Saturday, April 10, 1999
Rainbows end road
Star-Bulletin staff
losing streakSTOCKTON, Calif. - Deja two? The Hawaii men's volleyball team can only hope so. The eighth-ranked Rainbows broke a six-match losing skid on the road last night, finally subduing No. 12 Pacific, 15-10, 15-9, 13-15, 15-11, after 2 hours and 13 minutes. It was the Tigers' first loss at the Spanos Center in nine matches this season.
Hawaii (15-8, 9-7) will try to do it again when facing UOP (13-9, 9-8) today (4 p.m. HST). Another victory over the Tigers would go a long way toward the Rainbows finishing second in the Pacific Division of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
Hawaii shares second place with Southern Cal, a team the Rainbows host in two matches next week. The first two teams in each division will host a first-round playoff match while the third-place team will go on the road to No. 1 BYU.
But the Rainbows were looking no further than themselves last night. They were 1-7 on the road coming into the match with two of those losses coming in five after taking 2-1 leads.
"Part of winning tonight was beating a good UOP team but it was also exorcising some ghosts of our own creation on the road," said Hawaii coach Mike Wilton. "That's what made tonight doubly tough. When they started making runs, or we helped them make runs, the boys started thinking, 'Oh, no, here we go again.'
"It was good that the boys realized what needed to be done at the end to win a close match. I hope this will be a good springboard for us Saturday."
The Rainbows were two points away from completing a sweep, leading 13-9 in Game 3. But the Tigers scored six unanswered points to rally for the win and force Game 4.
Hawaii again led, 13-9, but this time refused to fold when UOP crept to 13-10. Senior setter Mason Kuo's dump shot gave the Rainbows match point and, after the Tigers closed to 14-10, Hawaii finished it off on a kill by Chris Kosty.
Clay Stanley led Hawaii with 25 kills, despite missing most of Game 3. Wilton sat Stanley down after the sophomore opposite was hit with a red card for using profanity with the score 0-2.
Andre Breuer added 22 kills and was in on 10 blocks. The junior middle had walked out of practice Wednesday after being told by Wilton to "either give it all you got or leave," said the coach; Breuer made the flight with the team that night.
"Andre had his best match of the year tonight," said Wilton. "I thought everyone played well at times. Mason grew in confidence and that dump at the end was huge.
"This team has the ability. We'll need to put it together again (tonight) because it's going to be a battle."
Torry Tukuafu added 19 kills and hit .429 while Dejan Miladinovic had 12 kills.
Vladimir Andric led UOP with 28 kills and Dylan Herrick added 21 kills. Former Rainbow Dan Fisher, the Tigers' setter, had three of UOP's seven aces.
Hawaii def. Pacific, 15-10, 15-9, 13-15, 15-11
At Stockton, Calif.Rainbows (16-8, 9-7 MPSF)
gp k e ta pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 4 12 3 25 .360 1 7 9 Kuo 4 2 3 5 -.200 0 1 5 Breuer 4 22 6 35 .457 0 10 7 Kosty 4 9 1 13 .615 0 4 10 Stanley 4 25 10 43 .349 0 8 5 Tukuafu 4 19 4 35 .429 0 1 4 Davis 1 8 3 15 .333 0 1 2 Lockwood 2 2 2 4 .000 0 3 0 Haliniak 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 4 99 32 175 .383 1 35 42Tigers (13-9, 98 MPSF)
gp k e ta pct. bs ba d Fisher 4 6 0 10 .600 0 4 3 Jenson 4 14 5 29 .310 0 6 2 Dilmore 4 12 2 22 .455 1 10 14 Herrick 4 21 14 42 .167 1 2 5 Andric 4 28 7 52 .404 1 5 4 Gerlach 4 5 3 15 .133 0 2 4 Painter 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Brosnan 2 1 0 2 .500 0 0 1 Hoefer 3 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 0 Totals 4 88 31 173 .329 3 29 33Aces--UH (9): Miladinovic 2, Stanley 2, Tukuafu 2., Breuer 1, Kosty 1, Davis 1. UOP (7): Fisher 3, Jenson 1, Herrick 1, Andric 1, Painter 1. Assists--UH (94): Kou 83, Miladinovic 5, Kosty 2, Tukuafu 2, Breuer 1, Stanley 1. UOP (87): Fisher 78, Andric 5, Jenson 2, Gerlach 2.A--537. T--2:13. Officials--Asami, Matthews.
