Thursday, January 21, 1999
UH outlasts Lewis
The 'Bows come back from
By Cindy Luis
a 5-1 deficit in rally scoring
Star-BulletinClay Stanley turned 21 yesterday but it may have been his Rainbow men's volleyball team that came of age. Down 5-1 in rally-scoring Game 5 to second-ranked Lewis, No. 3 Hawaii grabbed hold of some maturity and wouldn't let go.
The difference between Nos. 2 and 3 came down to the last 13 minutes of a 2 hour, 26 minute match and the final two swings. Stanley put one down and Lewis' Eduard Quinones went under the net trying to stop another as Hawaii prevailed, 15-12, 8-15, 15-9, 10-15, 15-13, in the second match of the Outrigger Hotels Invitational's opening night.
Tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center, the Rainbows take on 12th-ranked Penn State, a 15-3, 15-3, 15-0 loser yesterday to No. 1 UCLA. In today's 4:30 p.m. first match, Lewis and UCLA meet in a rematch of the NCAA national tournament semifinal won by the Bruins in five at the Sheriff Center."It reminded me so much of our match in the final four," said Lewis' Victor Rivera, who had a match-high 36 kills and hit .585. "Same crowd, same thing happens, almost by the same score. In the fifth game, it's like flipping a coin.
"Losing this one was tough but there's plenty of incentive to wake up tomorrow and finish what we didn't finish (against UCLA) in the final four."
Seven months ago, the Flyers lost to UCLA, 13-15, 15-9, 15-6, 13-15, 15-11. Danny Farmer sparked the Bruins' rally; last night, the Rainbows got a Farmer-esque performance from Stanley, who had Hawaii's last two kills.
"I'm glad Mason (setter Kuo) went to me at the end," said Stanley, who finished with a team-high 22 kills. "I'd rather be the one.
"This win was big. It helps our confidence. In the past, we have had a hard time in the fifth game. The crowd really got back into it."
Hawaii was nine points away from winning the match, taking a 6-0 lead in Game 4; Lewis came back with a 15-4 run to send it to a fifth game.
The Flyers then raced out to a 5-1 lead in the point-per-serve Game 5. The Rainbows rallied with kills from Chris Kosty and Stanley, three Lewis hitting errors and a late net violation call on the Flyers that lifted Hawaii to an 8-7 lead.
The Rainbows appeared poised to finish it off when they took a 12-9 lead. Lewis tied it at 12 and at 13 before Stanley's last kill and the net violation on Quinones.
"It was definitely 'Mr. Toad's Wild Ride' out there," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said, alluding to a ride at Disneyland. "This was a real big win for us."
Rivera, the runner-up last season in the Player of the Year voting, was phenomenal in tying the tournament record for most kills in a match (set by UCLA's Paul Nihipali against Penn State in 1997). The 6-foot-5 outside hitter had 20 kills before his first hitting error midway through Game 3; in Game 2, he hit 1.000 with 14 kills in 14 attempts.
Quinones added 15 kills for the Flyers (1-1).
The Rainbows hope to get 6-9 junior blocker Andre Breuer back either tonight or tomorrow against UCLA. The All-American severely sprained his ankle last week against UC San Diego.
UCLA 3, Penn State 0: April can't come soon enough for Mark Pavlik. The coach of the Nittany Lions put together the toughest imaginable nonconference schedule to open the season, playing Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 in a 10-day span.
Yesterday, Penn State fell to 0-5 after losing to the No. 1-ranked Bruins in straight sets. The Nittany Lions didn't make a game of it until late in Game 3, when they closed to 11-8 and 13-10.
But UCLA's Danny Farmer put down his 11th kill and setter Brandon Taliaferro zinged in an ace to close it out in 76 minutes.
"The long and short of it is this has got to make us better for April (playoffs)," said Pavlik, whose team played at No. 6 Ohio State and No. 5 Pepperdine (three times) last week.
"Against Hawaii, I want us to play hard, have the crowd entertained with good volleyball. But we don't know much about Hawaii. We're pretty much coming in blind."
Hawaii def. Lewis, 15-12, 8-15, 15-9, 10-15, 15-13 Box Scores
At Stan Sheriff Center
g k e at pct. bs ba d McNeil 3 7 11 22 -.182 0 2 4 Rivera 5 36 5 53 .585 0 4 10 Quinones 5 15 8 33 .212 1 3 7 Deniz 5 2 3 7 -.143 1 1 11 Aviles 5 11 2 26 .346 0 9 1 Nembhard 5 8 5 20 .150 1 1 4 Ludden 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Zambo 2 4 0 5 .800 0 1 4 Corsten 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Totals 5 83 34 166 .295 3 21 42
g k e at pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 5 21 12 43 .209 1 5 1 Kuo 5 1 2 6 -1670 3 2 8 Kosty 5 11 4 22 .318 1 1 9 Davis 5 15 5 29 .345 2 4 5 Stanley 5 22 13 47 .191 1 4 5 Tukuafu 5 16 4 31 .387 0 3 9 Haliniak 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 5 86 40 178 .258 8 10 37Aces--UH (5): Stanly 3, Kosty 1, Tukuafu 1. LU (2): Quinones 1, Deniz 1. Assists--UH (81): Kuo 77, Miladinovic 1, Kosty 1, Davis 1, Tukuafu 1. LU (81): Deniz 76, Rivera 2, Aviles 2, McNeil 1.Yellow card: Rivera at 8-13 in Game 3.
A--4,508 turnstile (6,036 tickets). T--1:20. Officials: Andy Smilovich, Dan Hironaka.
UCLA def. Penn State, 15-3,
15-3, 15-10
g k e at pct. bs ba d Miller 3 11 3 24 .333 0 1 3 Pollock 3 0 1 1 -1.000 0 0 1 Houston 3 6 6 17 .000 0 0 5 Mazzullo 3 13 5 25 .320 0 1 4 Pampena 3 6 1 10 .500 1 1 6 Hawkings 2 1 1 5 .000 0 0 0 Hoffman 2 5 3 14 .143 0 1 2 Schall 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Quinones 1 2 0 2 1.000 0 0 2 Totals 3 44 20 98 .245 1 4 24
g k e at pct. bs ba d Taliaferro 3 2 2 5 .000 0 5 6 Williams 3 7 2 12 .417 0 3 8 Thatcher 3 16 1 22 .682 0 2 2 Robins 3 8 2 18 .333 0 2 7 Farmer 3 11 2 20 .450 0 2 1 Naeve 3 9 0 13 .692 0 8 3 Totals 3 53 9 90 .489 0 22 27Aces--PS (1): Pampena 1. UCLA (7): Williams 2, Naeve 2, Farmer 1, Thatcher 1, Taliaferro 1. Assists--PS (42): Pollock 26, Quinones 14, Houston 1, Mazzullo 1. UCLA (50): Taliaferro 45, Thatcher 3, Williams 1, Naeve 1.T--1:16. Officials: Randy Shaw and Andy Smilovich.
