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Saturday, February 3, 2001
In his pre-game memo, University of Hawaii head coach Mike Wilton wanted to get the attention of his players. Gauchos sink Warriors,
leave with splitBy Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinHe told them two important things about UC-Santa Barbara:
Wilton's Warriors, who had blasted the visiting Gauchos off the court at midweek, apparently didn't take their coach's warnings as seriously as they should have."Expect a tough match."
And that's why Wednesday's easy prey became Friday's predator.
The No. 5 Gauchos (4-2 overall, 2-2 MPSF) handed the No. 7 Warriors (6-2, 2-1 MPSF) their second defeat of the season, 32-30, 26-30, 37-35, 30-27, before 4,167 fans at the Stan Sheriff Center.
"Not only did we play well, but we played well at critical times," said Gauchos head coach Ken Preston.
"The other night we had four guys playing badly, and a car doesn't run on two of six cylinders."
It might have been pretty hard for the Warriors to expect such a comeback from a team that hit .054 two nights earlier. But Wilton saw it coming.
He knew the team Hawaii swept wasn't the real UC-Santa Barbara that had been ranked No. 2 only a couple of weeks ago.
"As promised, they came to play tonight," said Wilton.
The Gauchos and Hawaii were tied 13 times during the first game. The Warriors wound up serving unsuccessfully for game-point twice (29-27, 30-29) before opposite Ben Koski served an ace to win it for UC-Santa Barbara.
"The disappointment of losing game 1 affected us and certainly game 3," said Wilton. "In game 3 we came from behind to go up and had some swings at game ball but we couldn't get it done."
Hawaii trailed throughout much of that game, and the Gauchos served five times unsuccessfully for game point.
The Warriors went ahead and served for game point with leads of 34-33 and 35-34.
But UC-Santa Barbara setter Jeff Minc served with a 36-35 lead and Andy Rivera put it away.
Rivera had seven kills in the game to lead the Gauchos.
"I guess we didn't adjust to their challenge," said middle blocker Dejan Miladinovic, who had six blocks while making seven kills and hitting .105.
Miladinovic had vowed after the UCLA loss that the Warriors wouldn't lose another match this year at the Stan Sheriff Center.
"We have no excuse for tonight," he said. "We played badly."
But the Warriors saved their worst for last.
"We just didn't have it in game 4," said Wilton.
Hawaii spotted the Gauchos the first four points and then trailed by as much as 10 points (17-7).
The Warriors closed to within two (29-27) but Rivera then put down his 20th kill for match point.
Rivera and David Kohl, both junior outside hitters from California, led the Gauchos with 20 kills and 10 digs apiece.
Neither player did much on Wednesday when Rivera had five kills and hit for zero percentage and Kohl had four kills and hit an embarrassing minus .158.
"The difference was we were uptight Wednesday night and we didn't stick to our game plan," said Kohl.
"On Wednesday they (the Warriors) were a machine. No mistakes. They're an amazing team. But tonight I think they made more mistakes simply because we were more solid."
Whereas in the first match between the teams, UC-Santa Barbara made four times as many attack errors as Hawaii, the Gauchos made only two more (31) last night.
Koski, a 6-5 sophomore opposite who had six kills and no blocks on Wednesday, was another major factor in UC-Santa Barbara's turnaround last night. He had 16 kills, four aces and was in on five blocks.
But the biggest difference between the two matches was in the blocking.
The Gauchos came alive at the net last night, outblocking Hawaii, 19 to 13.
On Wednesday, they had only one block to the Warriors' 13.5.
Brian Nordberg, a 6-5 sophomore outside hitter, had seven block assists to lead the Gauchos last night.
"Volleyball is such a mental game," said sophomore outside hitter Eyal Zimet, who had 15 kills.
"I think our state of mind coming into the game was not right. It was too easy on Wednesday and there was an illusion that it was going to be the same."
Torry Tukuafu led Hawaii with 19 kills and 14 digs.
Brenton Davis had 13 kills and hit a team-high .647.
UC-Santa Barbara outhit Hawaii, .259 to .238.
Costas Theocharidis, Hawaii's sophomore All-American outside hitter, had nine kills.
It was his second night in a row below double-digit kills and only the second time in his collegiate career.
Vernon Podlewski, the junior libero from Maui, had a big defensive night with 11 digs.
Hawaii leads the series with UC-Santa Barbara, 32-18.
In another MPSF match last night, No. 8 Brigham Young defeated No. 11 Cal State Northridge, 30-27, 30-25, 34-32.
NOTES: James Jessen, a powerful 6-5, 225-pound opposite from Harbor High School in Santa Cruz, Calif., left today after a 48-hour recruiting visit. He attended the match. Jessen, a 3.6 GPA student who also plays tight end and defensive end for his school's football team, said he has already taken a trip to UC-Santa Barbara and is considering trips to UCLA and USC before he makes his decision. Jessen said that he might want to walk on with the football team if he chooses Hawaii. Harbor High was 8-3 and got to the semifinals of the CIF Division III playoffs. ... The Warriors will hit the weight room over the weekend and then get ready to host Cal State Northridge on Thursday and next Saturday. After that home engagement, the Warriors take to the road for the first time this year with matches at UC-San Diego on Feb. 13 and Long Beach State Feb. 15.
UC-Santa Barbara def. Hawaii,
Gauchos (4-2 overall, 2-2 MPSF)
32-30, 26-30, 37-35, 30-27
g k e att pct. bs ba d Minc 4 2 0 8 .250 2 4 6 Kohl 4 20 7 41 .317 1 5 10 Nordberg 4 9 4 21 .238 0 7 0 Rivera 4 20 8 40 .300 1 4 10 Koski 4 16 11 43 .116 1 4 8 Bengtsson 4 8 1 17 .412 1 4 8 Johnston 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 14 Zegarra 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Busam 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Totals 4 75 31 170 .259 6 28 59 Warriors (6-2 overall, 2-1 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 4 7 5 19 .105 1 5 2 Tuyay 4 0 1 3 .333 0 2 7 Zimet 4 15 8 35 .200 0 3 6 Theocharidis 4 9 4 24 .200 0 3 6 Davis 4 13 2 17 .647 0 3 1 Tukuafu 4 19 8 47 .234 0 2 14 Podlewski 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 11 Denitz 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Ching 2 2 1 6 .167 1 0 6 Totals 4 65 29 151 .238 2 19 53 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--UCSB (6): Koski 4, Minc 1, Kohl 1. UH (5): Zimet 2, Davis 2, Tukuafu 1
Assists--UCSB (67): Minc 61, Nordberg 3, Kohl 1, Koski 1, Bengtssson 1. UH (59): Tuyay 57, Theocharidis 2.
T-2:28. Officials: Wayne Lee, Ernest Ho.
Attendance: 4,167.
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
