The University of Hawaii men's volleyball team spent an hour in the locker room following last night's loss at Long Beach State. The 15-12, 6-15, 15-6, 15-9 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation defeat was disappointing to Rainbow coach Mike Wilton not because it happened, but in the way it happened.
"What's hard for me to deal with is we got outfought tonight," said Wilton, whose seventh-ranked team slipped to 7-5 overall, 5-4 in the MPSF. "We may get beat but I don't want to be outscrapped, and Long Beach outscrapped us. We had an hour-long meeting after the game to see if we couldn't get on the same page, coaches included.
"The bottom line was, when it came time to answer the bell, we couldn't get off the stool."
The No. 10 49ers (9-4, 4-4) found an effective 1-2 punch in Geoff Cryst (32 kills) and Gaby Amar (18 kills) in avenging an earlier 3-1 loss to the Rainbows. Cryst was particularly successful in Game 4, putting down seven kills in rallying his team from a 6-2 deficit with a 13-3 match-winning run.
Hawaii now has a day to prepare for tomorrow's visit to No. 5 UCLA for the 20th Kilgour Cup. The Rainbows are 1-15 on the Bruins' home court, including a five-set defeat in last May's national championship.
"Our No. 1 goal is to compete," said Wilton. "Competing leads to dealing successfully with challenges. My feeling is that we're 0-for-whatever in challenges. I don't think we've prevailed when the chips are on the table since we beat Penn State in the second game of the season.
"It's not just the players. The coaches have to develop a degree of confidence to successfully deal with the adversity. I know one thing for sure, out of the ashes flew the beautiful phoenix. All things are possible."
Hawaii began its crash-and-burn routine toward the end of Game 1. The game was tied at 12-12 when Long Beach State ran off three straight points.
Wilton said the Rainbows' Game 2 win was due more to the 49ers not playing well than anything else. Game 3 found senior hitter Aaron Wilton continuing to struggle and senior blocker Jason Ring leave the match briefly after being hit with the ball in the face.
The Rainbows got little from their one right-side hitting spot, with Naveh Milo and Mason Kuo combining for 10 kills and 13 errors in hitting -.107.
"Sivan played pretty well (a team-high 20 kills) and Kahinu Lee came in in Game 4 and gave us a lift. The difference was that Long Beach has improved their passing since the last time we've played them. They touched a lot of balls. They made the plays. They groveled. And we didn't."
Aaron Wilton finished with 18 kills and 10 digs while Ring added 11 kills. Rick Tune had a double-double with 11 kills and 10 block assists.
Long Beach State def. Hawaii, 15-12, 6-15, 15-6, 15-9
Rainbows (7-5 overall, 5-4 MPSF)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Wilton 4 18 11 39 .179 0 5 10 Milo 2 5 7 14 -.143 0 3 8 Vaughan 4 4 1 8 .375 0 2 3 Leoni 4 20 5 32 .469 0 1 4 Ring 4 13 9 36 .111 1 6 6 Tune 4 11 5 25 .240 0 10 3 Lee 2 0 0 0 .000 0 1 1 Kuo 3 5 6 14 -.071 0 5 2 Salmeri 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Stanley 2 0 1 1 .000 0 0 1 Totals 4 76 45 169 .183 1 33 38
49ers (9-4 overall, 4-4 MPSF)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Dahl 3 5 1 8 .500 1 2 4 Pabarcus 4 8 3 19 .263 0 4 8 Seiffert 4 2 3 8 -.125 0 7 3 Walmer 4 5 5 16 .000 1 4 5 Cryst 4 32 17 66 .227 0 4 9 Amar 4 18 5 30 .433 1 10 6 Faber 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Ratledge 4 1 0 2 .500 0 0 1 Mariano 4 7 3 16 .250 0 2 6 Totals 4 78 37 165 .248 3 33 42Key: g-games. k-kills. e-hitting errors. at-attempts. pct.-hitting percentage. bs-block solos. ba-block assists. d-digs.
Aces--UH (4): Wilton 3, Vaughan 1. LBS (4): Amar 3, Mariano 1. Assists--UH (72): Vaughan 59, Lee 11, Milo 1, Tune 1. LBS (70): Seiffert 64, Pabarcus 4, Walmer 1, Amar 1.
Yellow cards--LBS (2): Walmer, Cryst. UH (1): Leoni.
A--692. T--2:00. Officials: Larry Schwartz, Bob Oshita.