wahine needs you”). That was me. We had the numbers, we could have made the difference. Alas, I did not get much help.
“56, Grammy”, I’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing SSC with a full house as I go back to the Klum gym days. That must be a really awesome electric atmosphere.
Emotion/adrenalne boost is a very tricky thing. It is not sustainable for an extended period of time so it must be induced judiciously at just the right moment. I believe it has been mentioned on the blog Na Wahine has a great following on the mainland and when there are significant numbers at the road games they need to joined together somehow to support the team. Given the generally smaller crowds at the road games, I think the team would respond positively to whatever vocal support can be generated. Just knowing that there are active vocal fans in the stands who there for them would be a big help. It could make all the difference.
View from afar, you had it worse than most of us, then. Hoh, the heartbreak of seeing UH fans not responding to one’s cheerleading and then seeing na Wahine lose. I don’t know if I would have had enough courage to initiate the cheer leading, but I would certainly not have sat on my okole while you were trying to make a difference!
Speaking of making a difference, let’s show Emily our love: http://www.seniorclassaward.com/vote/volleyball_2013/. We can vote daily and fan votes counts for 1/3 of the final tally.
#63, as for trying to make a difference, there were two more parts to that. As Na Wahine were emerging from the tunnel from the locker room to the court for the third set, I stood at the end of the tunnel (alone) to applaude and urge them on (“Come on Wahine, you can do this, you know you can, etc”). I continued till all the players had passed. Then after the match I returned to the same spot (again alone) to humbly applaude their efforts as the players were going down the tunnel to the locker room. I could have done both of those from the anonymity of the stands, but I the thought the personal approach would be more meaningful. I hope that makes a difference to the team.