Star-Bulletin Sports


Sunday, April 15, 2001


[ UH WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL ]




ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hawaii's Brenton Davis spikes the ball past Brigham Young's Scott
Bunker during the first game of yesterday's match in Provo, Utah.
The No. 2 Cougars upset the No. 1 Warriors in five games,
clinching the top seed in the MPSF Tournament.



Warriors fall to
Cougars in 5

No. 1 Hawaii does better than
the sweep the previous night,
but not well enough to
overcome BYU


From staff and wire reports

Provo, Utah >> Costas Theocharidis pounded 27 kills and notched his 1,000th career kill, but it meant little, as the top-ranked University of Hawaii men's volleyball team lost for the second time in as many nights, 27-30, 30-28, 21-30, 30-26, 12-15.

No. 2 Brigham Young squeaked out the five-game thriller before a partisan crowd of 4,232 at Smith Fieldhouse.

UH improved on yesterday's offensive performance, but still struggled, hitting .198.

UH logo Sophomore Tony Ching, who started the match in place of Torry Tukuafu, blasted 15 kills. But it wasn't enough, as UH's middle attack stalled again.

"Physically, we ran out of gas," Wilton said. "Costas had two errors after three games, he was hitting .500 and he just started getting tired. It was basically one guy, and that was a heavy load for him to carry.

"We weren't having a great amount of success elsewhere. Tony did a good job, but we've got to work on our middle. That's the only team that's really shut our middle down this year."

In a repeat performance from last night, Luka Slabe was inserted to serve late in Game 2 with BYU trailing, 26-28. Mike Wall and Mack Wilson blocked Eyal Zimet and an ace by Slabe knotted the score, but unlike the previous night, the Warriors were able to close out the game with kills by Theocharidis and Zimet.

Zimet blasted two aces to start Game 3. But it would be Hawaii's only lead. Though Hawaii matched BYU sideout for sideout for most of the game, the Cougars maintained a slim lead throughout the match. Down 13-17, the Warriors came out of a timeout and scored four straight to tie the score.

However, hitting and service errors by Hawaii proved costly, as the Cougars took a 2-1 lead behind two blocks and six kills in a 12-4 run.

In Game 4, Cougar middle blocker Scott Bunker effectively contained the Hawaii offense early, posting four of his match-high 13 blocks, to help BYU to a 6-3 lead.

Bunker spiked 13 kills and hit .400 to go along with his blocking.

But Hawaii responded with blocking of its own, as the Warriors went on a 9-5 run to take a one-point lead, at 12-11.

UH held BYU to a .071 attack percentage in Game 4 with eight of its 15 blocks, to push the match to the deciding fifth game.

BYU raced out to a 9-6 lead, and the Warriors pulled to within one at 8-9, but they could not get any closer.

The Warriors lost two consecutive matches for the first time this season.

Despite the loss, UH head coach Mike Wilton was feeling decidedly more optimistic about his team.

"We learned how to close out a couple of games," Wilton said. "We won them, took it to five and learned how to play in that Fieldhouse.

"Playing this team back to back was a big challenge because they're way deeper than we are."

Hawaii will host a first-round MPSF Tournament match Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center. The opponent will be Pepperdine, Stanford or Southern Cal, depending on seedings.

BYU def. Hawaii, 3-2

30-27, 28-30, 30-21, 26-30, 15-12

WARRIORS (17-6, 12-5 MPSF)


g k e att pct. bs ba d
Miladinovic 5 3 3 11 .000 1 8 1
Tuyay 5 1 0 4 .250 0 2 7
Zimet 5 12 7 29 .172 1 5 10
Theocharidis 5 27 11 62 .258 0 5 8
Davis 5 12 8 26 .154 0 4 6
Ching 5 15 8 34 .206 0 2 2
Podlewski 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 12
Tukuafu 1 0 0 1 .000 0 0 0
Totals 5 70 37 167 .198 2 26 46

COUGARS (20-3, 14-3 MPSF)


g k e att pct. bs ba d
Acosta 5 21 7 42 .333 0 6 1
Olsen 4 8 0 8 1.000 0 1 0
Wilson 4 6 1 13 .385 1 4 1
Mayol 2 5 4 13 .077 0 1 3
Lebron 5 1 0 6 .167 0 5 7
Bunker 5 13 3 25 .400 0 13 6
Wall 5 23 7 48 .333 0 6 12
Alleman 3 2 3 8 -.125 0 3 3
Pessoa 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 14
Slabe 3 0 1 1 -.1.000 0 0 1
Totals 5 79 26 164 .323 1 39 48

Key-g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.

Aces-UH (4): Zimet 3, Theocharidis. BYU (2): Acosta, Slabe.

Assists-UH (68): Tuyay 64, Zimet 2, Davis, Ching. BYU(77): Lebron 75, Pessoa 2. T-2:35. Officials-Tom Given, Les Calles. A-4232.



UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii



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