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Saturday, January 15, 2000
Rainbows put the
‘0’ on Loyola
The Hawaii men's volleyball
By Cindy Luis
team shut out Loyola of
Chicago in Game Four
Star-BulletinClay Stanley and Ted Groves became good friends last summer when the two competed for the U.S. in men's volleyball at the World University Games in Spain.
Last night, they were the best of enemies when Hawaii and Loyola of Chicago squared off at the Stan Sheriff Center for the second night in a row. And it brought out the best in both of them.
The Ramblers' Groves won the battle, putting down 28 kills to Stanley's 22. But Stanley had six aces, including three in the Game 4 shutout, to help the sixth-ranked Rainbows win the war, 15-5, 15-8, 13-15, 15-0.
"Sometimes, I just get lucky with my serve,'' said the 6-foot-9 Stanley, who came within one ace of tying the UH single-match record shared by Mark Presho and Erik Pichel. "Sometimes, it's just bam! And they don't even have time to move.
"I was very aware (in Game 4) of the score when I had that little serving streak going. I kept telling everyone, 'Let's go, 15-0 all the way.'''
It doesn't happen often in men's collegiate volleyball, but it's happened twice within a calendar year for the Rainbows. Their last shutout was last Jan. 15 against UC San Diego; last night was No. 5 in the program's 22-year history of intercollegiate play.
"Loyola is a very decent team and I wanted to pull off the15-0,'' said Hawaii coach Mike Wilton, whose team improved to 2-0. "When we got to 11-0, it was 'Come on, guys, play like you're behind and have to come back.' You have to stay on it mentally to pull off a 15-0.
"After falling apart and losing in Game 3, I felt like we righted the ship.''
After seeing Game 3 slip away, the Rainbows returned to the court with a vengeance. Brenton Davis opened Game 4 with an ace; five minutes later, Stanley had three bullet serves during a 5-0 run that put Hawaii up, 7-0.
"We were real down after losing the third game and I think everyone had a lot to prove,'' said Davis, who finished with 12 kills and eight blocks. "We knew that that team should never have taken a game off us. ... I think the fourth game showed what we can do.''
Freshman outside hitter Costas Theocharidis had five of his team-high 23 kills and junior middle Torry Tukuafu added five of his 16 kills over the final 18 minutes to close it out.
Despite losing for the second night in the row, the Ramblers (0-3) felt better when leaving the arena than they had the night before. Loyola (0-3) was swept, 15-5, 15-5, 15-5, in just 78 minutes Thursday.
"Our goal tonight was to come out and let people know we weren't just some punks from Chicago,'' said Groves. "Even though 15-0 is definitely not good, we feel better about how we're leaving.
"I think we were respectable tonight. And it was fun to play against Clay. When I play against a close friend, I give it my all. Some of his stuff had my name on it but some of my stuff had his name on it, too.''
One of Groves' kill attempts hit Stanley right on the chest late in Game 3. But in a variation of the chest bump, the ball bounced off Stanley and landed on the Ramblers' side of the net for a Hawaii point.
Stanley and Theocharidis each finished with 13 digs as Hawaii outdug Loyola, 47-29. The Ramblers outblocked Hawaii, 12-9, but had no blocks in Game 4 when the Rainbows hit .765 as a team with 13 kills and no errors.
"We had a couple of goals tonight,'' said Loyola coach Gordon Mayforth. "One, was to make Mike (Hawaii coach Wilton) call a timeout. We did that. Two, was to stay on the court for more than two hours (the match lasted 2:13). Three, was to win a game.
"The fourth obviously was to win the match. So, we accomplished three out of four and we walk out of here feeling a whole lot better than we did last night. At least tonight, we didn't waste the fans' time or money. At least tonight, they got to chant 'Rain-Bows a few times tonight.''
Hawaii def. Loyola-Chicago, 15-5, 15-8, 13-15, 15-0
Ramblers (0-3)
G K E ATT PCT. BS BA D S.Davis 4 0 0 4 .000 1 1 7 Haas 4 3 1 13 .154 1 6 2 Steponaitis 3 2 2 5 .000 0 0 1 Stoub 4 15 6 46 .196 0 4 4 Groves 4 28 13 60 .250 0 2 3 Hess 4 4 1 8 .375 0 3 1 O’Brien 4 6 3 16 .188 0 4 6 Wilson 4 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 5 Totals 4 59 26 153 .216 2 20 29Rainbows (2-0)
G K E ATT PCT. BS BA D Zimet 4 7 1 8 .750 0 1 6 Krejci 4 1 1 4 .000 0 3 3 Theocharidis 4 23 6 38 .447 0 3 13 B.Davis 4 12 3 22 .409 1 7 1 Stanley 4 22 11 45 .244 0 1 13 Tukuafu 4 16 5 23 .478 0 1 2 Lockwood 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 9 Ching 1 1 1 3 .000 0 0 0 Totals 4 82 28 143 .378 1 16 47Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.Aces--Loyola-Chicago (3): Groves 2. Hess 1. UH (12): Stanley 6, B. Davis 3, Krejci 1, Theocharidis 1, Zimet 1. Assists--Loyola-Chicago (58): S. Davis 58. UH (78): Krejci 74, B. Davis 2, Tukuafu 2.
A-4,865. T--2:13. Officials--Ernest Ho, Wayne Lee.
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
Ka Leo O Hawaii
