Judging by its performance on the road, this year's Warrior volleyball team is way ahead of last year's. Hawaii repeats sweep of USC
Star-Bulletin staff
Costas Theocharidis put down 16 kills and Kimo Tuyay dished out 40 assists as Hawaii beat Southern California last night 30-27, 30-19, 30-26. Hawaii is 6-0 on the road this season and has already exceeded its number of road wins from last year, when it went 5-4.
The Warriors (21-3, 9-1) also swept the Trojans (5-16, 2-12) on Friday.
"I'm happy," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "We played well. Kimo set the ball well and Costas got us the kills. It was a good team effort."
When he speaks about the team effort, Wilton is referring to Eyal Zimet and Jose Delgado, who each contributed eight kills on 13 attempts and only five errors. Their performance helped Hawaii outhit the Trojans .722 to .167 in the second game and .383 to .117 in the match.
In the third game, Hawaii's defense was as impressive as its offense was in the second. The Warriors only hit .250 in the third game but held the Trojans to .073 hitting, forcing 10 errors while committing eight.
The Warriors outblocked the Trojans 6.5-5.5, outdug them 21-15 -- with eight digs by Theocharidis -- and outset them 43-33.
Wilton's only concern yesterday was serving, as the Warriors committed 16 service errors and only notched one ace. USC had three aces and committed 12 serving errors.
"We didn't serve as well as I would have liked, but when you go on the road you will take anything that gets you a win," Wilton said.
As encouraging as the Warriors' road numbers are, they are only halfway through their road schedule.
They return home today but will leave March 12 for their final road trip -- an eight-game swing against UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Northridge and No. 4 Pepperdine.
30-27, 30-19, 30-26 HAWAII DEF. USC
TROJANS (5-16, 2-12 MPSF) g k e att pct. bs ba d Billings 3 11 8 21 .143 0 1 0 Rawi 2 1 2 8 -.125 0 1 2 Dusharme 3 6 4 18 .111 1 1 2 Day 3 7 3 16 .250 2 1 2 McGann 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Small 1 0 2 2 -1.000 0 0 1 Tippett 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Jordan 3 5 2 17 .176 0 0 0 Gallagher 2 2 2 6 .000 0 0 0 Burden 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 6 McKniff 3 4 2 6 .333 0 1 0 Totals 3 36 25 94 .117 3 5 15 WARRIORS (12-3, 9-1 MPSF) g k e att pct. bs ba d Tuyay 3 2 0 2 1.000 1 2 2 Zimet 3 8 3 13 .385 0 1 3 Podlewski 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Theocharidis 3 16 5 30 .367 0 3 8 Delgado 3 8 2 13 .462 0 1 3 Thomas 2 1 2 6 -.167 0 0 0 Miladinovic 3 5 1 8 .500 0 4 3 Chala 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Muise 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Nordberg 2 6 2 9 .444 0 0 0 Totals 3 46 15 81 .383 1 11 21 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--Trojans (3): Dusharme 2, Gallagher. Hawaii (1): Nordberg. Assists--Trojans (33): Day 32, Rawi. Hawaii (43): Tuyay 40, Zimet, Podlewski, Delgado.
T--1:27. Officials--Joe Sloate, Marvin Hall. A--400.
UH Athletics
