Sept. 4, 2004

Box Score

San Diego was upended in five games by No. 13 Hawaii at the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic in Honolulu Friday night. The Toreros pushed the host Rainbows to the limit (30-28, 24-30, 25-30, 30-28 and 15-11) in front of a crowd of 6,146 and a local television audience before suffering a season-opening defeat. The Toreros (0-1) will try and rebound when their tournament slate continues Saturday against No. 17 Arizona at 5:00 p.m. (PDT). Story reported by Hawaii sports information... Victoria Prince led the way for the Rainbow Wahine (3-0), hitting .359 with 18 kills and four blocks. Kari Gregory tied the UH rally-scoring era single-match blocking record, putting away 10 blocks and 10 kills while hitting .400. Alicia Arnott (14 kills, 17 digs) and Tara Hittle (12 kills, 10 digs) had double-doubles, while Kanoe Kamana`o had a near triple-double with 53 assists, 11 digs and seven blocks. In a closely contested first game, the two teams traded points early on, as the Rainbow Wahine pushed to a small 15-14 edge at the media timeout. UH then suffered another blow as Eckmier went down with a minor right ankle sprain. But as the lead went back and forth, Hawai`i continued to battle, as a service ace by Teisa Fotu put away game one 30-28. San Diego fired out to a quick 5-0 lead to start the second game, forcing UH Head Coach Dave Shoji to use an early timeout. The Toreros continued to dominate, pushing their advantage to 8-1 and 11-4 before a 4-0 UH run on the serve of Watanabe got Hawai`i back into the game at 11-8. But USD wasn't done, as they responded with a seven-point spurt of their own to get it to 18-8. The Rainbow Wahine used a 9-4 run to cut the deficit back down to five points at 23-18, making USD Head Coach Jennifer Petrie use a timeout of her own. The Toreros took game two 30-24, tying the match at a game apiece. Game three was also tight in the beginning as neither team had a lead of more than three points with Hawai`i taking a slight 15-14 lead into the media timeout. Prince came up big off an extremely long rally, pushing an overpass just inside the sideline, giving UH a 22-20 edge. San Diego continued to run off points with their high-powered offense, going on an 8-4 run to make it 28-24 USD, and force another Shoji timeout, before taking the third game 30-25. Hawai`i came out motivated to start the fourth game, opening with a 9-4 lead to force an early USD timeout. San Diego inched their way back into it, finally getting back within two points at 25-23. The Toreros continued their climb, getting it to 28-28 on consecutive kills by Kristen Carlson. But Hawai`i would not let the night end, scoring two-straight points, on a Susie Boogaard kill and a Torero error, to win game four 30-28. USD opened the fifth and decisive game up 4-2 before a blistering 6-1 run put UH up 8-5 at the media timeout. San Diego pulled within two points at 9-7, but Boogaard came up with consecutive kills to make it 11-7 and force a Torero timeout. The Rainbows got to game-point at 14-8. USD would hold off three match-points before a big block by Kamana`o and Prince ended the match with a 15-11 game five victory.