Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Wednesday, January 17, 2001
Miladinovic Dejan Miladinovic believes there's no bigger rush in volleyball than the block.
enjoying his
block party
The junior's return from
injury has been triumphantBy Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinThe "roof."
Stuffing your opponent's attempt to score.
Jamming it down his throat.
"It's the fastest way to score a point and it has effect on the mind of the opposite player," said the 6-foot-7 Miladinovic, a third-year starting middle blocker for Hawaii. "I would say blocking is the most exciting moment in volleyball -- not the ace or the spike."
No one does it better among the Warriors than him.
Two seasons ago, before Miladinovic sat out a year due to rotator cuff surgery, he was the second leading blocker in the nation. Averaging 2.05 blocks per game, he set a single-season school record.
"That was a big loss last year because we had to take Torry Tukuafu from the outside, where he's very effective, and put him in the middle," said Hawaii coach Mike Wilton.
"He did a good job. But all is well now. Dejan is back with a whole year's worth of not being able to play pent up inside him. I know he did a lot of thinking. It must have been killing him not to be out there playing."
After two matches against Lewis last week, Miladinovic, now a co-captain with Tukuafu, is averaging 2.0 blocks. In his last game against the Flyers on Friday he was in on seven blocks to help complete a sweep.
"The middle is demanding because you have to jump twice as much as any player on the team," he said. "And you're playing the setter, which is the brain of the other team."
Wilton said he sympathizes with the role of his middle blockers.
"Every time we're on the attack, whether they get set or not, they've got to be jumping," said Wilton. "They have a real heavy work load."
Miladinovic came to Hawaii in August 1997 from a town in Serbia 100 miles south of Belgrade. He had played four years for club teams before arriving here. Miladinovic played on two national championship teams with his hometown club, Novi Sad.
He was 21 when he got here and found younger freshmen looking up to his experience.
He's now one of three players on the team ages 24 and his role as a leader continues. The others are sophomore Eyal Zimet and junior Vernon Podlewski.
"He's a lead-by-example kind of guy," said Wilton, adding that Miladinovic is one of the brightest students he's ever had playing for him.
Miladinovic, who has a 3.86 cumulative grade-point average, was awarded the prestigious Fish Scholarship for academics, as well as an athletic scholarship.
Academically a senior with a double major in finance and international business and a minor in economics, he thinks he can graduate in one semester after this one.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
