By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Since Saturday there has been this strange, indescribable feeling deep in the gut of the University of Hawai‘i Wahine volleyball team.

Lily Kahumoku said she “almost felt nauseous.”

Kim Willoughby only knew “I didn’t like it at all.”

Jessica Sudduth searched but never found the right words. “You need to take this feeling and not feel it again,” she said slowly. “It’s awful.”

“It” is losing. Before Saturday, and that surreal two-hour siege at Long Beach State, the Wahine hadn’t felt it in nearly a year. For some of their six first-year players, it had been longer.

“We all hate to lose,” Veronica Lima said, “so what we got from Saturday was that feeling, after winning 27 in a row. At least we have a second chance. We learned from that game that if we lose again there is no second chance, and that feeling that we had after the game won’t go away until August.

“We have to keep fighting hard on the court when things are not so good. I hope we can all keep thinking that because I don’t want to feel like that again.”

Going into tonight’s NCAA Tournament first-round match against Davidson (Utah and Texas Tech play in the first match at 5 p.m.), the Wahine are wavering between remembering Saturday and wiping it away forever. Both options have merit.

At this moment, only 64 Division I teams exist and all are 0-0. All the previous three months meant to Hawai‘i was that it got to stay home this week and, if it wins tonight and tomorrow, next week. From now on, the first — and only — team with six victories wins.

But questions about accountability, a suddenly soft block and inefficient hitting linger from Long Beach. A team that appeared brutally balanced its first 27 matches was reduced to survival skills Saturday.

Tonight, coach Dave Shoji wants those replaced by what Sudduth calls a “no-mercy outlook.”

“My main thing,” Shoji said, “is I want us to dictate the tempo of the game, be very, very aggressive and not let things happen to us. That’s what A&M did to us last year. We were sitting around watching them and really couldn’t match what they were doing. Even though Texas A&M had a great match, we could have won and should have won if we had been super aggressive.

“We need to just go out and attack, hit the ball hard. If we get blocked straight down, so be it. We can’t be tentative, or play cautiously. If the other team has a great match, we just need to be better.”

Certainly, the Wahine need to be better than Saturday to win their fifth national championship. They probably need freshman middle blocker Maja Gustin to get there.

Gustin, Hawai‘i’s highest percentage hitter (.371) and among the country’s top six blockers, sprained her ankle Friday and didn’t play against The Beach. She probably won’t play tonight, but could tomorrow.

“What was different Saturday was that Maja was out,” Kahumoku said. “When you lose a player, no matter who it is, it’s like the loss of a limb. Our team is like one body. When you lose someone, emotionally it’s very detrimental. We went out there with one arm.”

Sometime this weekend, Hawai‘i could be whole again. Shoji believes the Wahine’s destiny remains in their hands.

“We still control our fate,” he said. “We’re home; we’re a good team; we just have to go out and be very aggressive at this point and not let things happen to us.”

QUICK SETS: About 100 ticket packages were sold yesterday, bringing the total to 5,600. Because the sub-regional is not a sellout, KFVE will televise Hawai‘i’s matches on a same-day delay basis, starting at 9 tonight and tomorrow (if UH wins tonight). ... Single-date tickets will be on sale today and tomorrow.