Vulcans 'back to business'
By Kalani Takase
Advertiser Staff Writer
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The University of Hawai'i-Hilo women's volleyball team is done celebrating.
The Vulcans (25-1) clinched the Pacific West Conference championship weeks ago, but just found out their postseason destination Sunday.
UH-Hilo, riding a nine-match winning streak, earned the fourth seed in the eight-team Western Regional, which begins Thursday at Cal State San Bernardino. The Vulcans, ranked No. 14 nationally, will play fifth-seeded Alaska-Anchorage (22-6) in their opening match.
"We clinched our conference and got the automatic bid a while ago, so we sort of got over the anxiety of worrying about if we were going to get into the regionals or not," UH-Hilo coach Bruce Atkinson said. "It's pretty much back to business."
The Vulcans and Seawolves had one previous meeting this season, which UH-Hilo won in straight sets Sept. 11.
In that match, Anchorage hit negative-.069 while the Vulcans finished at .262 and were led by Fabiane Seben's 11 kills.
UH-Hilo, which has not played a match since Nov. 7, left for Los Angeles via Honolulu yesterday.
"It's tough to come back after being off for a couple of weeks to compete," Atkinson said. "Hopefully with another one or two practice sessions we'll be good to go."
WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Final standings Overall Conf. GB
UH-Hilo 25-1 15-1 —
Dixie State 18-7 12-4 3
Hawai'i Pacific 14-11 11-5 4
Grand Canyon 21-8 10-6 5
BYU-Hawai'i 13-14 9-7 6
Notre Dame de Namur 11-22 6-10 9
Academy of Art 18-15 5-11 10
Chaminade 5-21 3-13 12
Dominican 6-24 1-15 14
LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
THURSDAY
Academy of Art def. Notre Dame de Namur 28-26, 25-20, 25-22
HPU def. BYU-Hawai'i 25-19, 25-22, 25-20
FRIDAY
Grand Canyon def. Dominican 23-25, 25-19, 19-25, 25-19, 15-8
Dixie State def. Academy of Art 23-25, 28-30, 25-15, 25-20, 15-12
SATURDAY
Dixie State def. Notre Dame de Namur 25-23, 25-15, 25-20
Grand Canyon def. Dominican 25-9, 25-8, 25-17
HPU def. Chaminade 25-20, 25-17, 25-23
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Chaminade basketball coach Matt Mahar knows the odds are against his Silverswords at next week's EA Sports Maui Invitational. Joining host Chaminade are Division I teams Arizona, Cincinnati, Colorado, Gonzaga, Maryland, Vanderbilt and Wisconsin. "It's certainly an exciting time for us," Mahar said. "We're a really young team this year with a lot of brand new kids — only one of our players has been to Maui with us — so I think all we want to do is compete and try to get better as a group." The Silverswords open with No. 25 Maryland Monday.
Last week's results
SUNDAY
Cal State Monterey Bay 66, Academy of Art 52
YESTERDAY
San Francisco 92, Dominican 66
Notre Dame de Namur 76, Pacific Union 69
This week's games
TODAY
Grand Canyon at Cal State Dominguez Hills
Alaska-Anchorage at HPU
FRIDAY
Grand Canyon vs. New Mexico Highlands
UH-Hilo vs. St. Martin's
Dominican at Seattle Pacific
HPU at Sonoma State
Notre Dame de Namur at Western Oregon
SATURDAY
Dominican vs. Western Washington
Academy of Art at The Master's
Notre Dame de Namur vs. St. Martin's
HPU vs. Humboldt State
Cal State Dominguez Hills at Dixie State
Grand Canyon vs. Fort Lewis
UH-Hilo at Western Oregon
MONDAY
Maryland vs. Chaminade
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
The women's basketball season will get into full swing this week as six of the eight PacWest teams will play non-conference games. UH-Hilo continues its road trip in Alaska with games at Alaska-Fairbanks tomorrow and Thursday while preseason conference favorite Grand Canyon will host UC San Diego Saturday.
LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
SUNDAY
Cal Poly Pomona 61, Notre Dame de Namur 44
Alaska-Anchorage 100, UH-Hilo 48
YESTERDAY
Grand Canyon 72, Western New Mexico 43
Cal Poly Pomona 79, at Dominican 55
Alaska-Anchorage 102, UH-Hilo 44
THIS WEEK'S GAMES
TODAY
San Francisco State at Notre Dame de Namur
Pacific Union at Dominican
TOMORROW
UH-Hilo at Alaska-Fairbanks
THURSDAY
UH-Hilo at Alaska-Fairbanks
FRIDAY
Dixie State at Fort Lewis
Academy of Art at William Jessup
Notre Dame de Namur at Chico State
SATURDAY
Dixie State at Western State
UC San Diego at Grand Canyon
HPU at Colorado School of Mines
Notre Dame de Namur at Sonoma State
MONDAY
HPU at Adams State
WOMEN'S SOCCER
Hawai'i Pacific second-year coach Michelle Nagamine was named PacWest Coach of the Year after leading the Sea Warriors to a 10-8-1 record and third-place finish in the league. "In our first season, we were 5-14 and were seventh place out of eight teams," Nagamine said. "We had a really good recruiting year, we brought in a number of program changers and we ended up third place out of nine teams this year." HPU freshmen Meghan and Amber Fuller were named first-team All-PacWest. Meghan, a forward and Pearl City High graduate, was named Newcomer and Freshman of the Year while Amber, a Kamehameha graduate, was one of four midfielders honored. Sophomore Carianne Makino, a Kaiser graduate, was named Goalkeeper of the Year. Dixie State senior midfielder Mikala Wilves was named PacWest Player of the Year. The Red Storm, making their first NCAA Tournament appearance, lost their first-round match, 4-1, Friday to Cal State Dominguez Hills.