Hawaii Beat
Star-Bulletin staff
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UH's Dante honored by MPSF
It took 13 weeks and one extraordinary performance for a Hawaii men's volleyball player to earn weekly honors from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
And even then, Dio Dante had to share.
Yesterday, the Warrior senior middle was named co-player of the week along with UC Santa Barbara's Evan Patak. Dante had a combined 23 blocks and 15 kills in the Warriors' two sweeps at UC San Diego.
The Maui High product hit .522 with two aces in averaging 3.83 blocks per game. He also had a career-high 12 block assists Saturday against the Tritons. He leads the MPSF in blocks (1.95 bpg), second nationally.
The Warriors (9-13, 7-11 MPSF) climbed into a tie for eighth in the MPSF over the weekend, but they remained in 13th in the CSTV/AVCA Division I-II Top 15.
There was no movement among the top six, led by unanimous No. 1 Pepperdine. The Waves, one win away from clinching the MPSF regular-season title, are followed by UC Irvine, BYU, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and Penn State.
Long Beach State (11-13, 6-10), which hosts Hawaii Friday and Saturday, stayed at No. 9.
Atkinson to lead UH-Hilo volleyball
Dr. Bruce Atkinson was announced as the new volleyball coach at Hawaii-Hilo yesterday.
Atkinson, a Brigham Young-Hawaii graduate, guided Texas-Brownsville to a 28-11 record in its inaugural season. He coached at Dana (Calif.) College the previous two seasons.
"I am pleased and excited about what Dr. Atkinson will bring to our Vulcan wahine volleyball program and to the department," UH-Hilo athletic director Kathleen McNally said. "From a very strong pool of applicants, he surfaced as the best all-around candidate."
Lions edge Warriors tennis team
The Hawaii men's tennis team lost a tight match with Loyola Marymount 4-3 yesterday in Los Angeles for the Warriors' fifth straight defeat.
Renzo Maggi pulled out a three-set victory over UH's Jeff Fitch that proved to be the difference in the dual match as the Warriors fell to 4-10. After LMU won the doubles point, UH got singles wins from Andreas Weber, Sacha Heinemann and Chad Faulk.
UH sailing team fifth in California
The Hawaii coed sailing team finished fifth at the St. Francis Regatta over the weekend.
Mike Scott and Jackie McLoughlin placed fifth in the A division with 79 points in the two-day regatta hosted by Stanford that concluded on Sunday. Andrew Meade and Pam Magasinn finished seventh in the B division with 93 points.
The UH women's team finished 18th overall.
Morrison-Herzberg win tourney
The team of Mark Morrison and Kyle Herzberg shot a 4-under-par 68 yesterday to win the Big Island Candies Scotch Four-Ball Championship at The Club at Hokulia on the Big Island.
Morrison and Herzberg finished with a two-day total of 5-under 139 after the final-round alternate-shot format. They shot a 71 in the best-ball portion of the tournament. First-round leaders Matt Pakkala and Kirk Nelson placed second at 1 under.
» The UH-Hilo golf team is in 12th place at the Grand Canyon Thunderbird Invitational, which is being held concurrently with the Pacific West Conference championship.
The Vulcans have a two-round total of 618 to lead the contingent of four Hawaii teams in the tournament. BYUH is tied for 14th (622), followed by Hawaii Pacific (634) and Chaminade (720). HPU's Brian Keller is the top individual player among the Hawaii teams at 3-over-par 174, good for a tie for sixth among PacWest players and 17th overall.
Local surfers advance down under
Three surfers from Hawaii won their first-round heats at the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach, Australia, today to advance directly to the third round.
Andy Irons (13.66 points), Bruce Irons (14.23) and Pancho Sullivan (12.93) bypassed the second round with their wins. Fred Patacchia (12.10) finished second in his heat and will face Australia's Shaun Cansdell in the second round.