NCAA Tournament: Women?s volleyball to face heat in Hawaii @supost.com

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Date: Thu, Dec 07, 2006, 08:00 AM

<div class=fright>W. VOLLEYBALL<hr>Friday, 6:30 p.m. v. Oklahoma Honolulu, Hawaii</div>Usually when the women?s volleyball team travels to Hawaii, its members find time to have dinner at Duke?s Waikiki Restaurant, overlooking the sandy beaches and the clear, blue Pacific Ocean. They also like to get in some shopping and soak up some Hawaiian sun. But this weekend, the No. 4 Bruins will not have the time to enjoy any of this aloha spirit. As the NCAA Regionals are upon them, this trip to Honolulu is all business. ?I think there will be certain rules, like you can?t go to the beach, or you can?t be out in the sun ? (coach Andy Banachowski) won?t want us doing that,? said outside hitter Katie Carter, who, along with the rest of the team, received a pink lei after defeating Utah last Saturday. ?He?ll probably be very strict on resting. We?ll all be pretty good about that because, you know ? national championship, or staying in your room while you?re in Hawaii?? Carter said. UCLA (31-3) has a date with No. 12 Oklahoma (28-5) in the regional semifinals Friday at 6:30 p.m,, to be followed by the matchup between host school No. 11 Hawai?i and No. 5 USC at 9 p.m. Though the potential bout against the winner of the Hawai?i-USC game weighs on the Bruins? minds, they are making sure not to overlook Oklahoma. ?Anything could happen at this point,? Carter said. ?(Oklahoma is) definitely going to give us a good fight. I?m sure a lot of these underdogs are going to be looking for (an upset). Hopefully we?ll just roll over them and sweep like we did last weekend; that would be awesome. But I expect them to be pretty good. They?ll be out for us, so hopefully we?ll be prepared.? The Sooners are having one of their best seasons in school history, with the recently released No. 12 ranking, their highest in history, according to SoonerSports.com. Oklahoma women?s volleyball also finished second in the Big 12 this year ? the team?s best finish ever ? with a 17-3 record. But the Bruins are well aware of the intensity Oklahoma will bring, and they will be making sure not to let the Sooners pull the wool over their eyes. The Bruins are the fourth seed, while the Sooners are seeded 13th. ?They?ve had a great year,? Banachowski said. ?They?re an athletic team. They?ve got good speed. They play an aggressive-style ball.? Barring a surprise victory by the Sooners that would shake up the bracket, UCLA will likely live another day to face either USC or Hawai?i on Saturday in the regional finals at 8:30 p.m. But whom would the Bruins rather face: a feisty USC squad from whom they?ve already squeezed out two victories; or Hawai?i, with thousands of supporters filling the arena, whom they swept early in September? ?It would be fun to play Hawai?i because it?s their home town and they have a lot of fans,? setter Nellie Spicer said. ?But ?SC, they?re always fun to play against.? ?People say it?s hard to beat a team three times,? Carter said. ?So maybe if we played Hawai?i, it would be easier. But we know USC is going to be out for us, and we know Hawai?i is going to be out for us because we?ve swept both of them. Either (matchup) is going to be good.? As the NCAA Tournament advances, UCLA?s opponents are only getting tougher and tougher. But the Bruins feel their destiny is in their own hands. ?This weekend is just as hard as we make it,? Carter said. ?If we just play on our own side and we?re focused, everything is going to be a piece of cake. But if we make it a bigger deal than it is, it?s going to be tough. I think the ball is in our court; we have to decide what we want to do, because we could totally just roll over both of these teams.? Should the Bruins pick off Oklahoma on Friday, they will advance out of the regional semifinals for the first time since 2001, when Long Beach State took the Bruins out of the running. UCLA has been unable to reach the regional final game since then, despite making it to the regional semifinals for the past four years. ?We?ve been (to the regional semifinals) a lot,? said Banachowski, who has seen seven of his past eight teams make it to that round, three of which continued on to the regional finals. ?Its tough to move on past that round. But I think we?ve got the best chance that we?ve ever had. We?ve got a really solid team, with the kids playing really well,? Banachowski said. <a href='; target='_blank'>;