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After a monthlong absence from the Stan Sheriff Center, the Hawaii volleyball team hardly put on a show becoming of its first night back in the arena. UH settles in at
home with winBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comBut Hawaii didn't need all its show stoppers as it swept UC Irvine 30-28, 30-23, 30-18 before a crowd of 3,549 (5,014 tickets).
The third-ranked Warriors improved to 16-6 overall and 13-4 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
The 13th-ranked Anteaters slipped to 11-13 and 5-12.
"We started out slow," Warriors outside hitter Tony Ching said. "It's been a long road trip and we're still trying to get back into it. Playing in front of the crowd again is a little unnerving for some people. But once you get into it, it feels nice to be back home."
One Warrior who didn't have stage fright was Costas Theocharidis. The junior pounded 16 kills, hit .593 and had no errors. Theocharidis had a complement, too, in Eyal Zimet, who added 10 kills. And Ching came off the bench to hit .429 with eight kills.
"We didn't play too well in Game 1," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "We were a little bit out of sync. This is kind of a foreign gym to us.
"But we settled in. Tony and Delano (Thomas) certainly helped that. We started getting into a team rhythm and we started doing a better job with our serves."
In Game 1, tough serving from both teams forced streaks of bad passing. Hawaii had one service ace and UCI notched two. The errant passing made it difficult for either team's middle attack to be effective. But Hawaii's outside attack was in sync. Theocharidis was flawless with six kills while Zimet added five. The Warriors pulled ahead on a three-point run after being down 19-18. The Anteaters didn't fold down the stretch and only trailed by a point after a block brought the score to 26-25. But Theocharidis put the finishing touches on the game with two kills.
After missing Hawaii's last two road trips, Thomas helped the Warriors push ahead in Game 2 after several early ties. The freshman blasted back-to-back aces for a 15-11 lead, and it was clear that the Anteaters didn't want any part of Thomas' serves. Hawaii cruised the rest of the game and UCI never got closer than three.
"I was really excited to be back," Thomas said. "I've had time to work on a lot of stuff while they were gone. We played really good as a team tonight and we had a lot of fun."
The middle blocker led the serving with four aces and hit 1.000, putting away five balls.
Thomas started the Warriors off with a 4-0 lead in Game 3. Hawaii followed with relentless defense to deflate UCI. The Warriors won the battle at the net too, outblocking the Anteaters 13-5.
"We had to be scrappy to beat this team," Ching said. "They're a team that scraps a lot. We had to outscrap them to keep our edge. Defense is our big energy pocket for us. When we start playing defense it helps our team stay focused and energized."
Jarett Jensen led the Anteaters with 16 kills. Honolulu's Brenden Watumull had five kills and four blocks for UCI.
The teams will meet again today at 7 p.m.
Notes: Middle blocker Brian Nordberg's parents were in attendance from Milwaukee, Wis. ... In other conference matches last night, Stanford defeated Long Beach State 3-1 and Brigham Young swept UC Santa Barbara 3-0 to clinch playoff spots.
Hawaii def. UC Irvine
30-28, 30-23, 30-18
Anteaters (11-13, 5-12 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Bemus 2 5 5 15 .000 0 1 5 Pelzel 2 4 4 16 .000 0 1 5 Kniffin 3 0 0 0 .000 0 2 4 Watumull 3 5 2 11 .273 0 4 2 Helenihi 3 5 3 12 .167 1 0 2 Jensen 3 16 9 35 .200 0 0 2 Tucker 3 1 0 5 .200 0 0 5 Shea 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Ichinose 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Weichert 1 0 0 2 .000 0 0 0 Fell 2 2 1 5 .200 0 0 1 Totals 3 38 24 101 .139 1 8 27 Warriors (16-6, 13-4 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 3 3 1 8 .250 0 9 1 Tuyay 3 0 0 0 .000 0 3 4 Zimet 3 10 2 21 .381 0 2 4 Theocharidis 3 16 0 27 .593 0 7 12 Delgado 1 4 4 10 .000 0 1 1 Nordberg 2 2 2 4 .000 0 2 1 Chala 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Podlewski 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 5 Ching 2 8 2 14 .429 0 1 3 Thomas 2 5 0 5 1.000 0 1 2 Totals 3 48 11 89 .416 0 26 33 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- Anteaters (6): Pelzel 2, Jensen 2, Kniffin, Tucker. Hawaii (6): Thomas 4, Tuyay 2. Assists -- Anteaters (36): Kniffin 34, Bemus, Tucker. Hawaii (45): Tuyay 41, Miladinovic 2, Zimet, Ching.
T -- 1:32. Officials -- Earnest Ho, Dan Hironaka. A -- 3549.
UH Athletics