HAWAI‘I’S
Hawai‘i senior outside
hitter Jamie Houston has been named Western Athletic Conference
Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 8-14. This is the first WAC
Player of the Week of the season and the sixth career honor for
The Huntsville, Ala.,
(Huntsville HS) native averaged 5.18 points, 4.64 kills, 0.91 digs and 0.81
blocks per set as she led the Rainbow Wahine to a 3-0 record and the Chevron
Rainbow Wahine Invitational title. She was named the tournament’s Most
Outstanding Player after posting a season-high 27 kills vs. No. 9 Washington.
She also led UH with 15 kills vs. Pacific. On the season,
Other nominees included:
Sadie Maughan of Boise State hit .363 over three matches and was named
to the InnTowner Invitational all-tournament team ... Allanah Munson of
Fresno State tallied 100 assists en route to all-tournament team honors ... Idaho’s
Anna McKinney tallied 13 block assists, the most by any Vandal since 2003 ...
KC Clayton of Louisiana Tech hit .304 on the week and led the Techsters
to their first victory of the season ... Kylie Harrington of Nevada was
named to the AT&T Invitational all-tournament team after averaging 3.42
kills and 2.00 digs per set ... New Mexico State’s Amber Simpson averaged
3.00 kills, 1.40 blocks and 0.50 service aces and was named to the
all-tournament team of the Stanford Tournament ... Kelly Crow of San
Jose State was named to the all-tournament team of the LMU Classic after
averaging 3.36 kills and 1.64 digs per set ... Utah State’s Melissa Osterloh
tallied 18 kills, six digs and five block assists in an upset of No. 15 Purdue
to give the Aggies their first win of the season.
NUMEROUS WAC PLAYERS
NAMED TO ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMS OVER WEEKEND
The WAC had 11 of its
players named to all-tournament teams last week.
Boise State earned its first two victories of the
season as it went 2-1 at the Wisconsin hosted InnTowner Invitational last
weekend ... The Broncos fell to No. 23 Brigham Young, but defeated IUPUI and
Central Michigan, both of which had winning records coming into the matches ...
Sadie Maughan was named to the all-tournament team after leading BSU in hitting
percentage (.363) over the three matches ... Boise State has now played two
ranked teams this season.
Hawai‘i Rainbow Wahine (7-2, 0-0 WAC)
UH won the Chevron Rainbow Wahine
Invitational with victories over Saint Mary’s, Pacific and No. 9 Washington ...
Jamie Houston was named tournament MVP after averaging 4.64 kills, 0.91 digs
and 0.82 blocks per set ... Amber Kaufman and Kanani Herring were also named to
the all-tournament team ... Houston had a season-high 27 kills vs. UW and led
Hawai’i with 15 kills vs. Pacific ... UH’s win over No. 9 Washington was its
first over a Top 10 opponent since beating No. 6 USC on Dec. 12, 2006, and only
its second since the start of the 2006 season ... Herring recorded her first
reception error of the season, coming after 98 reception attempts.
The Vandals went 2-2 at the Portland
State Volleyball Showcase, falling to
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (1-5, 0-0 WAC)
The Techsters played their first match in more than
two weeks last Tuesday, picking up their first victory of the year over
Louisiana-Monroe ... Over the weekend, Louisiana Tech dropped a pair of matches
to Jacksonville State and North Dakota State at the All State Sugar Bowl Tulane
Tulane Volleyball Classic ... Junior KC Clayton hit .304 for the week with 12 kills in the win over ULM.
The Pack went 2-1 to place second in the AT&T
Invitational last weekend, defeating Missouri and UC Davis before falling to
No. 24 Pepperdine ... Kylie Harrington and Lindsay Baldwin were named to the
all-tournament team ... Baldwin averaged 3.42 kills and 2.00 digs with a .204
attack percentage and posted a career- and match-high 19 kills vs. Missouri ...
Baldwin averaged 2.17 kills, 1.25 blocks and 0.42 service aces over the three
matches ... After starting the season 0-2 the Pack have won 4-of-6 matches to
even their record at 4-4.
The Aggies went 1-2 at the Stanford
Tournament, falling to No. 7 Stanford and Santa Clara before beating UC Santa
Barbara in four sets ... Amber Simpson was named to the all-tournament team
after hitting .267 and averaging 3.00 kills, 1.40 blocks and 0.50 service aces
... Simpson currently ranks second on the NMSU all-time total blocks list with
473 and needs just 23 to surpass the career record, which has been held for 16
years ... The Aggies head into conference play with a losing record for the
first time in seven years ... NMSU has played three Top 15 teams heading into
conference play.
