Wahine win in 5 (updated thread)
our breaking news story.
need to talk to shoji. will be back in a bit.
Senior All-American Emily put down 20 kills, including four of Hawaii’s final six points, to lead the seventh-ranked Rainbow Wahine to a 25-17, 25-16, 19-25, 20-25, 15-9 win over No. 23 Creighton in the Shocker Classic in Wiichita, Kan.
Sophomore hitter Tai Manu-Olevao added a career-high 14 kills and junior middle Kalei Adolpho 13 kills with one error as Hawaii (10-1, 2-0 SVC) won its eighth straight. The Wahine were outblocked by the Bluejays (7-3, 0-1) 16-5 but won the dig battle 81-58, led by senior libero Ali Longo’s match-hig 23.
Hartong finished with her sixth double-double of the season when adding 16 digs. Manu-Olevao also had a double-double with 14 digs.
Leah McNary led Creighton with 12 kills.
The match lasted 2 hours and 12 minutes.
The Wahine finish out the tournament Saturday (2:30 p.m. Hawaii time) against host Wichita State
Whats the breaking news?
You just read it.
Wahine definitely need to work on improving their blocking. They were outblocked 16 – 5 by CU. This needs to be addressed as a major concern. The block was basically non-existent.
1. breaking news is the story that goes up on website. that is the story I just posted.
From Shoji
“Emily (Hartong) came through with some key kills at the end, but I thought we got some big matches from Tai (Manu-Olevao) and Kalei (Adolpho), Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. “We had good balance. “We may have won the first two (sets) too easily. Creighton regrouped, got some confidence, and it turned into the tough match we had expected.
“It was disappointing that it went to five after being up 2-0. Obviously, it is a relief to win.”
ugh…so painful to watch. hope the wahine work on their blocking/passing. olevao looked better but still
had problems in passing at critical times. still looking for kastl to contribute more. perhaps theres a reason
shes used so sparingly. any idea cindy?
Shoji didn’t have much time to talk. We didn’t touch on Kastl. Did ask about Vorster serving. He said, at that point he wasn’t going to put someone in who had missed her last two serves. so why not (Vorster)
I asked if he was concerned about the block. He said they are not a good blocking team but that he likes his defense, thought Longo was stellar.
Asked if he had flashbacks of the San Diego match. he said the key is to get off to a good start, lead at the changeover.
I said I thought Hartong took over at the end. he said she played well, was able to hit strong from the 3-meter but that they had good balance with Tai and Kalei coming up with big matches.
there were a few other things he said but I have to get to the office. Be on when I get in. maybe 45 minutes.
Here’s the link to the box
http://www.hawaiiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?id=17494&path=wvball
thanks for the article Cindy!
All I know is you can tell losing Jane Croson is making a difference. It would have added another playmaker to take pressure off Emily. Our offense would’ve been unstoppable!
They need to play better tomorrow against Wichita. Looks like Wichita will win in 3.Maybe another 5 setter against Wichita. Miss Croson serving.
No. 11….get over with Croson…..this is a team game and she did not do what was expected of her and she left to other pastures…team, and I emphasize TEAM, is much better and more cohesive without her as there are many external factors that you don’t know about that she did that was affecting the members of this team…nothing more and nothing less. I can assure you that as much as Shoji wants to win every match just as much as the team wants to, also, there is more to winning and that’s to build CHARACTER.
Wichita has not played a tough schedule when compared to Creighton probably why they are not ranked. Lost badly to Arizona State the only really good team they played.
BYU leading san Diego 2-0, BYU has a loss to Creighton.
I didn’t think Tai had that big of a match. She had some important kills but still hit under .200. I want more sets for Kalei , she is en fuego.
Wow did not expect san diego to lose in 3 at BYU. Looked like their setters were off all match.
Saint Mary’s and Stanford tied at one set apiece. Not too surprising. WCC teams are scrappy and well-coached. Cannot overlook them.
Rooting for Saint Marys and Northridge, hope they pull off the big upsets.
