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Friday, January 14, 2000
Greece is the
word for ’Bows
Costas Theocharidis is a hit
By Cindy Luis
as UH opens with a quick
win over Loyola
Star-BulletinThere is a saying in Greece: The trees are tall but they don't play volleyball.
At least that's the translation given by University of Hawaii freshman Costas Theocharidis
Last night, the 6-foot-2 Theocharidis saw no trees and rarely a block as he cut through Loyola of Chicago for a match-high 15 kills in the Rainbows' 15-5, 15-5, 15-5 victory at the Stan Sheriff Center.
A tepid crowd of 3,234 saw sixth-ranked Hawaii win its 10th consecutive season opener, needing just 78 minutes to dispatch the Ramblers (0-2).
"I had never seen an American college team before and I did not know what to expect,'' said Theocharidis, a Greek national. "They were big and I had some fear. But we put them down with good serving and very good blocking of our own.
"We also did not play to our possibilities. There was some nervousness but we managed to get over it.''
For whatever reason, Loyola never did. The Ramblers, with a slight height advantage, had been expected to challenge Hawaii's hitters more than they did but were outblocked, 11-6.
Credit the Rainbows' new setter, sophomore Stefan Krejci, for keeping Loyola honest and clueless. Hawaii hit .408 as a team, with Theocharidis hitting .619 with two errors, and Clay Stanley adding 14 kills, hitting .409.
Credit, too, Hawaii's serving that had nine aces to zero by Loyola and another five points off service overpasses. The tough serves also meant that the Ramblers' freshman setter Shane Davis had few options off bad passes, allowing the Rainbows to camp out on the predictable sets to main hitters Ted Groves and Justin Schnor.
"When our go-to people can't go-to, we don't know how to do anything else,'' said Loyola coach Gordon Mayforth. "We graduated six starters last year and don't have a lot of experience on the floor.
"We arrived in Hawaii Sunday and I think our team thought they were still on vacation. We were certainly not ready to play tonight. Why we weren't is a great question.''
He hoped to find some answers by 7 tonight when the teams meet again.
Coach Mike Wilton, 8-0 in his season openers at Hawaii, expects the Loyola team that took BYU to four games last week will show up tonight. Last Friday, the Ramblers battled the defending NCAA champion Cougars for 2 hours before losing, 3-1, at Smith Fieldhouse.
"The way they played BYU on championship banner night tells me that team is capable of a lot more than they showed us,'' Wilton said. "But I thought we played pretty well. We were a little slow out of the blocks and I expected that. We didn't play with much emotion but we had fun.''
The crowd didn't have to exert much emotion, either. Hawaii trailed twice, at 2-0 in Game 1 and 1-0 in Game 3; the biggest roar - or groan -- came when Mayforth called timeout just as the fans began standing for aloha ball at 14-5.
Besides aces, the Rainbows dominated in every other category: kills (45-33), blocks (11-6) and hitting percentage (.408-.095). Groves and Schnor had 11 and 10 kills, respectively, but combined for 19 errors; against BYU, Schnor had 36 kills and Groves 26.
"We knew nothing about Hawaii,'' said Mayforth. "Either they guessed really well about us or had some good information from BYU. If they were guessing, Mike (Wilton) should go to Las Vegas and make some money because they had everything right."
Hawaii def. Loyola-Chicago, 15-5, 15-5, 15-5
Ramblers (0-2 overall)
G K E ATT PCT. BS BA D S.Davis 3 2 0 4 .500 1 0 2 Haas 3 3 1 10 .200 0 2 0 Steponaitis 3 4 2 9 .222 0 2 1 Groves 3 11 9 28 .071 0 0 3 Schnor 3 10 10 25 .000 0 2 3 Sullivan 3 3 2 7 .143 1 2 1 Stoub 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 O’Brian 1 0 1 1 -1.00 0 0 0 Wilson 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 3 Totals 3 33 25 84 .095 2 8 13Rainbows (1-0 overall)
G K E ATT PCT. BS BA D Zimet 3 2 2 11 .000 1 1 0 Krejci 3 1 1 2 .000 0 4 1 Theocharidis 3 15 2 21 .619 0 2 3 B.Davis 3 7 2 10 .500 0 4 3 Stanley 3 14 5 22 .409 0 1 4 Tukuafu 3 6 2 10 .400 0 5 2 Lockwood 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 5 Ching 1 0 0 0 .000 0 3 2 Totals 3 45 14 76 .408 1 20 20Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.Aces--LC (0). Hawaii (9): Theocharidis 3, Zimet 2, B.Davis 2, Stanley 1, Tukuafu 1. Assists--LC (32): S. Davis 29, Steponaitis 2, Wilson 1. Hawaii (40): Krejci 36, Zimet 1, B. Davis 1, Stanley 1, Tukuafu 1.
T--1:18. Officials--Wayne Lee, Ernest Ho.
Att-3,234 (4,707 tickets).
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
Ka Leo O Hawaii
