http://www.sltrib.com/11291998/sports/64080.htm

  http://newsnet.byu.edu/noframes/show_story.cfm?number=8138

  (so far)

Honolulu Star-Bulletin
http://starbulletin.com/98/11/30/sports/story4.html

Official UH website stats
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu/WVball/Stats/g31.htm

WAHINE WIN WAC TITLE IN A SLUGFEST.
  by Ann Miller-Advertiser Staff Writer.

  Even the winner-and new WAC champion-wasn't left standing.

  For 3 hours and 38 minutes yesterday, seventh ranked Hawaii and sixth ranked
Brigham Young threw volleyball haymakers at each other, transforming the
Western Athletic Conference championship match into much more than a test of
talent.
  The Wahine won by the improbable score of 15-12, 21-19, 13-15, 16-18, 24-22
to earn their first WAC championship, and erase the memory of losses to the
Cougars in the previous two finals.
  The difference was three points.  Hawaii (29-2) served for the match six
times in the fourth game and six more in the fifth.  BYU (28-3) had three
shots at it.
  "At the end, it was just fate that we won," said Hawaii coach Dave Shoji.
  The majority of an MGM Grand Garden crowd of 2,494 was delirious.  More than
100 were still cheering an hour later, greeting every Wahine who walked out of
the arena.
  UH senior co-captain Leah Karatti celebrated by falling flat on her stomach
after she got the final kill by abusing a blocker seven inches taller.  
Freshman Veronica Lima was flat on her back, too tired to cling to the knot of
teammates around Karatti.
  BYU coach Elaine Michaelis, practically the mother of volleyball after 37
years and more than 1,000 victories, was in awe.
  "That's one of the best volleyball matches I've seen in my career," she
said.  "And you know that goes back a long way."
  Shoji, a puppy in comparison after just 24 years and nearly 700 victories,
compared the match to his four national championships.
  "I feel very fortunate to be a part of one of the greatest matches I've ever
seen," he said.  "It was unbelievable on the bench...the energy, the emotional
roller coaster.  I don't think you're going to ever see a match quite like
that.  We've had bigger matches, but nothing like that."
  The teams took so many swings-621, to be exact-and absorbed so much
punishment that by the end it was simply survival volleyball.  Shoji compared
the rally scoring fifth game to watching "two punch-drunk fighters."
  Karratti collapsed with cramps after stuffing 6-foot-3 Nina Puikkonen to
give the Wahine their first lead in the fifth at 14-13.  After a BYU timeout,
and a quick Karratti recovery, the Cougars erased two match points and Hawaii
two more.
  Jessica Sudduth, playing more than one rotation for the first time since she
hurt her heel Nov. 10, stuffed BYU All-American Korie Rogers for 18-17.
  BYU called the final timeout and Rogers and Heather Bown-the tournament
MVP-traded kills twice.  After the Wahine touched the net, Nikki Hubbert snuck
a kill over.  But 6-4 Mari Burningham Carpenter's kill and the Cougar's 30th
block gave them their last try to end it.
  Hubbert and Karratti, the smallest players on the court, stuffed Carpenter.
 Lima's dink gave Hawaii a 23-22 lead.  Bown dug a ball and Karratti launched
it off Carpenter's arms.  It dropped on Hawaii's side, but outside the court.
  "The whole game was intense," said Karratti, who had 16 of her 23 kills in
the final three games.  "When I saw that it was going to land just a little
bit out I thought, 'Oh, my God, we won.'"
  It seemed as if no team would win.  Neither deserved to lose, a reality that
hit the Cougars as they talked of how much this match would help them in the
NCAA tournament.
  It was that rare moment when a game that had been anticipated for a year
actually surpassed its hype.
  All 19 players were heroes at least once.  Rogers and Puikkonen put up
triple doubles for the Cougars and the Wahine got at least 15 kills from five
hitters.
  Sudduth brought a desperately needed spark when all-tournament hitter Heidi
Ilustre couldn't find one more way past the Cougar's huge block.  And Tehani
Miyashiro, the all-tournament defensive specialist, played through a front-row
rotation in Game 2, when Shoji ran out of subs.
  It happened again in the fifth and Jennifer Roberts held her own in the back
row.  "In a rally-scoring game you never have to worry about running out of
subs," Shoji said.  "But when you play 24-22, we ran out of subs."
  It was that kind of night.  Hawaii broke from a 7-all tie to take control of
Game 1.
  The Wahine served for Game 2 six times and BYU five, despite losing the 18th
and 19th points because of a serve-receive violation.  Out of subs, the
Cougars went to an unfamiliar formation and Caroline Steuer Bower was called
for a "front-back overlap," meaning she was standing in front of a front-court
player.  BYU didn't fix the problem on the next serve, and lost another point.
  The Cougars scored four of the last five to rally in Game 3, then won the
fourth despite being down 11-14 and losing another point for rotating after
they scored.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM:
Heidi Ilustre (Hawaii)
Veronica Lima (Hawaii)
Nina Puikkonen (BYU)
Korie Rogers (BYU)
Angie Sylvas (UNLV)

