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Thursday, February 1, 2001
Warriors expect Annihilation.
more of a fight
next time
UH slams UC-Santa Barbara,
but coach Wilton expects the Gauchos
to regroup for the rematch
tomorrow nightBy Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinThat's about the only word you could use to describe the way No. 7 Hawaii swept No. 5 UC-Santa Barbara, 30-16, 30-17, 30-24, last night before 3,116 fans at the Stan Sheriff Center.
"They're way better than what they showed tonight," said Warriors coach Mike Wilton, whose team improved to 6-1 overall and 2-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
The Gauchos (3-2 overall, 1-2 MPSF) came into Hawaii hitting .339 as a team.
But in the ridiculously lopsided 88-minute match with the Warriors, they hit .054 and made 28 errors (four times Hawaii's total).
"They had trouble executing tonight, and I'm expecting a much better match on Friday," said Wilton.
UC-Santa Barbara head coach Ken Preston, whose team had beaten UCLA (the only team to beat Hawaii) in five games earlier this season, kept his Gauchos behind closed doors in the locker room long after the match.
No doubt Preston was talking about how they didn't get their first block until they were trailing, 22-14, in game 2.
How Hawaii wound up outblocking them, 13.5 to 1.
How they allowed seven service aces and managed only two.
How they allowed Hawaii to hit over .400 in each of the last two games.
And how they let the Warriors hit .375 for the match.
"We passed pretty well and Kimo (Tuyay) did a nice job setting, " said Wilton.
He praised the ballistic jump-serving of sophomore All-American Costas Theocharidis who had four aces.
"I've been waiting for this since we started conditioning last September," said Theocharidis, who's been hampered by shoulder problems.
"I have to prove to the crowd that I have a good jump serve."
Ironically, it was the first time in his career that Theocharidis didn't have at least 10 kills in a match.
"His aim got a little weird at the end, and he started working the antenna over a little bit," said Wilton with a chuckle. "He was really trying to get after that guy on the line."
Theocharidis had six kills on 17 swings. He hit .235.
"That's not important," said Wilton. "The important thing is that this match was decided at the serve line."
Theocharidis said he regretted his overall offensive performance.
"But I always said our best weapons are blocking and serving," he said.
"I wanted to serve really well tonight to take them out of their game. I knew that if they passed really well, they have good middle blockers who can hit high percentages."
Eyal Zimet had 10 kills and hit .500 to lead the Warriors' offense.
Torry Tukuafu had eight kills (.368) and Brenton Davis added seven kills (.583).
Dejan Miladinovic was in on a match-high eight blocks.
Alex Liniert led the Gauchos' offense with seven kills (.231) and Ben Koski had six kills (.000).
In other MPSF matches, No. 1 Long Beach State defeated UC-San Diego, 30-27, 30-23, 30-19, to raise its overall record to 5-0, and No. 8 Brigham Young (5-0) defeated No. 6 USC, 30-24, 30-20, 30-19.
UC-San Diego is 0-4 and the Trojans are 3-2.
Hawaii def. UC Santa Barbara, 30-16, 30-17, 30-24
Gauchos (3-2 overall, 1-2 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Minc 3 0 0 1 .000 0 0 6 Kohl 3 4 7 19 -.158 0 0 2 Nordberg 2 4 1 13 .231 0 1 0 Rivera 2 5 5 18 .000 0 0 6 Koski 3 6 6 20 .000 0 0 1 Bengtsson 3 3 4 15 -.067 0 0 1 Johnson 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Galang 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 3 Lienert 3 7 4 13 .231 0 1 2 Zegarra 3 1 0 5 .200 0 0 2 Busam 3 0 1 2 -.500 0 0 0 Adams 2 4 0 6 .667 0 0 0 Totals 3 34 28 112 .054 0 2 33
Warriors (6-1 overall, 2-0 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 3 4 2 11 .182 1 7 0 Tuyay 3 0 0 4 .000 2 3 7 Zimet 3 10 1 18 .500 0 5 5 Theocharidis 3 6 2 17 .235 0 2 5 Davis 3 7 0 12 .583 0 3 2 Tukuafu 3 8 1 19 .368 0 1 3 Podlewski 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 12 Ching 3 5 1 6 .667 0 0 3 LaBarre 1 0 0 1 .000 0 0 0 Totals 3 40 7 88 .375 3 21 37 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--UCSB (2): Kohl 1, Adams 1. UH (7): Theocharidis 4, Miladinovic 1, Zimet 1, Tukuafu 1.
Assists--UCSB (31): Minc 17, Galang 14. UH (37): Tuyay 34, Miladinovic 2, Zimet 1.
T-1:28. Officials: Wayne Lee, Ernest Ho.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii