1998 Game-by-Game Recap: UH vs. Rice University (11/25/98)
Wahine Eliminate Rice in WAC Tournament
The 7th ranked University of Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine Volleyball team needed four games to down the Rice Owls, 12-15, 15-1, 15-10, 15-6 in the quarterfinals of the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas, Wednesday night. The 1:52 match was played before a pro Hawai'i crowd of 1497 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Hawai'i improves to 27-2 overall and extends their win streak to 15 matches. The Wahine will meet San Jose State (21-10) on Friday in the tournament semifinals. Earlier in the day, the Spartans surprised the Mountain Division No. 1 seed, Colorado State in five games.
"We obviously came out sluggish", head coach Dave Shoji said. "Rice played well and kept us off balanced and we didn't make adjustments fast enough, but we executed what we knew we had to do from the start."
In the opening set, Rice steam-rolled to 9-3 and 14-6 leads before Hawai'i rallied to 14-12. The Owls served six times for game point as they out hit the Wahine .422 to .250.
Hawai'i blitzed the Owls in the second game as they took advantage of 10 Rice hitting errors to roll to a 15-1 rout.
In the pivotal game three, Hawai'i fell behind early (3-7) before scoring 7 of the game's next eight points to take a 10-8 lead. Rice rallied to tie it at 10 but the Wahine served the final five points to end the drama.
In the final game, UH jumped out to a 10-1 lead and soared to a 15-6 win.
Heather Bown lead Hawai'i with 22 kills and eight blocks while hitting .488. Heidi Ilustre chipped in 15 kills and nine digs. Leah Karratti and Veronica Lima each had 14 kills.