Thursday, January 10, 2002
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Hawaii turns around, In an effort to demonstrate that Tuesday night's loss was a fluke, the Hawaii volleyball team swept Loyola-Chicago 30-28, 30-24, 30-20 last night.
beats Loyola-Chicago
The Warriors sweep the Ramblers
and avenge Tuesday night's
surprising season-opening lossBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comBefore 2,878 at the Stan Sheriff Center, Hawaii righted everything that went wrong the previous evening.
"The team that I've been training in the gym since August came tonight," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "I don't know who those guys were last night. For whatever reason, there was a real high anxiety level for some of our guys last night, and then a subsequent inability to focus and adjust. It was great to see them be themselves tonight."
Hawaii's defense returned to form and showed why the Warriors might be justified in thinking of themselves as national title contenders. And the offense flowed more smoothly with setter Kimo Tuyay running a balanced attack and collecting 39 assists.
The Warriors outblocked (14.5 to 2) and outhit (.421 to .250) the Ramblers.
"I guess we showed up," Dejan Miladinovic said. "We learned a lot from the game we played (Tuesday). We watched video and identified our mistakes. We stayed in the system and we played what we agreed on. We wanted it, and this was definitely the statement."
Miladinovic was making a statement, too, notching seven of the Warriors' blocks and chipping in eight kills.
By the end of Game 1, Hawaii already had seven blocks and was halting the Rambler middle attack. Shawn Schroeder, one half of the Loyola-Chicago middle blocking tandem that was so effective Tuesday night, hit negative.
Along with Miladinovic, freshman Delano Thomas was a large presence at the net for Hawaii.
And with more than one Warrior hitting well, the offensive burden was eased off of Costas Theocharidis, who led Hawaii with 16 kills.
Junior Tony Ching recovered from a five-kill, five-error performance to pound 11 kills and hit .429.
"I was really nervous yesterday," Ching said. "I was starting for the first time in a home opener. Today, I channeled my adrenaline."
The emotion Loyola-Chicago used to hurt Hawaii on Tuesday wasn't there last night.
"Hawaii really showed why they're national title contenders," Loyola-Chicago coach Gordon Mayforth said. " I underestimated how emotional (Tuesday) night was for my team. We just had a couple of guys who couldn't get going. (Tuesday) we came out and we were pretty fresh, and they were flat. (This time) we were a little flat, and they played really well. ...Hawaii can take it to another level."
And what that level is will be shown next week. Hawaii plays Penn State next Thursday in the eighth annual Outrigger Classic. The three-day tournament features 2001 final four participants UCLA and Penn State and Midwest contender Lewis.
Note: Marta Miladinovic (Dejan's mother) was in attendance from Kraljevo, Serbia.
Ramblers (1-1) Hawaii def. Loyola-Chicago,
30-28, 30-24, 30-20
g k e att pct. bs ba d Davis 3 3 1 5 .400 0 0 8 Haas 3 6 0 12 .500 1 0 1 Schroeder 3 2 4 11 -.182 0 0 5 Stoub 3 24 9 48 .312 0 0 3 Schnor 3 7 9 23 -.087 0 1 3 Kellum 3 10 0 12 .833 0 0 4 O'Brien 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 7 Martin 1 0 1 1 -1.000 0 1 1 Totals 3 52 24 112 .250 1 2 32 Warriors (1-1)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 3 8 1 12 .583 0 8 0 Tuyay 3 4 0 4 1.000 0 5 4 Zimet 3 5 1 13 .308 0 4 8 Theocharidis 3 16 4 34 .353 0 3 6 Ching 3 11 2 21 .429 1 4 1 Thomas 3 5 1 11 .364 0 3 1 Muise 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Podlewski 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Totals 3 49 9 95 .421 1 27 31 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--LUC (3): Davis, Schnor, Stoub. Hawaii (5): Thomas 2, Zimet 2, Muise.
Assists--LUC (50): Davis 41, Haas 3, Kellum 2, O'Brien 2, Schnor 2. Hawaii (46): Tuyay 39, Ching 3, Miladinovic, Podlewski, Theocharidis, Zimet.
T--1:30. Officials--Ernest Ho, Wayne Lee. A--2,878.
UH Athletics