What does Taylor have to do to get subbed out. She hit .087 and had 1 block in five games and I’m not sure she touched that ball.
Washington and Northridge are tied at one set apiece. Go Big West!
11. you really need to get over Croson. she’s gone. maybe she makes a difference, maybe she ends up being inconsistent as she could be, particularly when blocked early. either way, it doesn’t matter. she is not on the team.
19. TW, who would you suggest they put in? Freshman on her first road trip still getting used to the college game. Didn’t see the match so don’t know if it was the sets she got. She played well early.
16. as for USD, Provo a tough place to play.
thanks for the updates with the big west teams… luv em !
have a story to write then a couple of hours on desk. will try to get to scores when I can.
but appreciate all the score updates from you folks.
BYU vs. USD: Unimpressive on both sides…
#13….oh yes over Croson!….just saying athletically speaking, she was an asset. I love this team without her don’t get me wrong. It is just matter if fact.
Oh yes , there is no letter “I” in the word “Team”. This team has absolutely has more chemistry and character than other years. Amen to that!
I read somewhere that tomorrows match is on 1500 am and not on 1420 which means no live audio stream..
Cal State Northridge lost the 3rd set to Washington, 25-14—not close. The huskies ahead 2-1 in sets. Washington ahead in the 4th set 9-7. Keeping it close.
17. because of the conflict with FB, VB is on 1500. so no internet. only way is to have a radio or oceanic TV 885 (I think)
following the game by tracker is painful because stats do not deceive your eyes. again, too many hitting errors and I cant figure why our setter is going to Tai so often–she had 41 hit-attempts…Creighton wobbled early with hitting errors than the wahine caught the bug. I thought the Vorster service error was another missed numeral–until Cindy confirmed it–it fits, Ginger missed two-n-a-row. She has the lowest serving percentage among the wahine.
Cindy, Im also anxious to know about Ashley Kastl’s limited playing time…wow! talk about class–the BYU/USD game was televised free on BYU-HD. perfect audio, etc…talk about being courtside.
We can listen to the WSU live audio feed it’s free.The link is on their tournament central page.
kimo, disagree. stats are very deceptive. You don’t know how the pass was, you don’t know how the set was, you don’t know if a hitter had no where to go with the attempt or, as what happens with Hartong often, she is up against a double or triple block.
but people should give the other team credit and Creighton is a good team.
If anyone cares, Wichita State sweeps South Dakoa, 25-22, 25-14, 26-24. announced crowd of 1972. thought it might be bigger. Shoji expects around 3,000 Saturday
Washington beat Northridge 3-1, 25- 21 in the 4th set. It made it interesting.
Kastl been pretty consistent serving and playing backrow, so why not her first before Long.
There are five Pac 12-Big West matches this weekend.
Southern California swept Cal State Fullerton
Washington beat Cal State Northridge in 4 sets.
Long Beach State ahead of Oregon State 2 sets to one.
ASU swept Cal Poly
Arizona plays UCSB tomorrow
Probably because Kastl is the first OH off the bench should Dave need her to play L1 or L2. If she subs for Jade, that limits Kastl’s availability should something happen to one of the OH’s.
30 and 35: same question. we must not know something with castle(?)
Cindy, I see your point in a general context. I was speaking specifically about the wahine hitting errors–27 in total. 9 in the 3rd set and 8 in the 4th. Both sets were lost. Those stats are revealing in some form especially when they are tagged to certain players and one setter. BTW, we had only 2 hitting errors in the 5th and decisive game.
Too bad. Long Beach State lost to Oregon State in five. I root for Big West teams when not playing Hawaii. Winning does wonders for the RPI.
37. Sorry I didn’t make it clear, was talking about that one time he had Vorster serve.
yes, only 2 hitting errors in Set 5. but there’s different hitting errors. either via a block, or the attacker hits long, wide, into the net. Stats don’t tell you that, or whether hitter went high or angle to avoid a bigger block and got no touch, went line and just wide; whiffed on a missed connection, etc.
A couple of times in Sets 3 and 4, both sides had hitting errors when the ball rolled along the tape and out.
UH’s 2 errors in Set 5 were when Uiato was blocked on a dump shot by the 6-4 Smith, and Manu-Olevao hit long (no touch)
Conversely, Creighton had 5 hitting errors in Set 5. 3 of which either were attacks that went wide or long. UH had 2 blocks that set, Vorster’s solo on Smith, and when Adolpho and Uiato stuffed Jereb.
Well I think that loss sticks a fork in Long Beach’s at large hopes.
37, you just can’t sub someone for someone else. and with 13 on the travel roster, Mendoza was the only true DS there. The substitution pattern has Mendoza in for Taylor, Long for Vorster or Long for Adolpho; Longo for Adolpho or Vorster, depending on how they set up the block and back row passing alignment..
Goodman in for Uiato on the double sub that puts Higgins in the back row; in set 2 Higgins went in for Mendoza.
When they subbed Hartong out in the back row, it was Kastl. They went to a 6-2 with Higgins in for Uiato in the back row
they had ver limited options.
I really wish Mita would be more offensive via dumps/attacks on 2. I think it would hold the blockers more (keep them honest) giving her hitters better opportunities to get a kill.
43. good lord. it’s the fourth week of the season.
45. Uiato was up against a 6-4 middle. she was 1-4-6.
I do believe the box to be wrong when saying Vorster only served once. pretty sure it was at least twice. but I could be wrong.
47. She did serve twice.
Non league matches mean everything to teams in weaker leagues. Long beach has only one quality win (illinois) and 6 losses. NO at large for them.
Cindy, why is Hartong wearing a right knee brace? Noticed that about 5/6 home matches ago. Hope it’s just precautionary.
50. don’t know. Only brace I’ve noticed is Vorster’s which she’s worn since high school. As for her her fall down some stairs, that happened a couple of weeks ago. she had a bruise but nothing that is affecting her now.
All I need to know about Kastl is that she subs for Hartong. Kastl, in her senior year, has given up a starring role to help her team. Read the NCAA substitution rules to understand. Can you honestly see one of the other
OH’s filling that important role? Ashley, Thank you!
As for Taylor and manu-olevao starting, they will be the core of na wahine 2014 team, given the roster this year, and the potential and height of those two women, why not start them. Taylor and Manu-olevao need
our encouragement and support, not criticism.
Good win for the RPI. Creighton will probably go undefeated in the Big East which is a bad volleyball conference.
Cindy, I follow the play-by-play. They are fairly informative, plus the radio, which is delayed. Further, I pour through it all.
I think you are being too specific to the point of ad hoc. Im not talking syllogistic logic here just pointing toward trends. Statistical forensics are revealing. Especially when the scoring supports it. Coach Dave is always looking at the stats as do other coaches. You don’t have to eye-witness a game to know when certain parts of your system is not working. In the last two games on the road, the statistics were revealing.
52.
Still the wrong lineup, imo.
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I’ll be the one to say it..
UH loses to WSU tonight in Wichita.
WSU catches their own hot streak ala USD and really MOVES onward/upward as of today, Sat. Sept 21, 2013.
46.
She’s got a point.
LBSU still has an outside, albeit OUTSIDE, chance. They’re playing still w/o their star player who leads–HH–but they just need to finish 2nd in conf., beat Northridge twice, beat UH once, and continue to learn/build upon all of these bitter-sweet losses they’ve got going currently. These five setter-heart breakers they’re experiencing will only make them stronger.
2014 will be their year for sure.
Their OPP needs to be replaced with Miley vis-a-vis Hampton. The OHs @ LB are growing by leaps and bounds.
Look once and for all… so at this point am I hearing it correctly, Kastl is Hartong’s sub? Cindy, please explain, how articles written (by writers of the Honolulu Star Advertiser) in some instances, emphasize a players offensive numbers, (sometimes just a note on the amount of kills) without talking about their back row play including shank passes and over passes at the worst time such as when momentum is on UH’s side and the lead, only to have the other team build off the inconsistency?
