Sheeeeeeeeee's Backkkkkk...

Finally, all this speculation about Jane not returning to the team has been put to rest as Ann Miller & the Star-Advertiser has reported that Jane is back to practice and may be seeing some playing time in the near near future. There has been a lot of talk regarding Dave's decision to not take her to California this weekend but this is how I see it PLAIN & SIMPLE - she broke team rules and what dave says is final. it doesn't matter what we think may be right or ethical, bottom line is she still has some ways to go to earn her starting spot back. i'm just happy to see her practicing those jump serves and i'm sure the rest of the state will be happy to see it next week (crosses fingers) as well.

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Croson practices

By Ann Miller, The Star-Advertiser

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Oct 25, 2012


Jamm Aquino / jaquino@staradvertiser.com
Hawaii's Jane Croson won't play this weekend, but her return is inching closer.



As ninth-ranked Hawaii leaves on its third volleyball road trip it is still without one of its best players — Jane Croson remains on suspension, but it is no longer "indefinite" — and with the NCAA's best current conference winning streak (65).

If the Rainbow Wahine come home with that record intact, after matches this weekend at Long Beach State and UC Irvine, Croson could rejoin them to try to add to it.

"She is back at practice and she has got a few obligations to meet," UH coach Dave Shoji says. "If everything goes well she could be activated next week."

Her presence has already been felt. At Tuesday's early morning practice Croson played for the "B" side, which won nearly every scrimmage against the starters. The drills were designed to give the reserves an advantage, but Croson's impact was still compelling.

She has been out, for breaking unspecified team rules, more than three weeks. It didn't look like she had missed a beat

"If that's the case next week," Shoji said, "she'll start."

In her absence, the Wahine (17-2, 10-0 Big West) have moved up to No. 18 in the NCAA power ranking — closer to hosting a NCAA subregional — and have had to search even deeper to find themselves, and stability. While setter Mita Uiato and defenders Ali Longo and Emily Maeda have been remarkably consistent all season, their teammates have taken turns watching each other's backs.

The revamped middle continues to have dramatic highs and lows. Freshman hitter Tai Manu-Olevao was activated after Croson's suspension and provided a huge boost against Cal State Northridge and UC Davis. When she struggled in Saturday's five-set win over Pacific, Kaela Goodman was extremely effective.

"Kaela plays well in practice, she just hasn't been able to duplicate that in games," Shoji said of the junior. "She hits for a high percentage in practice, but has only done that occasionally in games, not consistently. We'll see how it goes this weekend."

The most eye-popping difference with Croson out has been transfer Ashley Kastl's emergence. Forced to play all six rotations, she has helped stabilize the passing and put up three double-doubles, with 11 kills and 10-plus digs in each. Last week, Kastl also found an efficiency that has eluded her, hitting nearly .300 to raise her percentage to more than .200.

Second-team All-American Emily Hartong, who moved from the middle to outside this year, continues to lead the conference — and is 17th nationally — in kills, but she had to rally after poor starts the past two matches.

As a group, Hawaii has started slowly and lost the opening set in its past three, all at home. If that happens at Walter Pyramid Friday or Crawford Hall Saturday, its Big West blitz could end. Shoji also knows his team dominated the 49ers (11-9, 6-3) and Anteaters (9-14, 4-5) a month ago, outhitting them 3-to-1 and keeping both under 20 points. That often leads to letdowns the second time around.

Long Beach's lineup has gone through more changes than Hawaii's this year. It lost a setter and all-region middle to injury before the season. Now Delainey Aigner-Swesey, the 49ers' leading hitter, is out for the rest of the year with a hand injury. Starting middle Alma Serna has been suspended indefinitely.

Still, the Beach keeps winning. The defending conference champion is alone in second and has won four of five since leaving Hawaii, sweeping Irvine last week despite getting down 22-20 in all three sets.

Both road matches begin at 4 p.m. Hawaii time. Friday's will be telecast live on FSN Prime Ticket (channel 228). Both will be broadcast live on 1420-AM and streamed live at bigwest.tv.

AVCA Poll, RPI, Big West Nomination & Jane Croson...

