Saturday, March 27, 1999
Rainbows do
roof job in sweep
They turn back the Lions
By Cindy Luis
in a quick 91 minutes
Star-BulletinTalk about marketing.
A roofing company was a major sponsor of last night's Hawaii-Loyola Marymount men's volleyball match. The seventh-ranked Rainbows more than took the hint, finishing with enough blocks to nearly re-roof the Stan Sheriff Center.
In 91 minutes, Hawaii shut down the league's team leader in kill average last night, finishing with 21 stuffs, in a 16-14, 15-3, 15-1 victory over LMU. The Rainbows head into tonight's match against Cal State Northridge at 14-6 overall, 7-5 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation; the Lions dropped to 9-7 and 8-6.
With a number of junior club teams in the arena, the Manoa Roofing Company fed off the youthful enthusiasm of the crowd (4,731 turnstile, 6,456 tickets). The energy helped carry the Rainbows to two quick points that broke a 14-14 tie in Game 1; the Lions never recovered after the 45-minute Game 1, coming up with just 18 kills and no blocks in the final 36 minutes.
The other side of the net was a different story. Hawaii dominated with 21 blocks overall. Eight of those came in Game 3, all resulting in points, including five consecutive blocks that gave the Rainbows match-point at 14-1.
"The end of the match was pretty amazing," said Hawaii coach Mike Wilton. "It was like, 'Show us something we can't block.' "
The Lions never did, hitting negative in each of the last two games. Two of LMU's kill leaders -- Corin Bemus and Tim Farmer -- also hit negative; the only one having any success was Reid Priddy (18 kills) whose .222 percentage was .106 below his average."Blocking is the easiest play to get a point," said Rainbow middle Dejan Miladinovic, who finishedwith nine assist blocks. "Maybe an ace is the easiest, then the block. But the block is the best feeling in volleyball. I'm sure in the other team's subconscious they are thinking 'Oh, no, there's that block again.' "
And it didn't matter where frustrated Lions' setter Stephen Dunne put the ball -- middle, left, right, behind the 10-foot line. The Rainbow wall was there, with every Hawaii player except Clay Stanley in on at least four blocks.
UH middle Andre Breuer led the way with 14 kills, hitting .684, with nine block assists. But it was Hawaii's wing players -- Torry Tukuafu with one solo and six block assists, Jorge Alifonso with five assists -- who injected a ton of doubt into the Lions.
"Our team has never played that bad the whole year," said LMU coach Rick McLaughlin. "Every now and then you expect one or two guys not to have a good night but, tonight, it was everybody. The crowd definitely helped UH but UH also helped themselves. They played great. They blocked a lot of balls but we also got pretty predictable. This was our worst match of the year but they made us have the worst match."
McLaughlin said it was hard to scout UH because he felt the 'Bows were going to switch setters for this match. Indeed, sophomore Jorge Perez started in place of Mason Kuo, running a quicker offense and getting the ball to Breuer and Miladinovic on the off-pass.
The crowd-pleasing Perez even got in on the block party, with a solo stuff and five block assists. The 5-foot-10 Perez got his second career solo when roofing LMU's 6-5 Priddy at 12-7 in Game 1.
"I haven't had a solo for over a year and I just stuck my arm out," said Perez. "I was pretty happy about that. "
Box Score
Hawaii def. Loyola Marymount, 16-14, 15-3, 15-1
At Stan Sheriff CenterLions (9-7 overall, 8-6 MPSF)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Dunne 3 5 1 6 .667 0 0 1 Bemus 3 5 7 24 -.083 0 3 3 Schildts 3 7 2 12 .417 0 1 6 Lee 3 7 5 21 .095 0 1 3 Farmer 3 7 11 30 -.333 0 2 8 Priddy 3 18 10 36 .222 0 2 6 Kaulukukui 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Bennett 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Totals 3 49 36 129 .101 0 9 28Rainbows (14-6 overall, 7-5 MPSF)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 3 8 1 14 .500 0 9 4 Perez 3 1 0 2 .500 1 5 6 Breuer 3 14 1 19 .684 0 9 5 Alifonso 3 12 2 18 .556 0 5 8 Stanley 1 8 3 14 .357 0 0 3 Tukuafu 3 10 3 25 .280 1 6 8 Davis 3 4 4 11 .000 0 4 1 Totals 3 57 14 103 .417 2 38 35Aces_LMU (2): Lee 1, Farmer 1. UH (1): Perez 1. Assists_LMU (44): Dunne 40, Priddy 2, Farmer 1, Schildts 1. UH (50): Perez 46, Alifonso 3, Miladinovic 1.A_4,731 turnstile (6,456 tickets). T_1:31. Officials: Ernest Ho, Dan Hironaka.
