Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Tuesday, April 27, 1999

Just can’t stay
away from BYU

UH-BYU. Again. For two schools who probably will never have anything to do with each other for some years to come, they sure keep running into each other.

When the Brigham Young men's volleyball team defeated Hawaii in Provo Feb. 19 in their final scheduled meeting because of the breakup of the Western Athletic Conference, Rainbow fans thought that was the last they'd have to worry about Big Bad Blue.

Guess what?

With the Rainbows' stirring four-game upset of defending national champion UCLA last Saturday night, they will get another shot at BYU this Thursday in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball tournament semifinal.

So, it's once more with feeling, playing BYU. This time with more riding on the line.

For Hawaii, it is a chance to gain the NCAA Final Four at the expense of the Cougars, a team UH fans love to hate.

The Rainbow men will need to beat both BYU and the Long Beach State-Southern Cal winner to get there for a chance to win their first national title.

For BYU, which also has never won a national crown in volleyball, it's a chance to play in its first Final Four.

THIS year, the Final Four is scheduled at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion. So you can imagine what a double jolt it was for the Bruins to lose to the Rainbows. They had hopes of playing for the national championship on their home court.

Of course, there's no scenario that will find UCLA getting an at-large berth just because it's the host school.

Hawaii will need to win the MPSF tournament to get there. BYU figures to get the at-large berth even if it should lose to Hawaii, since the Cougars were ranked No. 1 most of the season.

Long Beach State, which handed BYU its only loss, figures to be the second MPSF team in the Final Four, if the Rainbows run out of miracles.

So the 'Bows control their own destiny.

And Destiny's Darling could be 6-foot-9 sophomore Clay Stanley, who had a performance at the Stan Sheriff Center that UH fans hadn't seen since Yuval Katz.

Stanley slammed home a school-record 50 kills, as time and again he put away game points or sideouts with uncanny accuracy. He was definitely in a "zone" that night.

"The scary thing," said UH coach Mike Wilton, "is that he's just scratching the surface as a player."

Stanley definitely provided a different dimension that UCLA hadn't seen in its two earlier victories over Hawaii this season.

NOW, Stanley will need to duplicate his feat if the Rainbows are to have any chance against the Cougars at their place.

More important, the Rainbows exorcised some demons in the victory over UCLA, according to Wilton.

They finally beat the Bruins in a meaningful match. They finally managed to hang in there against a quality opponent.

"I was a little worried when we lost game three," Wilton said. "But we came back. We remembered how to go for it when things got difficult."

Those are the ingredients - besides a repeat of the remarkable performance Stanley delivered - that the Rainbows will need this Thursday.

UH president Ken Mortimer, who watched the stirring upset of the Bruins, summed up the feelings of the 6,123 fans that night:

"Sometimes, life is good," Mortimer said.

And, you know what?

Life can be even better if the Rainbows can beat You Know Who.