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Saturday, April 15, 2000
Rainbows serve up
quick win over Tigers
Playoff-bound Hawaii has
By Dave Reardon
14 aces in routing UOP; UH
finishes home season
tonight with rematch
Star-BulletinIf you ask most college volleyball fans to break down the game to its basics, they will likely talk about hitting and blocking.
Last night, the University of Hawaii and Pacific took it a step further in a match that was all about serving and receiving -- the Rainbows' ability to launch devastating serves and the Tigers' inability to return them.
A 14-ace attack, including seven with no errors in the first game, led Hawaii to a 15-1, 15-2, 15-8 rout of Pacific in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
"(Serving) is one of the weapons we have besides blocking and hitting," said outside hitter Costas Theocharidis, whose jump serve jump-started UH with four aces.
The Tigers (10-16, 6-12) and playoff-bound Rainbows (18-9, 12-6) finish the regular season with a 7 p.m. rematch today.
If UH was looking for a warm-up for the long side-out wars it can expect in its first-round match at Pepperdine or USC next Saturday, it didn't find one last night.
"I'm not sure what to make out of tonight," Rainbows' coach Mike Wilton said. "I contend they're (Pacific) a good team."
The Tigers didn't look it, starting three freshmen while two top players are redshirting.
Hawaii serves bounced off all body parts imaginable, and Pacific was rarely able to get the ball to setter Christopher Tamas in the first two games.
"If we don't pass, it makes everything else look bad," Pacific coach Joe Wortmann said. "We're not a great passing team."
When the Tigers did make it to the net, their attacks were routinely swatted back at them by the Rainbow block.
But middle Brenton Davis, who was in on five of Hawaii's 10 blocks, said serving was the key. He should know, considering he had three aces himself.
"Our serving made this match. Definitely," Davis said.
Pacific showed some life with Mililani High graduate Rigel Painter running the offense in the third game.
But Clay Stanley fired nine of his game-high 17 kills, and the Rainbows gradually edged away.
Consecutive aces from Geronimo Chala made it 14-6, and it ended a few minutes later on Dylan Herrick's hitting error.
Hawaii's lone senior, Russell Lockwood, will be honored at his last home match tonight.
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