Yet for other players, the same writers in other match round ups, would emphasize a players contribution, then highlight the lack of a hitting high percentage or some other aspect that indicates having a bad match. For example, Manu had x amount of kills, but nothing is mentioned about her low hitting percentage or that throughout the match she hit into the blocks a lot, over passed and shanked passes at times when UH had momentum, or was not in her defense area when Creighton ran the slides.
Yet, Kastl or say Jane last year or say some other outside hitter or yester year played. There were articles written with the coaches saying they need the outsides to be hitting around 250 or they would be replaced. Or that Dave would take a sub out for shanking one ball even if the starter is stugglling. Or talking about Jane’s serving out when she was a service ace leader.
My point is, I don’t think we get the whole picture by the articles written when they kind of help some players look better than their performance was and how when other players contributed more than an article stated. Is it about building a players reputation or is it how one writer saw the match? I’m kind of SMH when there is not a concern with the shank passes or over passes that occured. I watch the match and UH was not having a consistent defensive match. Longo was flying everywhere but other players were out of position.
I would love a non objective post view account of the matches, with the good, the bad and the ugly to us a trurer sense of how good the team really is…. As for giving Taylor a break, I get that, but the same thing could be said about Goodman, she knows her position and if given the chance to shine and be a starter perhaps she would be a more consistent starter than Taylor. I kind of feel as if Dave has a his ways with who wants as starters even if other bench players would be better if given the same playing time as the starters.
#55 LOL your track record has not been good. You also predicted Hawaii to lose to UCLA and for Long Beach to beat UCLA.
52-57 Kastl for Hartong was a rare sub. it is not the norm. Last night it was to give Hartong a rest prior to Set 5. so it doesn’t tell you anything other than she was the one player left on the bench that could go in to relieve Hartong at that point.
Kastl has been subbed for Manu-Olevao, sometimes Taylor. When Manu-Olevao sat out the USD match, Kastl played LS 4 sets. they used Long for 1.
54. didn’t realize you were listening on the radio. as was I. so we had the sane ‘non-view’ of the match since we did not not have a visual and don’t know where the set was in relation to the attacker nor the block faced.
55. Shoji is concerned about WSU. They are at home, first time UH will face a true anti-UH crowd.
Said he felt WSU was the best team of the three they will face in the tournament.
Just callin’ it as seen:
😉
Going into 12/5-8/2013 a [26-3] Wahine will be on the road to Phoenix.
@ Tempe, they’ll end up in a VERY strong subregional with three AVCA Top 25 teams competing.
ASU vs. ?
UH vs. BYU/Pepperdine
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$C WILL be next for Na Wahine, yet Seattle is a thunderously MIGHTY looong shot.
Any other armchair coaches want to give it a try??..there are MANY here on VS.
57. WUJ, can’t speak to the whys of how Ann writes her stories the way she does. Only to say when we are pushing deadline, and with the past few weekend tournaments, Ann was almost every night, sometimes we have only 10-15 minutes to finish the story. You have often seen my chasing down coaches or players at the ends of matches to get a quote or two to help her because she doesn’t have time other than to sit and write.
we have space limitations and, on deadline, you are doing highlights, not analysis nor a lot of room for play by play.
In all seriousness, I would be interested in you giving it a try and post a story here written within 10 minutes of a match finishing. Go without quotes because you didn’t have time to get them.
When I post my breaking news story on the Star-Advertiser website, it is meant to be a short recap that gets the news out there quickly. The highlights are the basic stats.
Part of the reason we run a full box is for the readers to be able analyze the stats for themselves. Sometimes it is mentioned in the story, sometimes it’s not. It’s why there is a box so as to get other things in, including quotes.
I don’t feel there is any sort of agenda, that the stories are written to make one player look good or another look bad. Ann and I have no problem mentioning when anyone is struggling, why she got subbed out.
the non-objective post view of the match i try to give in my online rewinds. Ann usually does that with her advance story on the next match.
Hope that answers some of your questions.