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Heather Bown (Hawaii)

SETTER
Anna-Lena Smith (BYU)

DEFENSIVE SPECIALIST
Tehani Miyashiro (Hawaii)

STATS:

HAWAII
                G   K   E   A   Pct.   BS   BA   D   A
Karratti        5  23  10  65  .200    4    3   25   0
Bown            5  28  12  74  .216    1    8   10   1
Hubbert         5   6   2  15  .267    1    3   20   3
Lima            5  17  12  44  .114    0    5   18   2
Roberts         5  15   8  42  .167    1    4    6   0
Ilustre         5  21  17  63  .063    1    5   15   1
Bradley         3   0   0   0  .000    0    0    0   0
Sudduth         4   6   2  12  .333    1    1    8   0
Miyashiro       5   0   0   0  .000    0    0   13   0
Kim             5   0   0   1  .000    0    0    3   0
TOTALS            116  63 316  .168    9   29  118   7

BYU
                G   K   E   A   Pct.   BS   BA   D   A
Smith           5   7   3  23  .174    1    5   13   0
Rogers          5  18  12  40  .150    0   11   31   0
Steuer Bower    5   3   0  10  .300    0    1   13   2
Puikkonen       5  25   9  63  .254    6    8   19   1
Petrilli        5   0   1   2 -.500    0    0   10   0
Hjorth          5  16   8  64  .125    0    1   23   0
Layton          5  12   6  36  .167    0   15    4   1
Carpenter       5  24   9  67  .224    0    6    3   0
Midgley         2   0   0   0  .000    0    0    0   0
TOTALS            105  48 305  .187    7   47  116   4

I wasn't planning on posting anything since I haven't had the
opportunity to watch the entire match yet.  I missed half of the
broadcast because of a friend's wedding [string of four-letter words].

Having looked at the stats, I'm amazed at just how evenly matched the
teams were.  The only significant differences were in blocking and
serving.  BYU led in team blocks 30 to 23, but UH led in aces 7 to 4
and had half the number of service errors -- 7 to 14.  The stats don't
count near aces.  As usual, Veronica Lima had a number of near aces.
These teams should probably be a few notches higher in the AVCA poll,
but that no longer matters.  In any event, should BYU and UH make it
to the regional finals, the no. 1 seeds in their respective regions
will have their hands full.

In the tournament brackets, the only "sure thing" heading into the
final four may be LBSU.  Penn State hasn't played an opponent as big,
quick and tenacious as BYU yet so I don't consider PSU a sure thing
[hold the hate mail until after the regionals].  Nebraska would have
been a sure thing if not for the upset loss to Texas A&M.  As for
Florida, Mary Wise said she wanted no part of Hawaii in December, but
she gets the Rainbow Wahine in her region anyway.  Is is spite or a
sick twist of fate?