The Spartans went 2-1 at the LMU
Volleyball Classic last weekend, defeating UC Irvine and Pittsburgh and falling
to the host Lions ... Kelly Crow and Colleen Burke were named to the
all-tournament team ... Crow averaged 3.36 kills and 1.64 digs per set and
recorded double-digit kills in every match, while Burke averaged 1.73 kills on
.359 hitting.
15 Purdue in five sets
... Melissa Osterloh was named to the all-tournament team after averaging 3.92
points, 3.17 kills, 1.25 digs and 1.17 blocks ... Against the Boilermakers, she
recorded 18 kills, six digs, five block assists and two service aces ... USU
has now won two of its last three matches against ranked teams as it lost at
No. 20 BYU earlier this season and defeated No. 10 Hawai’i in its final regular
season match last year.
HAWAI‘I RANKED FIRST IN
PRESEASON POLL
In a poll of the
league’s coaches, defending Western Athletic Conference champion Hawai‘i was
the unanimous favorite to defend its crown in 2008 and take home its
13th-straight regular-season title. The Rainbow Wahine received eight of the
nine first-place votes (coaches can’t vote for their own team) and 64 points,
with
2008 PRESEASON ALL-WAC TEAM
The WAC Preseason all-WAC volleyball team, as
voted on by the nine coaches, was announced Aug. 8. Hawai‘i All-American Jamie
Houston was named WAC Preseason Player of the Year. The reigning WAC Player of
the Year, this is
Two other Hawai‘i players, juniors Aneli
Cubi-Otineru and Amber Kaufman, joined
Chelsea Fowles of
WAC VOLLEYBALL FORMAT
For the fourth-straight year the WAC will not
compete in divisions. This season’s format will be a double-round robin. Each
team will face the other eight at home and on the road. All nine teams will
compete in the WAC Volleyball Tournament.
2008 WAC TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Nov. 20 (Quarterfinals)
Match
Match
Match
Match
Match 5 - Winner Match 1 vs. No. 1, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 21 (Semifinals)
Match 6 - Winner Match 3 vs. Winner Match 4, 5
p.m.
Match 7 - Winner Match 2 vs. Winner Match 5,
7:30 p.m.
Nov. 23 (Championship)
Match 8 - Winner Match 6 vs. Winner Match 7, 3
p.m.
HAWAI‘i TO HOST 2008
WAC VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT
The Western Athletic Conference announced that
Hawai‘i will host the 2008 WAC Volleyball Tournament, Nov. 20-23, at the
TOP STAT LEADERS
The following are the
returning statistical leaders in the WAC from 2007. In hitting efficiency, six
of the top 10 hitters are back, led for the second year by New Mexico State’s
Amber Simpson (.345) and San Jose State’s Colleen Burke (.373), who finished
No. 2 and No. 3 in the WAC, respectively. The remaining leaders are
Five of the top 10 kill leaders are back for
2008. The top returner is Hawai‘i’s Jamie Houston who has been first the last
two seasons, averaging 5.51 kpg.
Seven of the top assist leaders from last season
return for the 2008 campaign. Hawai‘i’s Stephanie Brandt is the top setter to
return, finishing last season first in the WAC (12.75 apg). WAC Freshman of the
Year, Chelsea Fowles, of Utah State was second in assists after averaging 12.45
apg, followed by Idaho’s Kelsey James (11.71 apg - fourth) and San Jose State’s
Emily Burke (11.44 apg - fifth). The remaining leaders are
Only six of the top 10 blockers return,
including
Eight of the top 10 servers also return,
including four of the top five.
All 10 of the dig leaders return for the 2008
season. For the second-straight season
SONNICHSEN AND
NETHERBY-SEWELL JOIN THE WAC FAMILY
Louisiana Tech and
Sonnichsen was the head coach at
In her two years at Hofstra, Netherby-Sewell led
the Pride to their first-ever Colonial Athletic Association Championship in
2006 with a 17-1 conference record. That team was ranked No. 32 in the country,
the highest ever ranking in school history. They also won their schools’ first
NCAA Tournament game and advanced to the second round. Her overall record as a
head coach is 43-19. Before being named head coach at Hofstra, Netherby-Sewell
was an assistant for the Pride for two seasons, following two years as an
assistant at
RETURNING ALL-WAC
PLAYERS
Of the 12 first-team all-WAC players in 2007,
six should return for the 2008 season, including two from Hawai‘i, Jamie
Houston and Aneli Cubi-Otineru. There are three returning from
REGIONAL SITES SELECTED
The NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Committee
has announced the following sites for regional competition of the 2008 NCAA
Division I Women’s Volleyball Championships.
Regionals (4) December 12-13, 2008
Host:
Moby Arena
Host:
Rec Hall
Host:
Gregory Gymnasium
Host:
Bank
of
