Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Saturday, February 19, 2000

’Bows wash out Beach

The Hawaii men's volleyball
team gets its revenge by sweeping
No. 1 Long Beach State

By Kalani Wilhelm
Special to the Star-Bulletin

Some say that sequels never live up to the original. The University of Hawaii men's volleyball team proved that notion false last night as the Rainbows overcame Wednesday's heartbreaking defeat by sweeping the Long Beach 49ers off the shore, 16-14, 15-11, 15-13.

After Wednesday night's drowning at the hands of the Beach, the 6,118 fans at the Stan Sheriff center witnessed the premier of Bash of the Beach II, the Sequel - and it was a blockbuster.

"We got everyone involved in the offense tonight. It was a total team effort," said Hawaii coach Mike Wilton, following his team's first victory over a top-ranked team in three attempts.

Outside hitters Clay Stanley and Costas Theocharidis, co-stars of Wednesday's five set grinder, were joined by the supporting cast of Eyal Zimet and Brenton Davis.

The involvement seemed to hit Long Beach unexpectedly.

"The game took on a different tone for us instead of Clay here, Costas there. It took the load off of them and made us less predictable," Wilton said.

Zimet, who hit for .000 in Wednesday's match, provided Wilton with an extra offensive threat that the 'Bows needed, banging out 15 kills. Davis was a force at middle blocker, compiling 10 total blocks.

The 'Bows (8-3, 5-2) held considerable leads in all three matches but the 49ers continued to put the pressure on, blanketing the court all evening getting to balls that seemed destined for the floor.

On this night the 'Bows welcomed the challenge.

"We had something to prove and we did that tonight," Davis said.

"We came out fired up, everybody did their job today. Passing was better, blocking was better and the hitting was better. You combine all those things and you're gonna win games," Stanley said.

Theocharidis finished with his fifth double-double of the season for Hawaii with 27 kills and a team-high 14 digs

"All aspects of today went wonderful," Theocharidis said.

The freshman outside hitter hit for a scorching .522 on the night.

Long Beach fought off seven match points before falling, to provide for a climactic finish in favor of Hawaii.

"Although they are the first ranked team, we knew we could beat them if we brought out our 'A' game tonight and that's how we got this 'W,' " Davis said.

Hawaii def. Long Beach State,
116-14, 15-11, 15-13

49ers (9-2, 6-1 MPSF)

	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
McCappin	3	13	4	30	.300	0	5	0
Prosser	3	6	2	17	.235	1	4	0
McKienzie	3	19	9	38	.263	0	4	12
Seiffert	3	3	0	5	.600	1	2	9
Faber	3	17	11	35	.171	0	2	9
Polster	3	13	3	26	.385	0	0	3
Jackson	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	8
Dahl	2	1	1	3	.000	0	1	0
Ekins	3	0	0	0	.000	0	1	0
Mason	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Totals	3	72	30	154	.273	2	19	41

Rainbows (9-3, 5-2 MPSF)

	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Zimet	3	15	7	26	.308	2	5	7
Krejci	3	1	0	2	.500	1	5	7
Theocharidis	3	27	3	46	.522	0	3	14
Davis	3	6	5	14	.071	1	9	2
Stanley	3	20	8	52	.231	1	3	3
Tukuafu	3	9	4	18	.278	0	3	4
Lockwood	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	7
Totals	3	78	27	158	.323	5	28	44

Aces--Long Beach St.. (5): McKienzie 2, Polster 2, Faber 1) Hawaii (2): Theocharidis 1, Stanley 1. Assists--Long Beach St. (70): Seiffert 52, Ekins 7, McKienzie 4, Polster 3, Jackson 2, McCappin 1, Faber 1. Hawaii (75): Krejci 66, Lockwood 3, Tukuafu 2, Zimet 2, Theocharidis 2..

Officials--Verna Klubnikin, Dan Hironaka. T--2:10. A-- 6,118.

---

http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu