Frequent Flyers: UH on the Road Again

By Fred Guzman

Cue up the old Willie Nelson song, and dedicate the tune to the Universty of Hawaii football team. Coming off a bye, UH is back on the road again this week, playing away  from home for the third time in four games.

On Friday, Hawaii will pay a visit to San Jose State for a nationally televised game before hosting New Mexico State the following Saturday at Aloha Stadium.

San Jose State is coming off a 29-16 loss to BYU, dropping the Spartans to 2-4 after having won their previous two outings.

In other weekend games involving teams from the WAC: Fifth-ranked Boise State routed Fresno State 57-7, Nevada beat UNLV 37-0, Louisiana Tech topped Idaho 24-11, and Utah State crushed Wyoming 63-19.

Although most of the attention at Hawaii has been focused on an offense led by senior quarterback Bryant Moniz, UH has received a huge boost from an opportunistic defensive unit that ranks among the national leaders by forcing 19 turnovers.

The Bows are 3-2 for the season and 1-0 in the WAC, which – as a league – hasn’t exactly excelled in non-conference competiton.

In fact, the record of WAC teams outside of their league is a dismal 10-20.  One more fact:  UH is the only WAC team with a winning record at this point in the season.

VOLLEYBALL: Ninth-ranked Hawaii swept San Jose State 25-21, 25-8, 25-19, improving to 15-1 overall and 5-0 in the WAC. Freshman Kalei Adolpho of Molokai High had one kill one dig in limited duty.  Hawai’i next plays on the road at New Mexico State on Wednesday and LaTechon Friday.  Wednesday’s match will be telecast on ESPNU.

SOCCER:  The Rainbow Wahine’s road woes continued over the weekend.  UH suffered a 4-2 loss on Friday against WAC rivl Idaho and then were beaten 3-0 by Seattle in a non-conference match.  UH dropped to 3-10 overall, including 0-7 on the mainland, and 2-1 in the WAC.  UH returns home for matches against Fresno State on Friday and San Jose State on Saturday.  Senior midfielder Kaylee Kihara has appeared in all 13 games, nine of them in a starting role.