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Friday, January 19, 2001
Sweep puts And now for the main event of the seventh Outrigger Hotels Invitational Men's Volleyball Tournament.
Warriors in tourney’s
main event
Hawaii will play UCLA
for the title tonightBy Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinBring on the Bruins.
Hawaii will face off against national champion and three-time defending invitational champion UCLA at 7 tonight.
"There's no team I'd rather beat than UCLA," said Warriors middle blocker Brenton Davis.
Davis and his teammates want to end a three-match losing streak to the Bruins that helped sour the 2000 season.
That streak began almost a year ago when the Bruins won a five-game thriller from Hawaii for the Outrigger title.
OUTRIGGER TOURNAMENT
Tonight: Penn State vs. Laval, 5 p.m.; Hawaii vs. UCLA, 7:30 p.m.
Laval University head coach Pascal Clement said he's sure that if the Warriors can "believe" as powerfully as they hit against his team, they will beat the Bruins.
The Warriors demolished the Rouge et Or (Red and Gold), 30-27, 30-22, 30-18, before 3,116 fans at the Stan Sheriff Center.
In sweeping Laval, Hawaii did what UCLA wasn't able to do on Wednesday. The Rouge et Or took the Bruins to five games.
But Clement concluded that Hawaii has "much, much more power" than UCLA.
That power knocked the game out of Laval early.
"The most disappointing thing for me is that we quit," said Clement.
After staying close with the Warriors throughout the first game, the Rouge et Or lost the spark they displayed against UCLA.
"It's the one of the worst crashes I've seen in my career," said Clement.
Laval had to play without its 6-foot-6 middle blocker, Mathieu Lagrandeur, who had 16 kills and six blocks against the Bruins. Lagrandeur developed a neck spasm yesterday morning and then suffered an injury in warmups.
Hawaii played without its All-American outside hitter, Costas Theocharidis, who was feeling pain in his shoulder.
Theocharidis is expected to play against UCLA tonight.
For the second night in a row, senior co-captain and middle blocker Torry Tukuafu led the Hawaii attack. He had 11 kills and hit .296.
Sophomore outside hitter Tony Ching, filling in for Theocharidis, was the only other Warrior in double-digit kills with 10. He hit .190.
Senior middle blocker Dejan Miladinovic had nine kills .
Davis was in on seven blocks to help Hawaii outblock Laval, 11-4.
Meanwhile, Hawaii held 6-3 Laval opposite Eric Lebreton to 16 kills (10 in the first game). Lebreton had 28 kills against UCLA.
UCLA will once again be without its Australian Olympian, Mark Williams. Williams sprained his ankle before the match with Laval and will be out for several weeks.
"He's our captain, our best hitter and best passer," said UCLA head coach Al Scates. "So we're struggling. I'd be happy to go five and win with anybody right now." The Bruins not only went five with Laval but they needed five to beat Penn State yesterday afternoon.
"So what?" said Theocharidis when told that Williams won't play.
"UCLA is UCLA. They have 12 good players. They don't have one set lineup. They change all the time.
"Mark Williams is a good setter, good server, good passer but UCLA has better volleyball players."
Ching said he only hopes he can get on the court against the Bruins tonight.
"I want them real bad," he said. "There's a little grudge going. I was there when they wanted to fight with us. There's always been bad blood between UCLA and UH so it's gonna be a good match."
Scates said he expects Hawaii to be the same kind of opponent it always is at the Stan Sheriff Center.
"I expect a great digging team, a team with a lot of emotion that feeds on the crowd, won't give up, will grovel on the floor, pick up balls, take slashing dives to the hardwood," he said.
Scates said he will look at tapes of Hawaii today. He wouldn't make any specific comments about the Warriors.
"We're small and they're big, we're quick, we have good ball control, we hit tough," said Hawaii head coach Mike Wilton in assessing his chances against UCLA.
"I think we need to be careful to not do things that challenge their strengths. We don't want to run a play right at a big guy. We want our hitters to run the gaps, just like in football, run to daylight. And just be relentless. You have to be against a big team."
Scates said he was pleased with freshman outside hitter Parker Smith, a former Punahou player who was in one game last night. He had three kills against Laval.
"It's awesome to have a chance to play against Hawaii," said Smith, who'd never played in the Stan Sheriff Center before Wednesday. "I used to come and watch all their home matches."
Hawaii def. Laval, 30-27, 30-22, 30-18
Rouge et Or (19-5)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Pelletier 3 3 1 5 .400 0 1 1 YLagrandeur 3 3 6 14 -.214 0 1 7 D’Amours 3 2 4 13 -.154 0 1 4 Giguere 3 1 1 2 .000 0 1 3 Perron 3 7 1 11 .545 1 2 0 Lebreton 3 17 10 35 .200 0 0 3 Fortin 1 0 0 2 .000 0 0 0 LaLancette 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 LeClerc 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Tremblay 3 1 1 2 .000 0 0 0 Belanger 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 5 Totals 3 34 24 84 .119 1 6 24
Warriors (3-0 overal)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 3 9 2 17 .412 0 3 0 Tuyay 3 1 0 2 .500 0 3 1 Zimet 3 4 1 8 .375 0 2 3 Ching 3 10 6 21 .190 0 4 7 Davis 3 7 1 11 .545 0 7 0 Tukuafu 3 11 3 27 .296 0 3 3 Muise 1 1 1 3 .000 0 0 0 Podlewski 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Denitz 2 0 0 2 .000 0 0 0 LaBarre 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Panaro 1 0 2 3 -.667 0 0 0 Totals 3 43 16 94 .287 0 22 19 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--Laval (2): Y Lagrandeur, Perron. UH (13): Ching 4, Zimet 3, Davis 3, Miladinovic 2, Tuyay 1.
Assists--Laval (34): Giguere 26, LeClerc 5, D'Amours 1, Perron 1, Belanger 1. UH (38): Tuyay 29, Denitz 6, Zimet 2, Tukuafu 1.
T-1:33. Officials: Dan Hironaka, Burt Fuller.
UCLA def. Penn St., 30-27, 30-28, 24-30, 19-30, 15-5
Bruins (3-2, 2-0 OHI)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Burnham 5 17 7 35 .286 0 3 6 Morrow 5 5 3 12 .167 0 3 1 Mount 5 4 4 16 .000 0 3 5 Naeve 5 10 4 22 .273 1 9 3 Conners 2 3 0 4 .750 0 2 1 Komer 5 15 5 24 .417 0 2 5 Smith 1 0 0 2 .000 0 0 0 Nelson 4 3 0 4 .750 0 4 7 Pena 2 0 0 2 .000 0 0 0 Shrader 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Totals 5 57 23 121 .281 1 26 38
Nittany Lions (1-2, 0-2 OHI)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Hodge 5 6 5 16 .063 0 3 2 Quinones 5 6 1 10 .500 0 4 10 Slenker 4 8 5 19 .158 0 3 4 Guerra 5 18 10 40 .200 3 1 6 Mills 5 14 2 27 .444 2 4 0 Koljesar 5 17 3 29 .483 2 1 6 Mattei 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 5 Rojas 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Keil 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Briggs 2 1 1 2 .000 0 1 2 Aird 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 5 70 27 143 .301 7 17 35 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--UCLA (5): Brunham 2, Mount 2, Nelson. Penn St. (8): Guerra 3, Koljesar 3, Hodge, Aird.
Assists--UCLA (53): Nelson 27, Conners 13, Brunham 3, Mount 3, Naeve 2, Komer 2, Shrader 2, Pena. Penn St. (64): Quinones 55, Guerra 5, Mattei 2, Koljesar, Briggs.
T-2:29. Officials: Burt Fuller, Ernest Ho.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
