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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Vulcans 'back to business'


By Kalani Takase
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Bruce Atkinson

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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.