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Thursday, November 16, 2000
It’s really The Brigham Young University men's volleyball team swept the University of Hawaii last night at the Stan Sheriff Center in the preseason opener for both teams, but that was not the only reason the match was over after approximately an hour and a half.
rally time
BYU sweeps Hawaii
in three rally scoring
exhibition gamesBy Brandon Lee
Special to the Star-BulletinThe 31-29, 30-27 and 30-22 Cougars' exhibition victory over the Warriors was the first involving rally scoring for both teams, a move instituted by the NCAA for this season to speed up the game and make it more television friendly.
In collegiate rally scoring games, the first team to 30 points wins, and wins must be by at least two points. Also, a point is awarded after every serve, and let serves are in play.
Prior to the new rules, a match would sometimes take nearly three hours to complete. Now, a hotly contested rally-scoring match is expected to take approximately two hours.
New scoring system or not, the crowd of 1,073 fans watched the Cougars outplay the Warriors.
Despite returning four starters from last year's 19-10 team, the Warriors looked at times confused, and, excuse the pun, a little green. Too many of their serves fell on their own side of the net, and more than once the Warriors stared at each other as they let an easy ball drop to the floor.
"It wasn't very good," UH head coach Mike Wilton said of his team's performance. "It looked nothing like us. But it was the first time out of the chute -- a practice game -- and that's what we need this stuff for, to find out things."
The Warriors did find out that they have a very capable setter in highly touted freshman Kimo Tuyay, out of Francis Parker High School in San Diego.
Tuyay had 38 assists, a service ace, three digs and a solo block in the loss. He also placed a crafty dump behind two defenders to the near right corner in the second game for his only kill.
"We were real worried about our setter tonight, him being a freshman and all," Wilton said. "But he did good. It was the veterans that struggled tonight."
Indeed, team captain Torry Tukuafu hit for only a .059 attack percentage in the match. First-team All-American Costas Theocharidis had a team-high 13 kills, but a sub-.250 percentage. The Warriors hit .245 for the match.
The Cougars, on the other hand, hit a sparkling .362. Hitter Mike Wall had a match-high 17 kills in the win and setter Hector Lebron dished out 40 assists.
The Warriors have three more exhibition matches against the Cougars starting tonight at Waimea High School on Kauai. The teams play again at War Memorial Gym in Wailuku, Maui, tomorrow before finishing at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium in Hilo on the Big Island Saturday.
And the Warriors are going to need these matches to work out the kinks and get accustomed to rally scoring before they open their season at home against Lewis University on January 10, according to Wilton.
"I'm not sure it's (rally-scoring) the best thing," Wilton said. "But I think we're stuck with it, so we're gonna just have to learn to like it. That's the deal."