UH teams reverse losing trend

Last week, I was grumbling about the winter woes of University of Hawaii teams, who – at that time – had lost a combined 18 games.

Wouldn’t you know it?  Each of those teams ended their respective losing streaks since then.

None more impressively than the men’s volleyball team.  Off to a 1-6 start and in the midst of a six-match skid, the Rainbows stunningly swept a pair of matches against second-ranked Cal State Northridge.

Joshua Walker had 19 kills, nine kills and four blocks in Saturday’s 30-26, 21-30, 32-30, 30-26 win at the Stan Sheriff Center.  On Friday, the Bows outlasted the Matadors in five games.

The men’s basketball team stopped a five-game skid and nine-game road losing streak with a win at LaTech on Thursday on a last-second shot by Petras Balocka.

But UH reverted to form on Saturday, suffering an 82-72 loss at New Mexico State despite a 27-point effort by Roderick Fleming.   UH is now 10-11 overall and 2-7 in the WAC.

The UH women finally won a game, on the road no less, defeating Utah State 63-61 on Megan Tinnin’s layup with 17.5 seconds left to end an eight-game skid.  UH then suffered a 66-50 loss to Idaho on Sunday despite a career-high 17 points by Tara Hittle.  UH dropped to 4-17 overall and 1-7 in the WAC.

STATE SOCCER:  Four MIL teams will be taking part in the state high school girls tournaments that kick off tomorrow as Oahu’s Waipio Soccer Complex.

Leading the way is Kamehameha-Maui, which edged out King Kekaulike for the MIL Division-I title and earned a No. 1 seed at states.

The Warriors posted an 11-1-2 league mark and will draw a first-round bye before opening its bid at 3 p.m. Thursday, facing the winner of the first-round game between Punahou (9-0-3) and Pearl City (9-4-2).

Kekaulike (11-2-1) will open against surprise qualifier Kahuku (6-6-4) at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

The top seed in D-I went to three-time defending champ Kamehameha (10-0-2). OIA champ Mililani (14-0-1) was seeded second and Big Island champ Hilo (10-1-2) was seeded fourth.

In D-II, the MIL also qualified two teams, although neither has a particularly impressive record.  As a result, neither was seeded into the tournament and both will have to play at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

St. Anthony (3-10-1) faces Radford (5-3-4) at 3 p.m. and Seabury Hall (2-10-2) will meet Honoka’a (8-4-1).

The D-II seeds went to  No. 1 Kailua, No. 2 Kauai, No. 3 Pac-Five and No. 4 defending champ Kamehameha-Hawaii.