Thursday, February 21, 2002
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No day at the Beach Eleven games into the season and the Hawaii volleyball team still hasn't found a combination that works.
Long Beach State beats
an inconsistent Hawaii
squad in 4 gamesBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comHawaii coach Mike Wilton used several different lineups, but couldn't find one to complete the job as Long Beach State defeated Hawaii 30-26, 26-30, 36-34, 31-29 before a crowd of 2,992 (4,355 tickets) at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The third-ranked Warriors are now 9-3 overall and 6-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, while the 12th-ranked 49ers improve to 7-8, 5-4. The loss drops Hawaii into a three-way tie for first in the league with Pepperdine and UCLA.
Hawaii struggled with all the fundamentals of the game yesterday. The Warriors missed serves, and their passing wasn't perfect. But blocking helped keep them in the game.
Hawaii outblocked Long Beach 19.5 to 11.5, but was outhit .336 to .277.
"I don't know how our hitters did anything tonight," Wilton said. "The setters had a pretty regrettable night. Something has to give because that's kind of a recurring theme.
"Serving and passing were horrible at the start, but I thought we passed well enough the last three games. It was a team thing. But when you're having problems with your second contact, it has very deep effects on the team. You're just not really in system at all."
It was an odd collection of errors in Game 1. From passing to defense, nothing seemed to click for Hawaii. Without passing, the Warriors had no middle attack as middle blockers Brian Nordberg and Delano Thomas saw a total of six sets during the game.
Long Beach led 10-7, but Hawaii fought back to knot the score at 13 with a kill by Costas Theocharidis. With the score tied at 15, the 49ers ran off four straight points on kills by Scott Touzinsky, Tim May and Jeff Wootton and a hitting error by Jose Delgado. Hawaii climbed back into the game after a five-point run, punctuated by two Theocharidis blocks.
Tony Ching waffled an overpass into the scoreboard that tied the score at 20. From there, the two teams battled with neither holding more than a two-point advantage. Hawaii's last lead was at 26-25, but a service error started a Long Beach run that was capped by a Theocharidis hitting miscue.
Hawaii fell behind early in Game 2, but blocking saved the Warriors. Three blocks and three kills during a 6-1 run pushed Hawaii to a 20-17 advantage that it didn't relinquish. Ching's third solo stuff of the game gave the Warriors a five-point lead at 27-22. A hitting error by Wootton tied the match at one game each.
The Warriors had four attempts to win Game 3, but the resilient 49ers staved off each to pull out the win.
"If I had my dog here, I would have put him in," Wilton said. "At least I know that he's going to get after the ball."
Hawaii plays Long Beach State tomorrow at 7 p.m.
The Warriors have not swept a series at home against the 49ers since 1996.
30-26, 26-30, 36-34, 31-29 Long Beach St. def. Hawaii 3-1
49ers (7-8, 5-4 MPSF) g k e att pct. bs ba d Wootton 4 15 6 34 .265 0 4 5 Ekins 3 1 1 3 .000 0 2 2 May 4 13 4 22 .409 0 5 2 Touzinsky 4 17 5 33 .364 0 2 11 Marbach 4 23 8 33 .455 0 3 4 Lee 4 8 3 17 .294 1 4 0 Kijewski 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Blain 3 1 0 1 1.000 0 1 2 Meine 3 2 3 6 -.167 0 0 1 Caldwell 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Munoz 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 11 Totals 4 80 30 149 .336 1 21 38 Warriors (9-3, 6-1 MPSF) g k e att pct. bs ba d Tuyay 3 0 0 0 .000 0 1 1 Zimet 4 15 4 25 .440 0 4 3 Theocharidis 4 25 8 56 .304 0 9 4 Delgado 2 4 5 12 -.083 0 0 3 Nordberg 4 6 1 10 .500 1 6 3 Thomas 3 3 1 5 .400 0 3 0 Milodinovic 4 6 2 11 .364 0 5 3 Muise 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Podlewski 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 6 Ching 3 6 5 21 .048 3 2 5 Rasay 3 0 0 1 .000 0 1 0 Totals 4 65 26 141 .277 4 31 31 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--LBSU (3): Touzinsky 2, Meine. Hawaii (3): Delgado, Nordberg, Zimet.
Assists--LBSU (78): Blain 36, Ekins 33, Munoz 4, May 2, Marbach, Touzinsky, Wootton. Hawaii (61): Rasay 34, Tuyay 25, Ching, Miladinovic.
T--2:22. Officials--Dan Hironaka, Ernie Ho.
UH Athletics