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Saturday, January 20, 2001
Bruins leave The fans leaving the Stan Sheriff Center last night in disappointment could at least take solace in one thing.
Warriors hungry
UCLA keeps Hawaii down in
five-set victory in the title game
of Outrigger Hotels InvitationalBy Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinUCLA had to run a marathon to sew up its fourth straight Outrigger Hotels Invitational men's volleyball tournament championship last night.
The Bruins (4-2) played their third five-game match in as many nights to hand Hawaii (3-1) its first defeat of the season, 31-29, 20-30, 30-27, 42-44, 15-9, before a deafening crowd of 5,659.
It was a two-hour and 48-minute war -- five minutes longer than the UCLA-Laval University match on Wednesday.
The most thrilling moments came in the 86-point fourth game which saw 20 ties and 14 lead changes as the Warriors fought furiously to stay alive.
Hawaii blew a 29-25 lead but finally managed to pull it out on an Eyal Zimet service ace that barely tumbled over the net at the feet of Scott Morrow and Rich Nelson.
"But we should've won game 1," said junior middle blocker Dejan Miladinovic (12 kills and eight blocks).
Hawaii had a 29-28 lead on a kill by sophomore Costas Theo-charidis (22 kills, 11 digs, seven blocks) the tournament's MVP.
But Theocharidis' service error and two attack errors by Zimet handed the Bruins a 1-0 lead.
"We should've won that first game but that's 'if, if, and if,' and now we have to get over it," said Theocharidis. "The season is young."
Hawaii was tied at 27-27 in game 3 before the Bruins put that one away.
"We really created a lot of problems for ourselves," said Hawaii head coach Mike Wilton.
"In the previous matches we started out rough with our serves but they smoothed out. I kept hoping it would smooth out and we'd get in a nice groove but it remained pretty sketchy. Their serving was pretty tough and it caused some passing problems."
Hawaii had 26 service errors and 29 attack errors to UCLA's 18 and 32.
"But the heart we have is very evident," said Wilton. "Maybe expending all that emotion to hang on and try to wrest control of game 4, maybe that had a bad effect on game 5."
Hawaii was tied at 2-2, 3-3 and 4-4 with UCLA in the rubber game. But consecutive kills by Scott Morrow, Matt Komer and Adam Naeve put the Bruins in front for good.
"We played with a little too much frustration tonight, self-induced," said Wilton. "We have to learn to deal with that."Senior middle blocker Brenton Davis (16 kills, five blocks) made a vain attempt to save the last ball, credited as a kill to Naeve.
'I take my hat off to them because they didn't give us anything easy," said Davis. "I wanted it real bad but hopefully we can learn from this when we get them in the regular season."
Naeve, the 6-foot-10 quick hitter, led UCLA with 17 kills and four blocks.
"I rested him in a couple of rotations in each game prior to tonight because he'd had the flu all last week," said UCLA head coach Al Scates, who has now beaten the Warriors four times in a row, dating back to postseason 1999.
Parker Smith, the freshman outside hitter from Punahou, played in games 2, 3 and 4 and had three kills on nine swings. He said he was thrilled to play in front of island fans.
"I wasn't expecting to get in but coach says to be always ready," said Smith.
He said he was a bit nervous but channeled his nerves into concentration.
"Actually Parker made some great passes for us and they were serving tough," said Scates. "He passed right on top of the net.
Hawaii will travel to UCLA for matches on March 29 and March 30.
"But I like playing here," said Scates. 'The fans here know their volleyball and I like playing in front of them."
In the third-place match, Laval of Quebec City stunned No. 9 Penn State, 25-30, 32-30, 30-21, 23-30, 15-13.
The Rouge et Or (20-5) were led by fourth-year opposite Eric LeBreton's 20 kills. He had a tournament-high 65 kills on 134 swings in three matches (13 games) for an average of five kills per game.
"It's a great feeling because we should've won the first day against UCLA," said LeBreton, referring to a 3-2 loss to the Bruins on Wednesday. Zeljko Koljesar had 23 kills to lead the Nittany Lions (1-2).
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Most Outstanding
Players Team Zeljko Koljesar Penn State Eric LeBreton Laval Adam Naeve UCLA Matt Komer UCLA Torry Tukuafu Hawaii Brenton Davis Hawaii
Player Team Costas Theocharidis Hawaii
UCLA def. Hawaii, 31-29, 20-30, 30-27, 42-44, 15-9
Bruins (4-2 overall, 3-0 OHVIT)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Burnham 4 14 9 36 .139 0 4 11 Morrow 5 12 2 20 .500 0 6 0 Nelson 5 1 1 5 .000 1 5 5 Mount 5 14 9 38 .132 0 1 5 Naeve 5 17 4 36 .361 0 4 5 Komer 5 13 4 30 .300 1 3 11 Smith 3 3 3 9 .000 0 0 0 Shrader 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 16 Lin 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 5 74 32 174 .241 2 23 53
Rainbows (3-1 overall, 2-1 OHVIT)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 5 12 1 21 .524 1 7 1 Tuyay 5 4 2 8 .250 0 3 9 Zimet 5 10 9 25 .040 0 1 8 Theocharidis 5 22 8 56 .250 2 5 11 Davis 5 16 2 25 .560 1 4 3 Tukuafu 5 16 6 39 .256 0 4 5 Podlewski 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 18 Ching 1 1 1 2 .000 0 0 1 Totals 5 81 29 176 .295 4 24 56 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs. Aces--UCLA (7): Mount 2, Naeve 2, Komer 2, Burnham 1 UH (6): Miladinovic 2, Davis 2, Zimet 1, Tukuafu 1. Assists--UCLA (70): Nelson 63, Burnham 2, Shrader 2, Morrow 1, Komer 1, Smith 1. UH (76): Tuyay 69, Zimet 2, Davis 2, Podlewski 2, Theocharidis 1,
T-2:48. Officials: Burt Fuller, Dan Hironaka.
Laval def. Penn St., 25-30, 32-30, 30-21, 23-30, 15-13
Nittany Lions (1-2, 0-3 OHI)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Hodge 5 10 5 29 .172 0 1 0 Matthews 5 2 0 3 .667 0 6 1 Guerra 5 16 8 35 .229 0 2 4 Mills 5 12 4 20 .400 2 3 0 Koljesar 5 23 8 40 .375 0 3 0 Briggs 5 3 2 8 .125 0 9 0 Mattei 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Rojas 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Keil 4 0 0 1 .000 0 0 0 Aird 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 3 Totals 5 66 27 136 .287 2 24 8
Rouge et Or (19-2, 1-2 OHI)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Pelletier 5 12 1 17 .647 1 4 1 Y. Lagrandeur 5 14 9 32 .156 0 4 9 D’Amours 4 1 2 10 -.100 0 1 5 Giguere 5 0 1 1 -1.000 0 3 6 Perron 5 9 2 19 .368 2 5 0 Lebreton 5 20 11 43 .209 0 1 3 Lalancette 5 0 1 1 -1.000 1 0 0 Leclerc 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Tremblay 5 9 4 22 .227 0 1 4 Belanger 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Totals 5 65 31 145 .234 4 19 38 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs. Aces--Penn St. (4): Matthews 2, Koljesar 2. Laval (8): D'Amours 3, Lagrandeur 2, Giguere, Perron, Lebreton. Assists--Penn St. (62): Matthews 55, Mattei 4, Briggs 3. Laval (62): Giguere 59, D'Amours, Perron, Lebreton.
T-2:42. Officials: Burt Fuller, Wayne Lee.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii