PCAA Women’s Volleyball Final : Miller, Oden Lead Pacific Past Hawaii for Its 19th Straight Win

Junior Mary Miller completed an outstanding three-match series with 13 kills, and sophomore Elaina Oden had a team-high 18 kills to lead the University of the Pacific past Hawaii, 15-11, 16-14, 3-15, 15-9, for the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. women’s volleyball championship Saturday night at Cal State Long Beach.

In winning for the 19th straight time since losing same-day, five-game matches to Brigham Young and UCLA Oct. 11 at Pauley Pavilion, Pacific, the nation’s No. 2 team in the coaches’ poll, will take a 34-6 record into the NCAA playoffs. The Tigers also went 17-1 in the PCAA regular season, the nation’s toughest conference, the only loss coming to UC Santa Barbara in the season opener, and were taken to five games only once.

Miller, a first-year starter, came into Saturday’s match having recorded a very impressive .531 hitting percentage in the first two rounds of the tournament. She recorded 28 kills and just two errors in that span and also had a career-high 15 blocks Friday night in the semifinals against San Diego State.

Diana Jessie had 19 kills to lead fourth-ranked Hawaii (27-6), while Suzanne Eagye added 18 and Tita Ahuna 16.

“The only thing that killed us was Mary Miller,” Hawaii Coach Dave Shoji said. “It was real frustrating. She wasn’t really hitting the ball hard, just placing it well.

“I’m real proud of my team because we had every reason to shut it down when it was 12-4 in the fourth. We played seven hours of good volleyball (this tournament). It would have been hard to ask for any more.”

In addition to Miller being named MVP, Pacific, which starts four juniors and two sophomores, placed three others on the all-tournament team: Oden, Teri McGrath and Liz Hert. Eagye and Ahuna made it from Hawaii and Kris Morton was selected from San Diego State.