Box Score Box Score

SAN JOSE, Calif. – The No. 11 University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine (25-4) defeated the WAC tournament's No. 5 seed, Fresno State (14-10) 30-18, 30-25 and 30-18 at the Event Center Saturday night.

Kim Willoughby put another mark on her impressive resume for the season as she broke the WAC's record for kills in a season with 26 on the night to raise her season total to 661. (The old record was 653 by Tea Nieminen of BYU in 1990.) Willoughby is now just 27 kills off the school single season record, held by Teee Williams in 1988. She also added 17 digs and a .429 hitting percentage.

Maja Gustin also helped out the cause with 16 kills and a .414 hitting percentage while Jen Carey had another solid performance with eight kills, eight assists and six digs while hitting .583.

The Wahine started out battling as the score was at 15-10 Hawaii at the first media timeout. UH then came out firing, extending their lead to 21-11 to force the Bulldogs to take a timeout. Fresno State kept fighting but the Wahine proved to be too much, taking game 1 by the score of 30-18.

The Bulldogs continued to keep the match close as the Wahine couldn't extend their lead past two points. Fresno State then took their first lead of the match in the second game at 11-10 before extending the lead to 13-11. The game would continue to go back and forth into the media timeout when Fresno State held a 15-14 lead. FSU took their lead to 18-16 before the Wahine fought back to take a 22-20 lead. Hawaii continued to roll and Willoughby then killed her record breaking 19th and 20th balls to end the second game 30-25.

Hawaii continued to roll, starting off the third game 6-1. The Bulldogs then went on a 6-1 run of their own to tie the match at seven. The Wahine grabbed a 15-11 lead at the media timeout before the Bulldogs cut the lead to 17-16. But UH would not be denied as they went on a 13-2 run to end the match with a 30-18 game 3 win.

The Wahine will now take on the winner of the Nevada/San Jose State match in the WAC championship match tomorrow at 1 p.m. Following the match the team will jump on a flight back to Hawaii before having to fly back up to Stockton, Calif., for the Banker's Classic at the University of Pacific.