Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Monday, March 5, 2001
After passing what their coach called a "heart check, character check" last weekend against Stanford, the University of Hawaii men face the most critical stretch of their conference schedule. Warriors pass
first tough testBy Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinIn all, the sixth-ranked Warriors have nine conference matches remaining. Six will be on the road.
Hawaii disposed of No. 5 Stanford with sweeps of their two matches at the Stan Sheriff Center last weekend.
The first was a conference victory. But it was the third game of Saturday's 30-26, 30-25, 34-32 nonconference win that meant the most to the Warriors (11-3, 6-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation).
They did the improbable in coming back from a seven-point deficit in that game, before a crowd of 4,747.
Costas Theocharidis capped a comeback even head coach Mike Wilton didn't expect when he spiked a shot off the fists of a Cardinal back row player and into the stands.
"This one is going to help us in the future," said Theocharidis, who had 42 kills and 16 blocks in the wins against Stanford (8-3, 5-3).
"We know we can fight, we can come back and win games. Thank God it happened. It was a better feeling than winning the match."
Wilton was also thankful.
He said to fall short after battling back from such a big deficit could've done some major damage to his team's spirit.
"When a team mounts a furious comeback and then the door gets slammed on them for whatever reason, that can be very debilitating emotionally," Wilton said. "I was really planning for game 4 because I didn't see us doing anything to get it back. That was a heart check, character check and a little bit of luck."
Middle blocker Dejan Miladinovic, the NCAA's second leading blocker and the school's all-time leader in block assists, had a season-high 14 total blocks on Saturday.
"It's great to know we are capable of doing something like this with big matches ... coming up," Miladinovic said.
The Warriors outblocked (21-7) and outhit (.343 to .151.) the Cardinal.
Thanks to No. 7 USC's upset of No. 4 Long Beach State, the Warriors moved from third to second place in the MPSF Pacific Division standings.
USC (9-3, 9-3) moved into first as the 49ers (11-3, 7-3) fell from first to third.
Coming up are big matches Friday and Saturday against No. 2 Pepperdine (11-3, 7-3). The Waves lost in five games to No. 1 Brigham Young (12-1, 8-1) on Saturday.
On March 16, Hawaii will host the Trojans (9-3, 9-3) before playing exhibitions at the Stan Sheriff Center against California (March 17) and Arizona (March 23-24).
Then the Warriors will embark on what will be an endurance-testing California road trip, playing four matches in four nights.
On March 28, they'll be at No. 12 UC Irvine (5-9, 3-6) before playing two matches in a row at No. 3 UCLA (12-4, 6-2). On March 31, they play again at UC Irvine.
The Bruins have won 38 of 47 matches against Hawaii, including the last four in a row.
After home exhibitions against Alberta (April 6-7), the Warriors must play two nights in a row in the Cougars' usually packed Smith Field House April 13-14.
The MPSF tournament's first round will be April 21 at a site to be determined.
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
