Wahine’s depth only
leads to more questions

Talent line between starter and sub is blurry

By Cindy Luis
Star-Bulletin

Ready or not, here they come.

The University of Hawaii women's volleyball team has just a few days to prepare for Friday's season opener with Illinois State. This week's practices might only further muddle the starting-lineup game Wahine coach Dave Shoji is playing in his head.

The team-bonding experience last week on Maui appears to have been too successful, blurring the talent lines between starter and reserve. Saturday night's intrasquad scrimmage -- won by the "B" team, 19-17, 15-6, 13-15 -- at the Special Events Arena did little to solve Shoji's dilemma.

Players switched teams during the scrimmage, foreshadowing the likely scenario this season where some positions could become revolving doors. Senior Therese Crawford is set at one left-side hitter, senior Cia Goods in the middle and junior Nikki Hubbert at setter.

But ask Shoji to name the rest of the starting lineup and he says, "I can't."

"I didn't realize how deep we were," said Crawford, the team's lone senior, who put down 13 kills in 46 swings. "It's both good and bad that our hitters were getting blocked and getting dug. We're all the same team and that was our team doing that on the other side."

Freshmen Jessica Sudduth and Jameka Stevens looked good as left-side hitters Saturday. But the 6-foot-2 Sudduth could wind up in the middle -- where she played in Game 3 -- because she is a better all-around player than either Lori Garber or Jennifer Roberts.

Sophomore redshirt Leah Karratti was the surprise of fall camp and had a solid outing Saturday night (eight kills, 10 digs, five blocks). But sophomore Heidi Ilustre has the edge for the right-side spot thus far.

About the only thing for certain is that junior hitter Kelli Cordray won't play for at least the next two weeks. She has not been cleared to practice due to a small hole in her lung that is slowly healing.

"I hope we're ready by Friday, but that's the dream of every coach in the country," Shoji said. "My reaction after the game (Saturday) was that we weren't very good. But after thinking about it for 24 hours, I think there were a lot of positives. Our passing, the defense."

The paid crowd of 5,154 saw a lot of unfamiliar faces, leading to unfair comparisons with Wahine teams that went a combined 66-4 the past two seasons. Angelica Ljungquist, Robyn Ah Mow, Chastity Nobriga and Joselyn Robins reminded the fans of that during the alumnae match.

"There's no question we've been pretty spoiled the last two years," Shoji said. "There's a lot of things that have been taken for granted in terms of our setting (Ah Mow) and middle attack (Ljungquist). I think the fans have to be prepared that, realistically, we'll probably have between five and nine losses this year.

"This is going to be a tough weekend for us. Kansas State got to the regionals, Illinois State won its conference. These are two teams with a lot of capability."

Already there's been an upset. Defending NCAA champion and preseason No. 1 pick Stanford was swept by second-ranked Penn State Saturday, 15-8, 15-13, 15-10, for the NACWAA Invitational championship.

Friday, Penn State stopped BYU, 15-8, 15-5, 12-15, 15-13.