RAINBOW WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL
Pair of Warriors face former team this week
Hawaii's Carney and China left Lewis after its program was put on probation
Had circumstance and fate not intervened, Sean Carney and Mikey China would have been coming home this week for spring break, bringing along a number of Lewis teammates to play against Hawaii at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Instead, the two will have reserve roles when the Warriors take on the Flyers in nonconference matches tomorrow and Saturday.
Hawaii tries to stretch streak
Last week's two victories have only left the Hawaii volleyball team wanting more.
Even though this week's two matches against Lewis won't count in the conference standings, adding two more W's would add to the momentum the Warriors hope to continue to build over the next four weeks.
No. 12 Hawaii (5-13, 5-11 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) will have to win out just to finish the regular season at .500, both in the MPSF and overall. But being the underdogs gives the Warriors an edge, at least in the mind of senior setter Brian Beckwith.
"We like being underdogs, and the dogs are hungry for more wins," Beckwith said. "The more wins we get, the more we can prove that we are a good team, that we don't suck."
The Flyers (14-7, 5-4 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) try to prove UH wrong.
COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL
Who: Lewis (14-7) at No. 12 Hawaii (5-13)
When: Tomorrow and Saturday, 7 p.m.
Where: Stan Sheriff Center
TV: Both matches live, KFVE, Ch. 5
|
Carney and China were supposed to be the base of a Hawaii pipeline of volleyball talent that coach Dave Deuser was tapping into. But when the Lewis program came under NCAA investigation -- with the 2003 national title eventually vacated -- things changed for Carney, China and the Flyers.
Deuser left, the school imposed its own sanctions on the program -- including two years of probation -- and Carney transferred to Hawaii before the 2005 season began. After playing sparingly as a freshman, China came home, thinking his career was over, sitting out a year before being talked into trying out for the Warriors.
"When I saw the schedule, saw Lewis was coming, I was kind of excited, even though I only know one guy on the team," said Carney, Hawaii's sophomore reserve setter. "You start thinking that's where you would have been. It's exciting to play against them, but at the same time you can imagine having the same colors on your shirt as them.
"It would have been a very interesting team with all of us from Hawaii. Coach (Deuser) was talking about a pipeline."
There would have been at least one more. Mike Contee, Carney's teammate at Iolani, was also headed to Lewis but switched to Quincy, where he has started at both libero and setter.
The Flyers (14-7), meanwhile, have regrouped under coach Dan Friend. They have won two in a row and four of their last six, with last week's 3-2 victory over then-No. 12 Loyola-Chicago the highlight of this season ... so far.
Junior outside hitter Jared Dayton had a career-high 31 kills in the upset of the Ramblers, a team that pulled out a 3-2 victory over the Warriors on Jan. 26. The performances also helped earn the lone Californian on the Lewis roster the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association weekly honors Monday.
The 6-foot-6 Dayton is one of two juniors on the young Lewis squad, which has four freshmen, 11 sophomores and a senior. He leads the team in kills (4.26), one of three players averaging more than three kills a game.
The other two are sophomores: 6-7 opposite David Kelnhoffer (3.03 kpg) and 5-10 outside hitter Drew Pickering (3.02 kpg), who also has 40 aces. Sophomore Mykolai Zerebeckyji is also playing well, with a season-high 18 digs against Loyola, while sophomore setter Jordan Vicovic set the school rally-scoring assist record with 73 in that same match.
"The fact that they're really young and they're doing so well is a credit to them, to pull the program back into winning ways," Carney said.
The Warriors know the feeling. Hawaii ended a four-match skid last week, topping Cal State Northridge twice, keeping slim conference playoff hopes alive.
"Those wins are a big relief for everybody," said China, who did not play against the Matadors. "It's great to see everything come together.
"You see it in practices, but it finally came together in a game. And the blocking was amazing."
The Warriors, the top blocking team in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, outblocked the Matadors a combined 28-6.
"What we're looking for out of these matches is to keep getting better," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "We want to keep playing better every day."
Note: Hawaii has dominated the AVCA's Grand Fan Club (crowd of 1,000 or more) since its inception in 2000. Only twice has Hawaii not had the largest single-match crowd -- in 2003, when BYU hosted Hawaii (11,513), and this season. BYU has the top four crowds of 2007 (when hosting UC Irvine and UCLA each twice). The Penn State at UH match (3,612) is tied for fifth with the UCLA at UCI match. Hawaii has the next 11 top crowds.