Saturday, April 14, 2001
[ UH WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL ]
Cougars dominate PROVO, Utah >> No. 1 rankings don't mean much and Brigham Young proved as much last night as the second-ranked Cougars swept top-ranked Hawaii 31-29, 30-28, 30-23.
UH Warriors
Top-ranked Warriors get another
shot at Cougars tonight after being
swept for the first time this seasonFrom staff and wire reports
Before a noisy crowd of 4,581 at Smith Fieldhouse, the Cougars dismantled the offense of the No. 3 hitting team in the nation, holding Hawaii to a dismal .086 while hitting .198. The key to the match was the impenetrable blocking of the Cougars who outblocked Hawaii 19-9.
"We beat ourselves," UH head coach Mike Wilton said. "We found it (the BYU block) real good. We hit certain rotations where we couldn't put a ball away."
With the victory, BYU clinched home-court advantage for the playoffs and will host the conference championship should the Cougars win their first-round match.
"We've got to turn the page on this quickly," Wilton said. "It's okay to feel disappointed as they should. They know they let that get away.
"But we have to learn how to play good on this court because if we win our first-round game, we're going to be coming back here again."
The Warriors must win tonight's rematch in order to clinch the Pacific Division title and the No. 2-seed in the playoffs.
Should Hawaii lose, Long Beach State would claim the Pacific Division crown. Although the teams would have identical 12-5 records, the 49ers hold the tie-breaker advantage since they defeated the Warriors earlier this year.
Last night, Costas Theocharidis was the only Warrior to reach double digits in kills, with a match-high 20. But the sophomore also received the most sets of any Warrior attacker (46) -- and nearly twice as many as top Cougar hitter Joaquin Acosta, who hammered eight kills on 26 attempts. BYU middle blocker Scott Bunker chipped in seven kills, but it was his match-high nine blocks that did the most damage.
Hawaii reached game point first but could not close out Game 1 . At 29-27, BYU coach Carl McGown inserted outside hitter Luka Slabe to serve. The sophomore from Slovenia forced the Warriors to pass poorly, and served four straight points, including an ace that ended the game.
UH failed to capitalize off of BYU service errors and strong blocking from Dejan Miladinovic, who notched three blocks in Game 1.
The Warriors and the Cougars both gave up points in bunches and made large scoring runs in Game 2. UH held a 19-14 lead late in the game, but BYU scored four straight to pull to within 19-18. After a timeout, Hawaii went on a 5-1 run to take a 26-20 lead, but seven unanswered points during a 10-2 run by BYU gave the Cougars a 2-0 lead in the match.
"We let the first two games get away, we had them both," Wilton said. "It was ours to win and we just uncharacteristically couldn't deliver. I don't think it was anything BYU did. We just imploded a little bit.
"There was some kind of frustration or emotional letdown that carried over into that third game when we got that horrible start."
The Warriors came out flat in Game 3 and had used up both timeouts early after digging a huge 3-11 hole. The situation looked bleak for UH, which trailed 9-17 before going on a five-point run that brought the Warriors to within three at 14-17.
Hawaii evened the score at 20-20 off a kill by Theocharidis but didn't have much left having expended all its energy during the comeback. The Cougars scored the next six points behind the blocking duo of Mac Wilson and Mike Wall, who each were in on five blocks. UH mustered only three more points as the Warriors were swept for the first time this season.
Hawaii will host a first-round MPSF playoff match at the Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday April 21 at 7 pm. The MPSF standings and tournament brackets will be finalized this weekend as teams close out their seasons.
Tickets for the match will go on sale Tuesday, April 17 at 8 a.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center Box office and all TicketPlus outlets.
BYU def. Hawaii, 3-0
31-29, 30-28, 30-23
WARRIORS (17-5, 12-4 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 3 5 3 16 .125 1 5 1 Tuyay 3 0 2 3 -.667 0 4 9 Zimet 3 5 6 13 -.077 0 0 7 Theocharidis 3 20 9 46 .239 0 3 7 Davis 3 1 4 16 -.188 0 3 5 Tukuafu 3 4 4 12 .000 0 1 1 Podlewski 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 6 Ching 2 6 3 10 .300 0 0 3 Totals 3 41 31 116 .086 1 16 39
COUGARS (19-3, 13-3 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Wall 3 4 7 16 -.188 1 4 8 Acosta 3 8 1 26 .269 0 5 2 Olsen 2 6 1 10 .500 0 3 1 Lebron 3 2 2 6 .000 0 2 5 Alleman 3 6 5 16 .062 0 1 2 Bunker 3 7 2 15 .333 2 7 8 Wilson 2 4 1 7 .429 1 4 2 Mayol 3 4 0 10 .429 0 3 0 Pessoa 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 5 Slabe 3 5 3 15 .133 0 1 5 Totals 3 46 22 121 .198 4 30 38 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--UH (3): Theocharidis 2, Tuyay. BYU (1): Slabe.
Assists--UH (38) Tuyay 32, Miladinovic 3, Davis 2, Zimet. BYU (41): Lebron 37, Wall 2, Bunker, Wilson.
T--2:00. Officials--Les Calles, Tom Given. A--4581.
UH Athletics
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