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UH headed to finals STATE COLLEGE, Pa. >> This time the Lions' den couldn't protect the home team.
The Warriors beat Penn State
Freshman provides spark
to earn their second trip
to a national championship
game, against PepperdineBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comIn a volleyball match of gargantuan importance, Hawaii defeated host Penn State 30-26, 27-30, 35-33, 30-27 in the NCAA semifinal. It was the first defeat at home all season for the Nittany Lions, who finished the season 25-4.
Second-ranked Hawaii (23-8) will play top-ranked Pepperdine (29-4) tomorrow at 1 p.m. Hawaii time for its first national title in program history. This is the third final four for the Warriors, who made back-to-back appearances in 1995-96.
It is the second time Hawaii will be playing for a national title and the fourth time the Warriors will face the Waves this season.
Pepperdine defeated Ball State 3-1 in the first semifinal. The Waves last played for an NCAA championship in 1998.
"I'm not going to think about them (Pepperdine) for a while," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "I'm going to enjoy this. And then maybe in about an hour and a half I'll start looking at some tape."
Hawaii almost didn't have the opportunity. A comparison was made to gym-class volleyball, with both teams having a hard time in all facets of the game.
"We struggled. No doubt about it," middle blocker Dejan Miladinovic said. "We fought the Penn State team. Of course tonight, we fought the crowd. We fought ourselves for the most part of the game.
"This was a tough match. This is the kind of match you get when the stakes are high. We kept them quiet for the most part. We didn't play as good as we can. But in the end we made the plays when it counts."
Miladinovic wasn't referring to himself, but he could have been. The senior middle blocker didn't hit well, recording four kills with three errors for a .077 percentage. But he led Hawaii with 12 blocks, as the Warriors outblocked the Nittany Lions by an eye-popping 24 1/2 to 9.
"They controlled our offense pretty well tonight," Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said. "They certainly played like champions. They put themselves in pretty good position to win their first NCAA championship.
"I thought our offense was a little predictable. You look at 24 1/2 blocks, I don't know if that's ever happened to us in our history. They did an outstanding job with taking away the middle of our court."
Hawaii made sure the capacity crowd of 5,259 at Recreation Hall wasn't much of a factor early in the match.
"We felt like we had control of the match in Game 1 and well into Game 2," Wilton said. "We let up on them a little bit and that was a big mistake. Once we let them in, we let them in. Their crowd was real frustrated, so that was like pouring gas on a fire."
The fire fizzled as Game 3 took a turn for the ugly. The energy slowly drained from the game, with the teams missing a combined 16 serves. The game seemed all but over for Hawaii when Jose Delgado served long to give Penn State game point at 29-27. But Zeljko Koljesar served out to return the favor and Zach Slenker whiffed a ball that landed in the bottom of the net to even the score at 29. There were four more ties before a serving error by Carlos Guerra and a block by Delano Thomas and Eyal Zimet sealed Game 3.
"That was the match, right there," Pavlik said. "They just hung in there. If that's going to happen in a national semifinal, I'm not sure we deserved to win that particular game."
Hawaii outscored Penn State down the stretch with steadier play from freshmen reserves Daniel Rasay and Jose Delgado. After trailing 12-9 in Game 4, Hawaii rattled off five straight points, with Delgado serving to grab its first lead of the game.
Penn State called timeout but it didn't help, as a free ball landed untouched in the middle of the court. The Nittany Lions would rally one final time and take a 22-21 lead after an ace by Slenker.
Guerra, a nonfactor the last time the teams played in January (eight kills in 23 attempts) led Penn State with 28 kills, but the burden of carrying the team finally weighed him down. He hit the final ball into the net to end the match.
Costas Theocharidis broke out of a hitting slump and hammered 25 kills to lead Hawaii. Thomas was the most efficient attacker with 12 kills in 17 swings and two errors.
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STATE COLLEGE, Pa. >> Imagine being the backup quarterback on a team that is one win away from playing for a national championship. You've never even started a match, but suddenly your coach calls you off the bench and puts you into the biggest game of your life with your team losing. You rally your team to a victory. Freshman Rasay
provides winning sparkBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comEuphoria.
For freshman Daniel Rasay, dreams became reality yesterday. The 6-foot-2 setter came into the NCAA semifinal in relief to spark the Warriors to a 30-26, 27-30, 35-33, 30-27 win against fourth-ranked Penn State. Hawaii plays top-rated Pepperdine tomorrow in the national championship match.
"When I went in, it felt like I was dreaming," Rasay said. "Everything was flowing so well. It was so smooth. The hitters were putting the ball away. If I can set the ball and they can put the ball away consistently, it helps me to get more comfortable on the court.
"That was the biggest match I've every played in my life. I come from Kona, where volleyball is not even a big sport. I used to watch UH volleyball and dream about it. I'm still on cloud nine."
And because of him, so are the Warriors.
Rasay came into the match in Game 3 with Hawaii nearly comatose after Penn State knotted the score at 23. The momentum seemed set to shift in the Nittany Lions' direction, but the rookie immediately connected with Costas Theocharidis for two kills and Delano Thomas for another as both teams battled. His location and accuracy helped Theocharidis finish Game 3 with eight kills and no errors.
"He put the balls exactly where I like to hit it," Theocharidis said.
Rasay finished with 21 assists and served an ace to resuscitate Hawaii.
The Kailua-Kona native wasn't the only Warrior freshman to give Hawaii a lift. Jose Delgado, who was a starter at the beginning of the season, has played the role of fireman the past few matches. Delgado only had one kill, but his energy and serving helped awaken the team.
"They really helped save our bacon tonight," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "They brought some energy. We needed a breath of fresh air. We were kind of getting real stagnant. In my opinion, we were playing to not lose rather than playing to win. We got into that mode."
Warrior middle blocker Dejan Miladinovic agreed.
"We're fortunate to have guys come off the bench. That's the difference between this year's team and last year's team. Daniel did it for us a number of times in the past. He was pretty calm and had a good location with sets. That was pretty valuable."
Hawaii def. Penn State
30-26, 27-30, 35-33, 30-27
Warriors (23-8) g k e att pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 4 4 3 13 .077 0 12 1 Tuyay 3 1 1 4 .000 0 5 0 Zimet 4 9 3 18 .333 2 4 6 Theocharidis 4 25 6 52 .365 1 6 4 Ching 3 7 4 14 .214 0 6 4 Thomas 4 12 2 17 .588 0 7 0 Podlewski 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 15 Delgado 2 1 1 5 .000 0 1 3 Rasay 3 0 0 0 .000 0 2 1 Totals 4 59 20 123 .317 3 43 34 Nittany Lions (25-4) g k e att pct. bs ba d Quinones 4 3 1 7 .286 0 2 6 Slenker 4 13 6 23 .304 0 1 5 Guerra 4 28 13 59 .254 1 4 9 Koljesar 4 13 8 31 .161 0 1 6 Keil 4 10 3 17 .412 0 5 1 Hawkins 4 10 2 21 .381 0 3 1 Mattei 4 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 11 Hodge 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Rojas 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Matthews 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Kowal 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 4 78 33 159 .283 1 16 40 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- Hawaii (4): Thomas, Miladinovic, Tuyay, Rasay. Penn State (3): Quinones, Slenker, Matthews. Assists -- Hawaii (59): Tuyay 34, Rasay 21, Zimet 2, Theocharidis, Podlewski. Penn State (71): Quinones 63, Mattei 3, Guerra 2, Slenker, Koljesar, Keil.
T -- 2:08. Officials -- Alan Stankaitis, Bill Madara, Marvin Hall. A -- 5,259.
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