Thursday, January 14, 1999
By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Hawaii's Torry Tukuafu pounds the ball through the
block of two UC San Diego players last night.
Some good,
some bad in
Rainbows’ opener
Mason Kuo's setting was
By Cindy Luis
a highlight but Andre Breuer's
injury was not
Star-BulletinThere were times last night when Mike Wilton felt like he was watching a Clint Eastwood film instead of a men's volleyball match. And it wasn't making his day.
"It was early Eastwood and you can guess which one," the Hawaii men's volleyball coach said after his team disposed of UC San Diego, 15-8, 15-4, 15-8, in 78 minutes at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The Rainbows' Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opener had plenty of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly for the crowd of 4,205 to view. The "good" was the setting performance of senior Mason Kuo and Hawaii's monster block that accounted for 151/2 stuffs against the undersized Tritons.
The "bad" was Hawaii junior blocker Andre Breuer being carried from the court with the Rainbows leading, 12-5, in Game 3. The All-American landed on a UCSD player's foot after going up to hammer an overpass; the initial diagnosis was a severely sprained right ankle.
And the "ugly" was Hawaii's spotty passing, which allowed the Tritons to stay close in Games 1 and 3. Still, it was the ninth consecutive time the Rainbows had won their season opener and "it was good to get that first match out of the way," said UH senior hitter Chris Kosty. "It's good to get some matches under our belts to try and get ready for next week with the Outrigger Invitational. Next week will be a lot tougher."
The Rainbows hope to work out more bugs tomorrow night in the rematch with the Tritons. If Hawaii can't handle UCSD's serves (seven aces), the Rainbows will surely be in trouble next week against defending NCAA champion UCLA, second-ranked Lewis and Penn State.
Kosty, the team's primary passer, is taking it as a personal challenge.
"I was really shaky," Kosty said. "I didn't have my head in the game and it showed. Friday, that's what I want to work on -- passing and serving tougher.
"I'd give us a 5 or 6 on a scale of 10 tonight. I know we can play a lot better."
The 6-foot-3 Kosty hit for an outrageous .778, with seven kills on nine attempts with no errors. Most of his success came when he was the second hitter on combination plays behind the 6-9 Breuer and 6-7 Dijan Miladinovic.
"When you think you've figured out some of their big hitters, they'd run the combination," said UCSD senior setter Kurt Seckington. "With us having the smaller block, we needed to communicate and didn't.
"They put a up a big block but that's what we're pretty much going to see every night. We are undersized and it's something we have to deal with. So we have to serve tough, dig some balls and frustrate the hitters into making mistakes."
Hawaii's lack of enthusiasm against the lone Division III school in the MPSF and its shaky serve-receive was glaring in the opening 20 minutes. Half of the Tritons' points in Game 1 came on aces as they pulled to an 8-8 tie.
Rainbow newcomer Torry Tukuafu, a transfer from BYU, served for a run of three points, including an ace. Hawaii scored the final seven points and was not really threatened the rest of the way.
Miladinovic led the Rainbows with 10 kills, hitting .500. Breuer was in on half of Hawaii's blocks, with three solos and nine assists before his injury.
Hawaii def. UC San Diego, 15-8, 15-4, 15-8
Tritons (1-2 overall, 0-2 MPSF)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Vernon 3 4 4 15 .000 0 2 3 Seckington 3 3 2 6 .167 1 2 1 Hite 3 9 10 24 -.042 0 0 0 Sinclair 3 3 4 13 -.077 0 2 1 Hastings 3 8 6 20 -.100 0 1 3 Jeffcoat 3 8 3 14 .357 0 3 2 Griffin 2 0 0 1 .000 0 0 1 Hove 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 3 35 29 93 .065 1 10 11
g k e at pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 3 10 3 14 .500 0 3 3 Kuo 3 0 1 2 -.500 0 4 4 Breuer 3 6 2 12 .333 3 9 2 Kosty 3 7 0 9 .778 0 5 6 Stanley 3 8 3 13 .385 0 4 2 Tukuafu 3 9 4 16 .313 0 0 4 Haliniak 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Davis 1 3 2 7 .143 0 0 1 Lockwood 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Kamanao 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 3 43 15 73 .384 3 25 22Key: g-games. k-kills. e-hitting errors. at-attempts. pct.-hitting percentage. bs-block solos. ba-block assists. d-digs.Aces--UH (8): Stanley 3, Miladinovic 2, Davis 2, Tukuafu 1. UCSD (7): Seckington 4, Hite 3. Assists--UH (39): Kuo 35, Lockwood 3, Breuer 1. UCSD (34): Seckington 30, Hite 2, Vernon 1, Hastings 1.
A--5,601 tickets (4,205 turnstile). T--1:18. Officials: Randy Show and Ernest Ho.
1999 UH Men’s
Volleyball Schedulehttp://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
