Rainbow Playbook
at Brigham Young Cougars
Coaches-BYU: Carl McGown (10th season, 135-111). UH: Mike Wilton (7th season, 138-61).
Season-BYU: 26-1. UH: 18-9.
Ranking-BYU: No 1. UH: No. 4.
Series: Hawaii leads the all-time series, 10-9, but the Cougars have won the last three contests in Provo. The last time the Rainbows won in Smith Fieldhouse was March 10, 1995, in five. Hawaii is 0-2 in MPSF postseason matches against BYU, losing first-round matches in 1994 and 1997.
Top players-BYU: Ossie Antonetti (6-1 Sr. OH) 5.62 kpg, .357, 13 aces, 137 digs; Ryan Millar (6-8 Sr. MB) 4.91 kpg, .511, 2.05 bpg, 34 aces, 125 digs; Mac Wilson (6-9 So. MB) 2.35 kpg, .470, 1.84 bpg; Hector Lebron (6-0 Jr. S) 17.69 apg, 121 digs; Rich Lambourne (6-3 Sr. OH) 3.06 kpg, 10 aces, 169 digs. UH: Mason Kuo (6-2 Sr. S) 16.77 apg; Clay Stanley (6-9 So. Opp) 4.99 kpg, 1.01 bpg, 26 aces; Torry Tukuafu (6-6 So. OH) 4.36 kpg, 1.90 dpg., 22 aces; Andre Breuer (6-9 Jr. MB) 4.16 kpg, .398, 1.72 bpg, 21 aces; Dejan Miladinovic (6-7 So. MB) 3.71 kpg, 1.72 bpg, 25 aces; Brenton Davis (6-4 So. Opp) 4.72 kpg, 1.56 dpg; Chris Kosty (6-2 Sr. OH) 1.48 kpg, 1.67 dpg, 12 aces.
About the Cougars: BYU, enjoying its finest season ever, have held the No. 1 ranking since March 29 following their two straight-set wins over Pepperdine. BYU's lone loss of the season came on March 19 to then-No. 3 Long Beach State in five. The Cougars have won their last eight matches, going 24-1 in games. The only set they dropped was at UC Santa Barbara during a four-matches-in-five-days road trip ... BYU is led by senior blocker Ryan Millar, who tops the MPSF in blocking and hitting percentage. Sophomore middle blocker Mac Wilson is second in hitting percentage and third in blocking ... In last Saturday's first-round match, the Cougars needed just 73 minutes to sweep Pacific, 15-7, 15-5, 15-2. Ossie Antonetti had 19 kills and hit .500 while Millar had 14 kills and hit .455. Rich Lambourne added 10 kills with no errors in 15 swings.
About the Rainbows: Hawaii stunned No. 3 UCLA last Saturday, 16-14, 15-11, 14-16, 17-15, in a match that lasted 2 hours and 55 minutes. It was the first time in three playoff matches that the Rainbows defeated the Bruins ... Sophomore Clay Stanley broke the UH record for kills with 50 and Dejan Miladinovic set new UH and MPSF records for block assists with 22. The old MPSF mark was 18, set by former Rainbow Jason Olive in 1995 ... Against the Cougars on Feb. 19, sophomore opposite Brenton Davis had a team-high 38 kills. The match went four games with BYU winning the pivotal Game 3, 17-15 ... Stanley did not play against the Cougars, with the starting nod going to Davis ... Hawaii is second in blocking in the MPSF at 7.71 bpg, behind BYU's 8.64 bpg ... The last meeting between the Rainbows and Cougars was played in the Marriott Center. The crowd of 14,156 broke the NCAA single-match record of 10,300, held by Hawaii ... Miladinovic moved into second place on the career list with 318 block assists. He needs needs 73 to pass Jason Olive as the UH all-time leader.
End quote: "I don't feel that, as a team, we played that well against UCLA," said UH coach Mike Wilton. "What was good is we showed a lot of grit and we figured out a way to win."
First serve: Today at 3:30 p.m. (HST), Smith Fieldhouse, Provo.
On the air: Live on KFVE TV (Channel 5), 9 p.m. rebroadcast. Live on KCCN radio 1420-AM.
