By Cindy Luis

A good win in their return to the Sheriff Center. Fresno State is improved and just might make the WAC tournament. That’s going to be an interesting race for those last three spots. Boise State at 5-6, Fresno State at 5-7, Utah State at 5-8, Nevada 4-7, LaTech 4-9.

Funniest moment tonight … one where Shoji actually said, ‘my bad.’ Lee was in as a DS, set in front of the 3-meter line and Shoji yelled to her not to do an overhand set … which would have been illegal if she had been the libero. You could hear him from across the court where I was sitting. Then you saw him laughing after the play was over. Asked him after the match if he forgot that Lee wasn’t the libero and he said there is a rule that he never says ‘My bad.’ but he said he had to say it to Lee after that.

FSU coach was pretty realistic about tonight’s match. She knew they had to serve tougher to keep hawaii maybe a bit off balance. They didn’t. 11 SEs and countless service overpasses. Asked her if she were Shoji, what would she work on. To no surprise, she said ball control. Said Hawaii’s offense is clearly the most dominant part of their game. and that if they can get their blocking more refined, they can beat anybody.

An off night for Cubi-Otineru (5-4-16) but FSU was stacking the block on her. Nice  to see Ferrell get some strong swings (4-1-11) and Hewitt continues to improve (6=1=7 and 3 BA). Kaufman’s hang time is unreal. And she went halfway across the court to take off on one play. You would have thought she was doing a high jump approach.

By Cindy Luis

Normal starting lineup for UH. including Ferrell left front.

Hawaii up 11-7. TO Fresno State. stat monitor not working. can tell you Danielson has three kills.

FSU is playing as scrappy as the other night. Danielson continues to bail Hawaii out, has 6 kills. UH up 19-15. TO FSU.

Hawaii not looking great but they win 25-19. Hawaii hit .281, FSU .100.

By Cindy Luis

ompliments of RichKern.com

#1 Penn State def. Wisconsin 3-0

#4 Washington (H) def #5 Stanford 3-0 25-21, 25-23, 25-19
#5 Illinois (H) def. #15 Michigan 3-1
#7 UCLA def. No. 17 USC 3-2
#9 Florida (H) def. Georgia 3-0
#11 Kentucky (H) def. Alabama 3-1
#12 Minnesota (H) def. Indiana 3-0
#12 Minnesota (H) def. Indiana 3-0
#13 California def.  #24 Washington State, 3-1
#14 Oregon (H) lost to #18 Arizona, 3-1
#15 Michigan lost to #5 Illinois 1-3
#16 Florida State (H) def. Duke 3-2
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#19 LSU def. Ole Miss 3-0
#21 Saint Louis def. Charlotte 3-0

#25 Northern Iowa (H) def. Illinois State 3-0

By Cindy Luis

Here’s the release from UH. For complete schedule, check www.HawaiiAthletics.com

The University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team, under first-year head coach Charlie Wade will host 17 matches beginning with the season-opening Outrigger Hotels Invitational.

The 16^th annual Outrigger Hotels Invitational runs Jan. 7-9 at the Stan Sheriff Center and features USC, Penn State, and Ohio State, all three of which participated in last year’s NCAA Championship. USC finished as runner-up to national champion UC Irvine. Hawai‘i opens the tourney with Ohio State (Jan. 7), followed by Penn State (Jan. 8), and USC (Jan. 9).

The Warriors will host two-match series with MPSF foes UC Irvine (Jan. 29-30), UCLA (Feb. 4-5), Brigham Young (Feb. 26-27), Long BeachState (March 19-20), and UC San Diego (April 2-3). UH’s road league matches include series with Stanford (Jan. 15-16), Pacific (Jan. 19-20), Cal State Northridge (March 5-6), USC (March 8-9), Pepperdine (March 26-27), and UC Santa Barbara (April 16-17).

In addition to the league matches, Hawai‘i will host non-conference matches against Alberta (Feb. 12-13) and Hope International (Feb. 18-19) at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The MPSF Tournament begins with first round matches, April 24, followed by the semifinals and finals set for April 29 and May 1. Stanford will host this year’s NCAA Championships, May 6 and 8, at Maples Pavilion.

Wade begins his first season with the Warriors after taking over for longtime coach Mike Wilton. Wade inherits a team which returns six starters, including seniors Matthew Rawson, Steven Grgas, and Ric Cervantes, junior Joshua Walker and Nejc Zemljak, and sophomores Steven Hunt and Gus Tuaniga.

The Warriors open fall camp this month and will play exhibition matches against Stanford and British Columbia (Nov. 25 and 27) at Klum Gym.

