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Wednesday, January 24, 2001
There's nothing like finding out what you're made of early in the season. UH looking
to regroup against
‘tougher’ PacificBy Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinThe Pacific men's volleyball team is doing that right now.
The No. 12 Tigers must sandwich contests with the two teams that have been ranked No. 1 by the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll this year around a two-match series here with Hawaii.
Pacific (2-1) will take on the No. 7 Warriors (3-1) tomorrow and Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center in front of one of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation's largest and loudest partisan fan followings.
Then the Tigers, who were swept by then-No. 1 (now No. 5) Pepperdine on Friday, will return home to get ready to host current No. 1 Long Beach State on Feb. 3.
GAME DAY
What: MPSF men's volleyball
After a 14-day layoff, they'll wind up at Pepperdine for what should be a tough rematch.
But Hawaii coach Mike Wilton doesn't feel sorry for Pacific, which is hitting .343 as a team against the opponents' .265.
He and Tigers coach Joe Wortmann both believe the MPSF is better balanced this season, increasing the unpredictability of every match.
Wilton cited the fact that after Pepperdine defeated Pacific, the Waves lost to then-No. 8 (now No. 4) Stanford in five games.
They credit the rally scoring format and the addition of the libero with raising the suspense level in all matches.
Wortmann said Hawaii's offense poses a dilemma for his team.
"Hawaii has a tremendous arsenal of attackers, so we cannot key on any one player," he said.
The Warriors are hitting .353 as a team while opponents are hitting .193 against them.
Hawaii has beaten Pacific the last six times the teams have met, dating back to April 5, 1997. But Wortmann said it might be harder to hold his Tigers this time.
"Our team is tougher than we have been the last few years, both mentally and physically," he said. "With the new scoring format, we just want to hang in for every point, game and match, because any good team is capable of pulling off an upset.
"We are bigger in the middle than in the past, so if we are able to direct the missile attack serves close to the net, we may set our middle as much as possible.
"We'll hit the ball hard at the blocking seams and see what happens."
Wilton's biggest concern after the loss to UCLA is Hawaii's ability to deal with frustration during tough contests.
This week, he is also dealing with the flu. Costas Theocharidis, Torry Tukuafu, Brenton Davis and freshman defensive specialist Marvin Yamada were all down with a bug early this week.
NOTES: Hawaii fell one spot to No. 7 in yesterday's AVCA coaches' poll, while UOP remained at No. 12. ... Costas Theocharidis leads Hawaii in offense with a 4.31 kills per game average and a .377 hitting percentage. He's followed by Torry Tukuafu (3.07 kpg) and Brenton Davis (2.81 kpg). Dejan Miladinovic leads the Warriors in blocking with a 1.69 average. Eyal Zimet is the team's defensive leader with 1.88 digs per game. ... Tim Gerlach leads the Tigers with 4.45 kpg and a .358 hitting percentage. Martin Bernsten is next with 3.45 kpg (.397). Vladimir Andric leads the team in blocking with 1.0 per game. Aaron Wachtfogel leads in digs per game with 2.45. ... Pacific has a local name on its roster, junior Leland Ibara of Waimea, Kauai. But Ibara is not traveling with the team. ... On Saturday, Wilton took the team to Bellows for a day at the beach. "I think the guys need to have recreation once in a while," he said. Even though, as Wilton pointed out, most of them stayed out of the water.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
