Friday, April 30, 1999
Associated Press
Hawaii's Dejan Miladinovic puts one of his match-high
23 kills past Brigham Young University blockers Rich
Lambourne, left, and Mac Wilson during the Rainbows'
straight-set loss to the Cougars in the semifinals of the
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament.
BYU ends
UH’s season
After letting victory elude
By Cindy Luis
them in Game 1, the 'Bows are
blown out by the Cougars
in the semifinals
Star-BulletinPROVO, Utah -- B-Y-U spelled B-Y-E for the Hawaii men's volleyball team last night as the fourth-ranked Rainbows waved aloha to their national championship tournament hopes.
The magic that led to last Saturday's huge win over UCLA proved to be just an illusion. When the No. 1-ranked Cougars pulled Game 1 out after a heated 45-minute battle, the Rainbows' passing and blocking disappeared -- as did the golden touch of Clay Stanley.
It took Brigham Young just another 47 minutes to all but wrap up its first final four berth via a 17-15, 15-4, 15-6 victory at Smith Fieldhouse. Tomorrow, the Cougars (27-1) will face Southern Cal (17-10), which upset No. 2 Long Beach State 10-15, 16-14, 15-7, 15-9, in last night's other semifinal match of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament.
Hawaii's hopes of a second upset in a row rested on Game 1, which was a deja vu of Game 1 against the Bruins at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Rainbows again fell behind early, again held off several game points and again had Chris Kosty on the service line when trailing 14-10.
"It did go through my mind how very similar the game was," Hawaii senior setter Mason Kuo said.
But all similarities ended after Hawaii took a 15-14 lead and was serving for the game. Unlike UCLA, BYU refused to fold and benefited from two critical calls that went the Cougars' way.
The first was a net violation called on Andre Breuer on his kill attempt that tied the game at 15-15.
The second was a ball hit by Dejan Miladinovic that appeared to land a foot inside the backline; it was called out by the linesman and gave the Cougars a 16-15 lead.
One sideout later, Ossie Antonetti put down one of his team-high 22 kills and the Cougars began packing their bags for next week's trip to Los Angeles. Even if BYU loses to Southern Cal tomorrow night, the Cougars would likely get the at-large berth based on their No. 1 ranking for most of the season.
"I don't know what happened after Game 1," said Breuer, who finished with a match-high 23 kills. "I thought we were in good spirits going into Game 2. But we couldn't come back."
It was tied at 1-1 in Game 2 and then it was over. The Cougars reeled off seven straight points and the Rainbows were reeling.
BYU won all the big rallies with outstanding defense and gravity-defying blocks. The 6-foot-1 Antonetti stuffed 6-9 Clay Stanley in Game 2; 6-2 setter Hector Lebron had a one-handed snuff of 6-9 Breuer in Game 3.
And the vaunted Hawaii block disintegrated in front of a packed crowd of 4,761. The Rainbows were outblocked, 23-13, for the match and didn't record a single block in Game 3.
Stanley, who had a school-record 50 kills against UCLA, finished with 12 while hitting negative .086. The Rainbows finished with a season-low hitting percentage of .089.
"It's a disappointing loss," said Hawaii coach Mike Wilton, ending the year at 19-10. "I thought we had every opportunity to win Game 1 but didn't get it done. BYU is a very good team and perhaps we just didn't have enough weapons tonight."
The Cougars had plenty of firepower.
Ryan Millar added 13 kills and Steve Hinds had a career-high 12. BYU hit .286 for the match, including .483 in Game 3, where the Cougars had 15 kills with one error in 29 swings.
"It means a lot to the seniors to get to the final four," said Millar, who is expected to be named an All-American for the fourth time next week.
"Our freshman season, we got beat up by everyone (finishing 7-12). We've worked hard for this. Tonight, when Hawaii let down, we stepped it up."
"We played well tonight," BYU coach Carl McGown said. "We were fortunate to win Game 1; who knows what would have happened if we had lost it?"
It was the third time that the Cougars ended the Rainbows' season.
The other times came in first-round matches in 1994 and 1997. The series between the teams is now tied at 10-10 with BYU winning the last four.
SOUTHERN CAL 3, LONG BEACH STATE 1: Freshman Brook Billings put down 39 kills and Eli Fairfield added 25 as the Trojans beat the 49ers for the first time in four tries this season. David McKienzie led Long Beach State with 36 kills.
The 49ers need BYU to beat Southern Cal in tomorrow's MPSF final to stay alive for an at-large bid to the NCAA final four.
Brigham Young def. Hawaii, 17-15, 15-4, 15-6
At Provo, Utah
Cougars 27-1 g k e at pct. bs ba d Lambourne 3 9 1 18 .444 0 7 8 Antonetti 3 22 11 50 .220 2 6 6 Wilson 3 5 0 8 .625 1 10 3 Goldston 3 0 1 1 -1.000 0 0 1 Hinds 3 12 7 25 .200 0 3 9 Jennings 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Lebron 3 1 0 4 .250 1 4 7 Millar 3 13 4 27 .333 1 6 6 Lindemann 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Totals 3 62 26 133 .286 5 36 41 Rainbows 19-10 g k e at pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 3 9 8 26 .038 0 5 6 Haliniak 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Kuo 3 4 0 7 .571 0 5 8 Brreuer 3 23 10 51 .255 0 6 9 Kosty 3 5 7 13 -.154 1 1 12 Davis 3 7 4 17 .176 0 2 1 Lockwood 3 3 4 8 -.154 0 4 1 Stanley 3 12 15 35 -.086 0 0 1 Tukuafu 1 0 1 1 -1.000 0 1 1 Totals 3 63 49 158 .089 1 24 39Key: g-games. k-kills.e-errors. at-attempts. pct,-hitting percentage. bs-block solos. ba- block assists. d-digs.Aces--BYU (2): Lambourne, Millar. UH (2): Miladinovic, Kosty. Assists--BYU (60): Lebron 57, Lambourne 3. UH (63): Kuo 58, Kosty 4, Miladinovic.
A--4,761. T--1:31. Officials--Olmstead, Oshita.
