Saturday, April 17, 1999
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
The Rainbows' Dejan Miladinovic dinks a ball over
the Trojans' Omar Rawi during Hawaii's four-set
victory over USC at the Stan Sheriff Center.
’Bows stop
USC in 4
Brenton Davis is the key as
By Cindy Luis
Hawaii clinches home court
for next week's first-round
playoff match against UCLA
Star-BulletinHome, sweet home.
And the Hawaii men's volleyball team can thank Brenton Davis for that.
Davis turned arsonist last night, coming off the bench to spark the seventh-ranked Rainbows against No. 10 Southern Cal. Davis torched the Trojans for a match-high 28 kills as Hawaii clinched the hosting duties for next week's playoff match with UCLA via an 11-15, 15-8, 15-12, 15-12 victory in front of 5,000 fans at the Stan Sheriff Center.
"This was a huge game for us," said Davis, who replaced Clay Stanley with Hawaii trailing 2-1 in Game 2. "Considering our road woes (a 3-7 record), we needed to come in and clinch the home advantage for us.
"I think everyone was pretty focused. We came out a little flat in the first game, but from there we picked it up."
Davis carried a heavy load for three quarters of the 2 hour, 18 minute match. Both Torry Tukuafu and Dejan Miladinovic struggled due to a combination of inconsistent passing and setter Mason Kuo trying to run a quicker -- and trickier -- offense.
Miladinovic didn't put down a kill until the Rainbows were leading, 13-10, in Game 3. He wound up with eight over the final 45 minutes, as well as being in on 10 blocks.
Tukuafu had four kills in Game 1; he finished with eight on the night, hitting .095. But Hawaii's kill leader served for four points during the critical Game 3 that put the Rainbows ahead at 11-8. Hawaii went on to beat the Trojans for the ninth straight time.
"Torry showed how you could help a team win by doing other things than getting kills," said Hawaii coach Mike Wilton. "And with passing being sporadic and SC jumping two guys on him (on the block), Dejan was having a tough time.
It was one of the Rainbows' better blocking matches as well. Hawaii (18-8, 11-7 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) outblocked USC 22-12 with 15 coming in the final two games.
Rainbow senior swing hitter Chris Kosty had a career match at the net, with one solo and six block assists. Middle Andre Breuer finished with 10 block assists to go with his 16 kills.
Kosty, Breuer and Kuo will be honored after tonight's 7 p.m. rematch with the Trojans. Kosty said the Rainbows won't have a problem getting motivated.
"We want to win and show everyone we're a team to be reckoned with," said Kosty.
"I don't think we want to go into the playoffs on a down note," added Davis. "We want to carry some momentum into the playoffs. We need a big win (tonight). That's what's on the agenda."
The Trojans (14-10, 10-8) have the same agenda. Southern Cal can clinch third place in the MPSF Pacific Division with a win tonight; a loss and they could be looking at an at-large berth fight with UC Irvine and Loyola Marymount.
The top three teams from each division advance to next week's MPSF Tournament along with the two other teams with the best overall records. UC Irvine, which hosts Stanford tonight, and USC are both 10-8, while Pacific is 10-9.
"We've got to win," said Trojan coach Pat Powers. "We'll need to play well to do that.
"We played well in Game 1 but didn't serve nearly as tough the rest of the way. And Davis came in and did a good job. We couldn't shut him down."
The Rainbows were able to slow down the Trojans' outstanding freshman hitter Brook Billings. The 6-5 Billings led his team with 24 kills but hit just .115.
NOTE: Hawaii's first-round playoff match with UCLA is scheduled for 7 p.m. next Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center.
MPSF
Pacific Division
W-L Pct. GB W-L Pct. xy-Long Beach St. 16-2 .889 _ 19-2 .904 xz-Hawaii 11-7 .611 5 18-8 .692 Southern Cal 10-8 .555 6 14-10 .583 Pacific 10-9 .526 6 14-10 .583 Stanford 7-11 .389 9 10-11 .476 San Diego St. 3-16 .157 13 3-17 .150 UC San Diego 0-18 .000 16 5-19 .208Mountain Division
Conference Overall W-L Pct. GB W-L Pct. xy-Brigham Young 18-1 .947 _ 25-1 .962 xz-Pepperdine 14-4 .778 3 19-4 .826 x-UCLA 14-5 .736 4 20-6 .769 UC Irvine 10-8 .556 7 13-10 .565 Loyola Marymount 9-9 .500 8 10-10 .500 UC Santa Barbara 5-14 .263 13 9-15 .375 Northridge 2-17 .105 17 3-21 .125x-clinched MPSF Tournament berth
y-clinched division title
z-clinched second place
Hawaii def. Southern Cal, 11-15, 15-8, 15-12, 15-12 Last night's results
CS Northridge def. UCSB, 8-15, 15-13, 15-7, 15-9
UCLA def. Stanford, 15-3, 15-3, 15-9
Long Beach St. def. San Diego St., 16-14, 15-12, 15-9
Tonight's matches
Southern Cal at Hawaii, 7 p.m., Sheriff Center
Long Beach State at UC San Diego
Loyola Marymount at Pepperdine
Stanford at UC Irvine
Trojans (14-10, 10-8 MPSF)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Julian 4 15 8 27 .259 1 4 8 Billings 4 24 18 52 .115 1 0 9 O. Rawi 4 10 4 20 .300 0 4 2 Fairfield 4 20 9 47 .234 1 3 8 Suxho 4 7 3 15 .267 0 2 13 Knopp 3 5 5 12 .000 0 4 2 B. Rawi 3 5 1 10 .400 0 1 1 Dennis 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Nelson 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Totals 4 86 48 183 .208 3 19 44Rainbows (18-8, 11-7 MPSF)
g k e at pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 4 8 2 21 .286 1 9 6 Kuo 4 4 0 6 .667 1 3 3 Breuer 4 16 4 28 .429 0 10 5 Kosty 4 5 2 14 .214 1 6 6 Stanley 2 6 4 14 .143 0 0 1 Tukuafu 3 28 10 52 .346 0 5 9 Davis 3 28 10 52 .346 0 5 5 Lockwood 3 0 0 0 .000 0 1 2 Haliniak 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 4 75 28 156 .301 3 39 37Aces--USC (6): Suxho 3, Julian 2, Fairfield 1. UH (2): Kosty 1, Tukuafu 1.Assists--USC (82): Suxho 71, Billings 4, Julian 3, Fairfield 2, B. Rawi. UH (72): Kuo 67, Miladinovic 2, Kosty 1, Tukuafu 1, Davis 1.
A--6,677. T--1:29. Officials--Ho, Lee.
