Sunday, April 1, 2001
IRVINE, Calif. >> After two games last night, Mike Wilton had resigned himself to returning from the mainland today with a split of the University of Hawaii volleyball team's four-match road trip. But he wanted to make sure the Warriors came back with their dignity intact. Warriors bounce back
Star-Bulletin staff and wire reports
against Anteaters"During the break, we just said, 'Whatever happens, let's be able to look at each other in the eyes and be able to say we didn't give up," Wilton said.
The Warriors responded, bouncing back from an 0-2 deficit in games to beat the No. 9 UC Irvine Anteaters, 29-31, 25-30, 30-24, 30-22, 15-11.
With the victory, UH (17-4, 12-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) returns with two victories over UC Irvine (9-12, 5-9) and a win and a loss against UCLA.
"We knew it would be a gauntlet, playing four matches in four nights. We played on fumes (in a loss to UCLA on Friday), and Irvine was high as a kite. They took it to us the first two games," Wilton said.
Setter Kimo Tuyay was the biggest key to the comeback, going from clueless to unstoppable.
"He resurrected big-time," Wilton said. "Tuyay was really strong after not being able to do anything in the first two ... location (of sets), blocking, everything."
The Anteaters neutralized All-American outside hitter Costas Theocharidis, holding him to a .222 hitting percentage. But once Tuyay started finding other hitters -- like Torry Tukuafu, who had a team-high 22 kills -- Hawaii was back in the match.
"It's hard to pick one hero. We have to go team on that," Wilton said. "(Middles) Dejan (Miladinovic) and Brenton (Davis) were big-time, and so was Eyal (Zimet), even though we didn't know if he was going to play or not before the match."
Zimet, slowed by a leg injury, still managed 14 kills and a .480 hitting percentage. Miladinovic and Davis each slapped down nine kills, and Miladinovic was in on eight blocks while Davis participated in six.
Hawaii hosts Alberta in exhibition matches Thursday and Friday, before traveling to BYU for its last two league matches of the season.
Hawaii def. UC-Irvine29-31, 25-30, 30-24, 30-22, 15-11
Warriors (17-4, 12-3 mpsf)
g k e att pct. bs ba d D. Miladinovic 5 9 2 15 .467 0 8 1 Kimo Tuyay 5 3 0 5 .600 0 3 9 Eyal Zimet 5 14 2 25 .480 0 4 10 C. Theocaridis 5 18 8 45 .222 5 1 7 Brenton Davis 5 9 3 19 .316 1 5 2 Terry Tukuafu 5 21 4 39 .436 0 1 3 V. Podlewski 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 9 Kyle Denitz 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Tony Ching 1 0 0 .000 0 1 0 Totals 5 74 21 150 .353 2 27 41 Anteaters (9-12, 5-9 mpsf)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Tucker Monte 5 13 9 33 .121 0 2 10 B. Watumull 5 4 7 15 .200 2 5 1 Steinert 5 2 1 5 .200 2 5 1 Helenihi 5 22 7 39 .385 0 4 2 Jensen 5 9 9 27 .000 0 2 9 Pelzel 5 18 2 37 .432 0 2 1 Bemus 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Shea 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 14 Marchewka 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Weichert 1 1 0 2 .500 0 0 0 Totals 5 69 35 158 .215 2 19 45 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--Hawaii (4): ; Tuyay 2; Zimet 1; Tukuafu 1. UC Irvine (6): Watumull 1; Helenihi 5.
Assists--Hawaii(72): Tuyay 66; Zimet 1; Theocaridis 1; Davis 2; Denitz 2. UC Irvine (65): Tucker 2; Steinert 60; Jensen 2; Shea 1. T--2:20. Officials--Scott Hogue, Joe Sloate. A--870.
