Three-time Hawai'i All-American Kim Willoughby is back in Puerto Rico playing volleyball. She has been there since before the hurricanes that hit her native Louisiana. Willoughby thought about playing pro basketball in Puerto Rico, but now is in what she calls her "final" year of pro volleyball there.

What about the rest of the 2003 seniors?

Lily Kahumoku and Maja Gustin were planning to play professionally on the same "second-division" team in Italy. Kahumoku is playing but Gustin, who has her degree, became ill and isn't yet with the team, at last report.

Nohea Tano graduated this summer and moved to Tennessee with son Koby to be with fiance Travis Laboy. The former Warrior defensive end plays for the Titans.

Karin Lundqvist graduated in May and returned to Sweden. She and Sara Uddstahl are playing the FIVB world beach tour in an attempt to represent Sweden at the 2008 Olympics. They have a third (in Italy) and a fifth (in France) among their 11 appearances this year.

Angelica Ljungquist, 30, and Anna Vorwerk, 40, — two other Swedes who played for UH — also competed on the FIVB tour after collegiate careers.

Lauren Duggins is finishing her student teaching, will graduate in May and is planning her wedding. Melissa Villaroman is also finishing her degree. She and Duggins played in the alumnae match. Villaroman was training with the national team and could go back, but has been hampered by an injury.

Last year's seniors — Teisa Fotu and Melody Eckmier — are planning to graduate soon. Eckmier, who married Ben Studer over the summer, is about halfway through graduate school studying marine geophysics. More specifically, she is studying "accretionary prisms in the Nankai Trough," located on the ocean floor southeast of Japan.

NOTES

Today's match will be broadcast live on 1420 AM at about 1:45 Hawai'i time. Saturday's match at New Mexico State starts at about 2:45 p.m.

NMSU's Tanya Allen leads the Western Athletic Conference in aces (0.70 per game) and Kim Oguh is second in hitting (.387), to UH senior Victoria Prince. Oguh and Prince are more than 50 points higher than any other WAC player. The Rainbow Wahine do not have a player among the top 10 in WAC kills, but setter Kanoe Kamana'o is No. 1 in assists and the team is No. 2 in kills.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.