#13 Mahalo…..That was my first thought. Get over Croson. This team will do well and will continue to improve. As I always say, let the coaches coach and just enjoy the journey and keep the quarterbacking couch potato thoughts to yourself.
I hope Coach Dave’s caution is not justified but certainly do understand this to be a “novelty” for this season with ‘antiUH’ crowd. But just as any Big West away game will be this is a good experience for the Wahine. I am confident that team will be ready and seniors will lead. Underclass starters and players will/may falter but will make plays when needed, too. Nature of game to see challenging matchups, but also with rotation and substitution to see winnable matchups, too, just need to make the most of favorable alignments. Wahine are usually better at serve recieve and floor defense and given any decent pass Hawaii usually mounts suffcient offense. While ‘taking their best hits and counter punching’ is a frustrating strategy for some, I’ve come to expect as much from Wahine. Blocking and Aces are quicker, but mastering and protecting our half of the court is also a way to win games/sets/matches. If the ball doesn’t touch your floor, it’s either out or their floor. Go Wahine!
63. Cindy (and Ann) you have both done such good writing over the years that people don’t appreciate what goes into your side of the final product. I for one am only filled with awe that you can give us so much detail, description, insight and background in your writing. If I just went to matches, I’d be happy, but my inseason routine now includes reading articles (used to read both before) watching replays and further replays, catching some news reports and watching players/team/coaches live. To read an account of a game with an objective point of view sounds to me like the most uninteresting prospect tantamount to trying to ‘see/understand’ a movie by viewing still pictures without dialouge or motion or perspective. Heck even radio descriptions are better. But since I was listening to Les Keitor ‘recreate” Islander baseball and boxing when I was a youngster, I’m not one to speak for the internet genertion. Thanks for your writing, I love it and it makes my day brighter and fuller. Go Wahine!
Some mention has been made that Shoji wants the outside hitter (L2) and opposite to hit at least .250 for Hawaii to be successful. However, to put this in perspective, I remember being shocked when I looked at the stats for UCLA 2011 national championship team. The team hitting average was .251. Kelley Reeves averaged .232, Tabi Love .201, and Rachael Kidder .246. You don’t need high hitting averages for a team to be successful. Kidder made the 1st team All-American team. Be patient, I’m sure Tai Manu-Olevao will bring her average up during the course of the season. Few on the team can match her athleticism and she has so much potential. Too bad she had to be activated her red-shirt freshman season.
65.
Your analysis, though thorough and authoritatively presented, is a bit misrepresented.
UH used to be a fine defensive team. In all honesty, that went with the mid-90s. They’re no more a great passing/digging team than any other Top 11-25 team out there.
So eloquent your use of words, aunty.
Your efforts aren’t unnoticed.
Keep it up!!!
🙂
Funny how the quote seems like Shoji is praising Olevao for having 10-plus kills. No mention about her struggling in the back row or her sub-.200 hitting percentage.
P &G Check your facts. We have out-dug almost every team that we played who are considered top 25 teams over the past several years. Digging equates to DEFENSE.
Isn’t this Wahine team so exciting? It’s one we’ve been waiting for, the coming of the next NCAA champs. They have a relatively balanced attack and when the chips are down they have a “go to” player. High expectations are floating at all levels surrounding this team, such as, attendance to games, etc… I for one am amazed on how Emily Hartong has developed and still getting better. At the same time, with all the hoopla on Coach’s accomplishments, it makes sense, why the program is so successful. Shoji is the maestro and a stickler for detail and performs his due diligence to assure success, so, as much as we may and might, it’s best to defer to the man they call, “COACH dynamite.”
In an media interview Emily Hartong said, we will be there, meaning Final Four. I’m a believer after her performance in the 5th set, literally carrying the Wahine on her back.
69. not sure what you’re getting at. Manu-Olevao had a career-high 14 kills, and Adolpho 13. those were big machos from the two of them. As I mentioned, he didn’t have time to talk much so … guess you can read into what you want from what he said.
73. If hitting .195 is a big match, ok. I was just thinking, any other year or any other player, that would not be considered “a big match.” Perhaps because there is no other option on the left.