The final of this year's Western Athletic Conference Women's Volleyball Tournament — a match the University of Hawai'i has never missed — will be televised live on ESPNU, the conference announced yesterday.

The WAC also set the schedule for the tournament, which will be at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

The final will be played at 4:30 p.m. HST on Nov. 25 — the day before Thanksgiving. The tournament starts Nov. 23, with the top two seeds getting a bye and the next four playing in the first round. Semifinals are the following night. Matches the first two nights are at 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. HST.

The tournament champion earns the WAC's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.

All-session tickets for the WAC Volleyball Tournament are $45 and can be purchased over the phone (888-234-2334) or online (or leansarena.com/event-cal endar/wac-volleyball-tour nament).

The pandaonline.com site linked to the UH Web site has a five-day package (Nov. 21 to 25) for the tournament, starting at $819 per person for double or triple occupancy. It includes air, a room at The Orleans, airport transfers and an all-session pass.

The Rainbow Wahine have won the last 11 WAC championships. They open the 2009 season Aug. 28, against Western Michigan, in the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational.

MORE VOLLEYBALL

RUSSIA SWEEPS U.S.

The U.S. men's national volleyball team ended its World League campaign yesterday with a 25-22, 25-22, 25-23 loss to Russia at Beogradska Arena in Belgrade, Serbia.

Team USA, which won the 2008 World League title, finished with a 5-9 record. Russia (9-4) will play Serbia (9-4) today to determine seeding heading into the semifinals.

Sean Rooney led the U.S. with 14 points on 12 kills, one block and one ace. Honolulu's Clay Stanley, who started at opposite, had six points on six kills.

FISHING

FIGHT TO FINISH

Kona Game Fishing Club-Bellhope of Japan boated a 332-pound Pacific blue marlin and tagged and released another estimated at 275 pounds yesterday to zoom into second place at the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament in waters off Kailua, Kona.

Kona Game Fishing Club-Bellhope, fishing aboard Marlin Magic, has amassed 1,343 points — just 24 points behind Malibu Marlin Club heading into today's final round of fishing.

"Anything's possible tomorrow," HIBT founder Peter Fithian said. "With more than 77 fish caught over the last four days, there is a whole lot of movement within the scoreboard."

Pajaro Valley Game Fishing Club No. 2 has 1,250 points, the same total as Old South Marlin Club No. 4, which also made a major move by tagging and releasing three Pacific blue marlins estimated to weigh 150, 200 and 275 pounds.

The fourth day's catch totalled 41 fish — 28 Pacific blue marlin that were tagged and released, four Pacific blue marlin that were boated, six short-nose spearfish that were tagged and released, and one striped marlin, one sailfish and one ahi.

BASEBALL

MAUI FALLS, 6-5

Nevada scored a run in the top of the seventh inning Wednesday to beat Maui, 6-5, on the final day of pool play in the Little League Big League (ages 16-18) West Regional at Bremerton, Wash.

Dayton Alexander had three hits and Skyler Cabacungan had two for Maui (3-1), which finished second to Nevada (3-1) in Pool A and played Southern California (3-0) last night. The result of that game was not available.

BASKETBALL

RAIDERS ROLL

Kaimuki's Desmond Tautofi scored 20 points and 'Iolani's Kainoa Chu added 17 points yesterday as the Hawai'i Raiders high school all-star basketball team defeated California power Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.), 76-64, in the Reebok Summer Championships tournament at Las Vegas.

The Raiders play three games today.