By Jason Kaneshiro

Special teams coordinator Chris Tormey didn’t attend this morning’s practice due to a death in the family. He is expected to return in time for Saturday’s game against Utah State.
>> Defensive back Richard Torres suited up for practice but didn’t get in for the team periods. Torres suffered a pulled hamstring last week. His absence means Spencer Smith slides to nickleback with Kenny Estes rotating into the secondary alongside Mana Silva in nickle packages.
>> Adrian Thomas is back in the rotation at right tackle after missing the last two games due to back spasms. He shared time with Austin Hansen, the starter for the past three games in today’s practice.
>> The WAC announced that Hawaii-based official Mike Goshima has been suspended for one game for failing to overturn a call in last week’s San Jose State-Boise State game. According to a release, the suspension stemmed from a pla in which a runner was ruled short of a first down. The ruling upheld after a review, but the league office also reviewed the play and “after further inspection, the runner clearly made the first down and the call should have been reversed.”

By Cindy Luis

Walked into Gym I and watching practice is morning were two All-Americans … Suzanne Eagye Cox and Lily Kahumoku (drawing a blank on her married name). Lily was leaving tonight for Europe but Eagye and husband Tim, here for their 20th wedding anniversary and Tim’s 30th reunion for Moanalua, will be here for Friday’s and Sunday’s matches.

Suzy’s daughter is a sophomore in high school, taller than her mom (6-3) and playing volleyball. potential recruit, probably not on anyone’s radar. being home schooled in Tennessee but Suzy’s has been coaching her in club.

Another potential with Hawaii ties would be Tony Maroney’s daughter. Tony, former UH bkb player, is 7-1 … Daughter is 13 and already 6-3. The Maroneys are in New York but Tony said he was bringing the family out for vacation. suggested he send daughter to Wahine camp.

AND three of Hawaii’s four incoming players will be here this weekend. The only one not coming is … I think but don’t quote me … Waber because she already had an ‘official visit’ this year and they’re limited to 1. All four expected to sign Wednesday.

By Cindy Luis

Cyclones win 25-22, 22-25, 25-15, 25-20, 15-12

Hooker with 27 kills for Texas. on 74 attempts. Yogi with 16 digs.

By Jason Kaneshiro

Notes from Tuesday’s practice:
>> Greg Alexander made an appearance at Ching Field toward the end of practice. He’s still on crutches as he continues to recover from surgery to repair torn ligaments in his knee and another to treat an infection that developed. He lost quite a bit of weight since having surgery.
>> Receiver Royce Pollard took part in warm ups today to test his injured left leg. Pollard has missed the last three games due to a stress fracture in his left fibula. He didn’t take any reps in practice as he eases back, and has an appointment to have the injury evaluated.
>> The coaching staff is limiting the number of throws Bryant Moniz makes early in the week to make sure his arm stays fresh for the weekend. He shared repetitions with Shane Austin and Brent Rausch today. His work load will ramp up as the game approaches.
>> Moniz will be outnumbered come Friday night. He is among three Leilehua graduates on the UH roster along with Art and Clayton Laurel, compared to Kahuku products on the team. The Mules and Red Raiders meet in the OIA Red championship game on Friday at Aloha Stadium.
“We haven’t talked too much about it yet,” Moniz said. “I’m sure we’ll get to it.”

By Cindy Luis

A good night for Hawaii, didn’t play down for the most part. Danielson teed off again, didn’t have a hitting error until her next-to-last swing. And glad to see Kaufman have a good night in front of a lot of family and friends.

The Spartans are undersized and young. They should be better in the next few years.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how the final weeks play out for those last three WAC tourney berths. At the moment, only Hawaii, NMSU and Idaho appear as locks, and SJSU definitely out. You’ve got No. 4-8 (five teams) battling for the remaining there spots. with only 1 1/2 games separating the buch. Fresno State and Boise State at 5-6, Nevada 4-7, and Utah State and Louisiana Tech at 4-8.

By Cindy Luis

Hawaii up 15-8 at the TTO.

Danielson 5-0-7, Kaufman 2-0-3. 2 aces by Cubi-Otineru

Hawaii up 21-9. UH 12-1-18.

Wahine finish it out for a 25-12 win. Kaufman 4-0-5, Danielson 5-0-7, Ferrell has both of the team’s hitting errors 1=2=6. UH has 5 aces already. Danielson and Cubi-Otineru 2, Mafua 1.

Hawaii up 15-10 at the TTO in Set 2. Wahine have 7 aces.

Hawaii up 19-11. TO SJSU. kaufman 5-0-6, Danielson 9-0-13.

Hawaii wins 25-15. Kaufman 6-0-7, Danelson 11-0-17.

Hawaii up 15-11 at the TTO. Kaufman 11=0=13, Danielson 14-0-23. Both Cascioppo and Forsythe in for Ferrell and Hewitt, respectively.

Cascioppo and Forsythe team for a block, it’s 19-14. TO SJSU.

Danielson finally has an error on her 26th swing. she’s 15-1-27, Kaufman still at 11-0-13.

Ferrell ends it. 25-15.