Tuesday, February 24, 1998
It’s a struggle, but
Rainbows survive
The No. 4-ranked UH men's
From staff and wire reports
volleyball team has a tough time
against San Diego StateSAN DIEGO -- The rain poured down outside of Peterson Gym last night. It was nothing compared to the storm inside.
Led by Dejan Miladinovic's 28 kills and nine blocks, No. 4 Hawaii sloshed its way to a 15-10, 13-15, 15-13, 15-8 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation victory over unranked San Diego State. The Rainbows needed 2 hours and 5 minutes to finally subdue the Aztecs for the seventh consecutive meeting in front of some 200 fans.
"It was a struggle again," said Hawaii coach Mike Wilton, whose team improved to 10-2 overall and 7-1 in MPSF play. "But I don't think there are any bad teams in our league and they certainly played well. We really didn't know much about them -- they've added a lot of new faces from last year.
"We'll try to come up with a more concise game plan (in today's 5 p.m. rematch). What they were doing wasn't real complicated but we were having problems stopping them."
The Aztecs (2-6, 2-6) were having major problems stopping Miladinovic, the Rainbows' 6-foot-7 freshman opposite. In Friday's loss to Long Beach State, the Serbian national had six kills and hit negative; last night, Miladinovic hit a phenomenal .600 with just four errors in 40 swings.
It was a seesaw match for most of the night. San Diego State led in Game 1, 7-3 and 10-9, only to have Hawaii score the final six points.
The Aztecs turned the tables in Game 2, rallying from a 13-10 deficit with five straight points to even the match.
San Diego State used three of its seven service aces to seemingly take control of Game 3, 13-9. Miladinovic led the comeback charge with four kills to give the Rainbows game-point.
It took four tries but Hawaii ended it on a solo block by Jason Salmeri, who had just entered the game. Salmeri also came in at the end of Game 4 as the Rainbows closed out the match with a 4-0 run.
"I wanted to bring Jason in and use him more, but whatever chemistry we had out there was real delicate and I hesitated to change it," said Wilton. "I hope to play him more this week."
Hawaii had eight aces and 16 service errors. Wilton said the ace-to-error ration was good but "the errors seemed to come at the most opportune times."
The Rainbows outblocked the Aztecs, 14-10. Andre Breuer had eight blocks to go with his 19 kills.
Naveh Milo added 15 kills and Sivan Leoni 13 for Hawaii. The Aztecs were led by Tom Hunter (21 kills), Matt Hyden (19) and Ken Murczek (12).
Following tonight's match, the Rainbows take a short ride up the freeway to play UC San Diego (0-8, 1-9). The matches are 3 p.m. HST Thursday and 1 p.m. Friday at Rimac Arena.
Box Score
Hawaii def. San Diego State, 15-10, 13-15, 15-13, 15-8
At San Diego, Calif.
Rainbows (10-2 overall, 7-1 MPSF)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 4 28 4 40 .600 1 8 3 Perez 4 1 1 5 .000 0 4 6 Milo 4 15 9 35 .171 0 1 9 Breuer 4 19 10 40 .225 1 7 7 Leoni 4 13 2 22 .500 0 1 7 Kaven 2 4 2 6 .333 0 0 4 Kuo 3 5 2 9 .333 0 1 3 Salmeri 2 2 0 3 .667 1 0 0 Totals 4 87 30 160 .356 3 22 39Aztecs (2-6 overall, 2-6 MPSF)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Hyden 4 19 10 45 .200 0 2 5 Cremascoli 4 2 2 7 .000 1 3 7 Hunter 4 21 5 39 .410 0 6 3 Murczek 4 12 4 24 .333 0 2 4 Szymanski 4 9 2 15 .467 1 2 5 Marbach 1 2 2 4 .000 0 0 1 Sanders 3 7 4 18 .167 0 1 5 Totals 4 72 29 152 .283 2 16 30Aces--UH (8): Breuer 2, Kaven 2, Milo 2, Perez 2. SDSU (7): Szymanski 4, Sanders 2, Hyden 1. Assists--UH (81): Perez 74, Milo 3, Leoni 2, Breuer 1, Miladinovic 1. SDSU (68): Cremascoli 64, Szymanski 2, Hunter 1, Marbach 1.A--194. T--2:05. Officials: Kevin Cull and Jesse Martinez.
MPSF
Conference Year W L Pct. GB W L Hawaii 7 1 .875 -- 10 2 Stanford 6 2 .750 1/2 7 2 Long Beach 3 3 .500 2-1/2 9 3 SDSU 2 6 .250 5 2 6 Pacific 2 6 .250 4-1/2 6 8 USC 1 8 .111 6 2 9 UCSD 0 8 .000 6-1/2 1 9
Conference Year W L Pct. GB W L UCLA 9 0 1.000 -- 13 0 Pepperdine 8 1 .889 1 9 1 BYU 5 2 .714 3 5 2 UC Irvine 5 3 .625 3-1/2 8 3 Loy. Mymt 4 3 .571 4 4 3 UCSB 3 5 .375 5-1/2 4 5 Northridge 1 8 .111 7-1/2 3 7Hawaii def. San Diego State, 15-10, 13-15, 15-13, 15-8
Hawaii at San Diego State, 5 p.m. HST
CSU Northridge at Southern Cal
Loyola Marymount at UC Santa Barbara
Hawaii at UC San Diego, 3 p.m. HST
UC Irvine at UCLA
Hawaii at UC San Diego, 1 p.m. HST
Loyola Marymount at CSU Northridge
Pepperdine at UC Santa Barbara
Stanford at Long Beach State
Pacific at Southern Cal
1997-98 UH Men’s Volleyball
Schedule and Recordhttp://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
