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Monday, January 29, 2001
Hawaii men's volleyball head coach Mike Wilton is glad he's got a healthy squad again. No. 2 Gauchos up
next for WarriorsBy Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinBut the way the seventh-ranked Warriors won their fifth match in six outings Saturday night worried him.
"What we need badly now is practice," said Wilton whose team plays host to No. 2 UC-Santa Barbara on Wednesday and Friday.
"We were pretty ragged," added Wilton, who thought Hawaii played hard only "when we had to."
Costas Theocharidis led the Warriors with 13 kills and a .391 hitting mark as Hawaii fashioned its second straight sweep of No. 12 Pacific before 3,601 fans at the Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday night. The Warriors beat the Tigers, 30-28, 30-25, 30-25.
They also swept Pacific on Thursday when Theocharidis played in only two games and had 11 kills.
Theocharidis, Torry Tukuafu and Brenton Davis were all suffering effects of a virus that night and had missed practice time last week.
All three indicated they were feeling better Saturday. But this win wasn't as convincing as the first match against the Tigers.
The Warriors managed only a 10.5 to 9.5 edge in blocking, and they hit .330 while allowing the Tigers a .253 hitting percentage. There were 18 ties in Game 1.
In Game 2, Hawaii built a 10-point lead (19-9) after five ties but let Pacific creep within four points (29-25) before clinching it.
There were nine ties in Game 3 as Pacific once again challenged Hawaii all the way.
The Tigers were led by their two Norwegian standouts, Geir Eithun (16 kills) and Martin Bernsten (12 kills).
"We couldn't stand success," said Wilton. "We got a couple of big leads and then muddled around. A win's a win but we sure need to practice."
Dejan Miladinovic had 11 kills for Hawaii, while Eyal Zimet added 10. Miladinovic, Davis and Tony Ching each had five blocks assists.
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
