Friday, March 30, 2001

Warriors
finally end
18-year jinx

Volleyball team wins
at Pauley Pavilion

From staff and wire reports

LOSANGELES >> On a trip itinerary for the University of Hawaii men's volleyball team, head coach Mike Wilton wrote a little message next to his team's scheduled match against UCLA: "a team that deserves a beating."

His team not only delivered a beating, but it also broke two records in the process last night, defeating UCLA, 25-30, 30-27, 23-30, 30-23, 15-13, in a five-game thriller in Los Angeles.

Before a crowd of 823, the second-ranked Rainbows improved to 16-3 and 11-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, and freed themselves of an 18-year-old curse.

"We're feeling pretty terrific," an exuberant Wilton said. "It was a nice celebration because we weren't playing very well early. UCLA is an unemotional, business-like team and we kind of got sucked into that. We need to be fiery and emotional. We were kind of beating ourselves, making a lot of unforced errors."

In the deciding fifth game, Hawaii trailed 11-13, but scored four straight points to steal the game and match. The last time Hawaii won at Pauley Pavilion was when setter Kimo Tuyay was a mere five months old. Tuyay notched 68 assists and spread the offense around as three hitters tallied double digits in kills.

Sophomore sensation Costas Theocharidis led the attack with a match-high 31 kills, while Torry Tukuafu and Brenton Davis pounded a respective 18 and 10 kills for the Warriors.

In the first game of the match, Dejan Miladinovic shattered the total block record set by Jason Olive with his 475th career block. Miladinovic posted 5 blocks against the Bruins to become the career block leader in just his third year of volleyball at Hawaii.

"Seriously, I didn't think about it until coach just told me two minutes ago," Miladinovic said. "A lot of other things were going through my mind, but that was not. That was the last thing in the world. It feels good but that's not the goal."

Hawaii def. UCLA

25-30, 30-27, 23-30, 30-23, 15-13

Warriors (16-3, 11-2 mpsf)

	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Miladinovic	5	8	1	12	.583	0	6	1
Tuyay	5	1	5	7	-.571	0	2	8
Zimet	5	6	4	14	.143	0	4	18
Theocharidis	5	31	8	57	.404	0	6	6
Davis	5	10	3	23	.304	0	3	5
Tukuafu	5	18	5	32	.406	0	1	2
Podlewski	5	0	0	1	.000	0	0	10
Ching	1	0	0	2	.000	0	0	0
Totals	5	74	26	148	.324	0	22	50

Bruins (17-6, 9-4 mpsf)

	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Williams	5	14	4	30	.333	1	3	7
Morrow	5	9	0	19	.474	0	6	0
Nelson	5	3	0	5	.600	0	3	8
Mount	5	16	9	40	.175	0	3	5
Naeve	5	14	3	27	.407	0	1	1
Komer	5	22	6	43	.372	0	0	7
Shrader	5	0	0	0	.000	0	0	15
Totals	5	78	22	164	.341	1	16	43

Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--UCLA (4): Williams 2; Komer 2. UH (3): Miladinovic 1, Tuyay 1, Zimet 1.
Assists--UCLA (72): Nelson 65, Williams 3, Shrader 2, Komer 1, Mount 1. UH (73): Tuyay 68, Podlewski 2, Tukafu 1, Davis 1, Zimet 1.
T--2:09. Officials--Ron Stahl, Scott Hogue. A--823.

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