We have it from a good source that the Washington football contingent is still on the ground in Seattle, waiting out a flight delay.

That’s the problem with commando raids … if something goes wrong, you can end up cutting things really close.

It’s 27 hours ’til kickoff and the Huskies are still half an ocean away from Aloha Stadium.

UW barely beat Missouri in 5 in Seattle. Tamari Miyashiro had 39 digs.compliments of RichKern.com#1 Penn State (H) def. Siena 3-0#2 Nebraska (H) def. South Dakota State 3-0#3 Texas (H) def. Texas State 3-0#4 Stanford (H) def. Santa Clara 3-0#5 USC (H) def. Pepperdine 3-0#6 Washington (H) def. Missouri 3-2#7 California def. Liberty 3-1#8 Wisconsin (H) def. Northern Iowa 3-0#9 Hawaii def. Tennessee State 3-0#10 Florida (H) def. #23 Oklahoma 3-0#11 Kansas State (H) def. Tulsa 3-0#12 UCLA def. Alabama A&M 3-0#13 Oregon def. Missouri State 3-0#14 New Mexico State lost to LSU 2-3#15 Dayton (H) def. Lipscomb 3-0#16 San Diego lost to Iowa State 2-3#17 Cal Poly def. Xavier 3-0#18 St. Johns (H) def. Long Island 3-0#19 Ohio (H) lost to Purdue 1-3#20 Clemson (H) def. Alabama 3-1#21 Colorado State def. Illinois State 3-0#22 Duke (H) def. American 3-2#23 Oklahoma lost to #10 Florida 0-3#24 Louisville (H) lost to Middle Tennessee 2-3#25 Long Beach State def. UNLV 3-2

Middle Tennessee State holds off Louisville in Game 1 to win 30-28. Both teams hitting well, UL .364, MTS .349. The Cards have four blocks. Oddest statistic: it was a 2-point game but MTSU had 23 kills to UL’s 14.

Hawaii wins 30-26, 30-14, 30-17. Houston has 18 kills, Sanders 11 (11-1-14). took 79 minutes, about how many people were here before Louisville fans started to show up. No blocks for either team in Game 3, something I question, but that’s what the official box has. Lowe had nine kills for TSU. UH 40 digs, TSU 20. Will post result of the second match later. It should be a better one than this one was. 13 of the Wahine played with Simmons putting down the final kill. Hawaii had a season-high 10 aces.

And it wasn’t that close. Think the Tigers shot the wad in Game 1. Hawaii’s block is just too big. Wahine had five in Game 2, none for the Tigers. Shoji’s been able to get in Keefe and Gregory.Houston 14-5-21, Sanders only had one swing in Game 2, no kill. Gregory 2-0-3. Christian Lowe (7-10-27) and Kelly Davis (5-2-14) have taken 41 of the team’s 74 swings. Collese Dornan (opp) has had some success 4-1-10. She actually took over as setter for a couple of plays with Saleaumua trying to stablize the passing. It didn’t work.

The Louisville site is only doing the Cardinal match. NCAA link is http://ncaasports.com/volleyball/womens/scoreboard/div1/2007/1130

Hawaii wins a tight Game 1 30-26. Not great passing from the Wahine. Tennessee State athletic but small. Can’t promise these stats are correct. I’m going on NCAA gametracker: Sanders 6-1-8, Houston 6-3-10. Hawaii has 2 blocks, 2 aces. TSU 4 blocks.

We have a ‘go’ from the NCAA. But I am limited to 3 per match.About 15 minutes away from first whistle. And about 60 people here. Doubt there’s any general public. Looks a lot like family and friends from both teams. But seriously, this is about as big as Hemmeter at Punahou when it’s divided. Maybe a few more seats. Think McKinley is bigger.

I am still waiting for permission from the NCAA to do live blogs. If given I can only post 3 times a match, which I will do after each game. I’m assuming that if it goes more than 3, than the ‘overtime’ policy applies, which allows me on extra blog per match. Match is on the air at 1420-AM. Scott Robbs is sitting a few chairs down. One of the refs is the “Dancing” Marvin Hall, mostly seen officiating at men’s matches. He lives in California. He is wondering why he got sent here, just as he wondering why Hawaii is here.Both very good questions.Livestats at www.uoflsports.com and www.ncaasports.com

With apologies to Louisville, this is not an NCAA venue, at least not one Hawaii is used to. There are more stands at Junior Olympics. There are 2,096 seats. And my guess is there will be 50 people here for Hawaii match, mostly the Wahine parents. The temporary bleaches are about 15 rows up on the two sidelines, four rows on either baseline. Sportcourt is down, bland and red. Feel like we’re in an airplane hanger. I have never seen a sadder Division I site. And getting up to the court … you have to follow temporary arrows through a maze and try to figure it out. Took 10 minutes just to find the place. The interview room will be behind temporary curtains, pretty close to where the Louisville band is schedule to sit. That will make for interesting postmatch chats. And the scoreboards are two generic ones, small, with only team names, points, Games won and game clock. Pretty pathetic.