Box Score Box Score
LINCOLN, Neb. -- The No. 2 University of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine (33-1) defeated the No. 11 North Carolina Tar Heels (32-4) 30-21, 30-23, 30-22 in the Regional Semifinals of the NCAA Tournament at the NU Coliseum on the University of Nebraska campus Friday.
Kim Willoughby had her breakout match of the NCAA Tournament, hitting .500 with 22 kills and 16 digs. Lauren Duggins added 11 kills and a .429 hitting percentage while Lily Kahumoku had 16 kills and 11 digs. Melissa Villaroman and Hedder Ilustre also came up big in the back row, providing 13 digs apiece.
"We're extremely pleased to be advancing," head coach Dave Shoji said. "I thought it was a tough week for us because everybody was talking about the match up with Nebraska. We knew that North Carolina was a good team, and they proved that tonight. I think our team did a nice job of concentrating on what it had to do, that was to win. It feels good to be in this position and be one of the last eight teams to be playing at this time of the year.
The two teams stayed tight early on in game one as UH took a 15-11 lead into the media timeout. The Tar Heels cut the deficit to 20-17 before the Rainbow Wahine went on a big 6-0 run to go up 26-17. North Carolina held off three game points before Hawai`i went on to take the first game 30-21. Hawai`i hit .429 in the first game to UNC's .229, while the 'Bows dug up an amazing 25 balls.
North Carolina was able to jump out to a quick 6-3 lead in game two before UH took a 4-0 run to get the lead at 7-6. UNC got the lead back at 12-10 but another UH run of 5-0 put the Rainbow Wahine up 15-12 at the media timeout. The Tar Heels came back to tie the second game at 18-18, forcing a timeout by UH head coach Dave Shoji. The game was tied again at 19 before a back row kill by Willoughby. That ended a long rally and gave UH the slight edge. The 'Bows continued to roll, taking the second game 30-23. UH continued to dig up everything as they racked up 33 digs in game two.
Hawai`i rolled up a quick 9-3 lead to start game three. The Tar Heels continued to fight on but UH was too much taking the third game 30-22.
Hawai`i will next face the winner of the match between host Nebraska and Miami (Fla.) in the NU Coliseum at 7 p.m. Central. The match will be televised by ESPN and shown locally on Oceanic Cable (Channel 16).
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