AVCA Poll is up and it appears as though the Top 12 has not changed at all.

1	Penn State (54)	1491	20-1	1
2	Stanford (4)	1412	18-2	2
3	Oregon (2)	1371	18-1	3
4	Nebraska	1342	17-2	4
5	Washington	1257	17-2	5
6	UCLA	1189	15-4	6
7	USC	1145	19-3	7
8	Texas	1062	16-3	8
9	Hawai'i	1029	17-2	9
10	Minnesota	953	17-4	10
11	Florida	894	17-2	11
12	Florida State	835	18-2	12

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Hawaii moved up about 4-5 spots to #18 in today's RPI. We can probably thank Stanford and Saint Mary's for winning big. If Stanford, UCLA and Saint Mary's continue to do well - we may be seeing a 1st & 2nd Round match at the SSC come December.

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Surprised that Emily Hartong received Hawaii's nomination for this week's Big West Player of the Week and not surprised she didn't win I felt Vorster and Kastl pulled out better performances and overall, Vorster should have received the nomination and the eventual Athlete of the Week Award. For the weekend, she had 20 kills with 1 error out of 31 attempts hitting at an amazing .613 clip while adding 12 total blocks. I know Hawaii's trying to push Emily's bid to win Big West Player of the Year but Vorster was just out of this world.

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Hawaii will be leaving in the next couple of days and I'm curious to find out if Jane Croson will be joining them on this weekends road trip. According to Cindy, her suspension nearly appears to be over but I prefer to believe it when I see it. If Jane does join the team, I wonder who will be staying home? Tai Manu Olevao or Ginger Long? Ginger has an amazing serve that basically broke apart Pacific's serve-receive game but Tai needs to develop more as a player - I forsee that last seat going to Tai in hopes that she'll contribute heavily when the wahine need it most in December.

No. 9 Rainbow Wahine Top UC Davis, Remain Perfect in the Big West

HONOLULU – Emily Hartong buried a match-high 18 kills and the No. 9 University of Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine remained undefeated in Big West Conference play with a 23-25, 25-16, 25-21, 25-16 win over UC Davis on Thursday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Ashley Kastl equaled a season-best 11 kills for the 'Bows, who improved to 9-0 in conference and 16-2 overall. Mita Uiato added a season-high 50 assists. The Aggies (10-11, 4-4 Big West) were led by Allison Whitson and Devon Damelio who each had 13 kills.

The 'Bows and Aggies were even for much of the opening set, but a pair of unforced errors by UH gave UC Davis a 17-14 lead. The teams went back and forth as the Aggies carried their lead late into the set before winning 25-23. A Kastl kill and block assists by Tai Manu-Olevao and Kalei Adolpho staved off two match points, but UC Davis clinched the win off a Damelio kill. Manu-Olevao and Adolpho both posted nine kills with Adolpho adding a match-high five blocks.

Set two was a different story as three straight kills and a Ginger Long service ace helped Hawai'i to an early 10-4 lead. UH kept it rolling and pushed to a 20-13 advantage off a thunderous Kastl kill, and later evened the match before heading to intermission.

UC Davis held an early 7-3 lead in the third set before Manu-Olevao caught fire and buried three early kills to cut the lead to 8-7. A Valerie Brain (10 kills) kill pushed the lead to 15-12 for the Aggies, but UH responded and, after back-to-back blocks by Adolpho, took a 19-18 lead. Hawai'i sustained the momentum and won the set off a Jade Vorster (7 kills, 4 blocks) block. Set four became a formality as UH cruised to a 25-16 win to take the match.

The 'Bows continue Big West play on Saturday when they host Pacific. First serve at the Stan Sheriff Center is set for 7:00 p.m.

Hawaii vs. UC Davis

This is a simple blog to discuss all things HAWAII volleyball.

I love Cindy's blog but since she will be on hiatus for who knows how long, I thought this would be the perfect outlet for all you die-hard fans to gather and discuss what we eat, breathe and sleep.

NEXT UP: Hawaii (15-0, 8-0 BW) vs. UC Davis (10-10, 4-3 BW)