Friday, January 18, 2002
[ UH WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL ]
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UH takes down They're not making any excuses.
No. 1
The No. 5 Warriors beat Penn
State to open the OutriggerBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comBut perhaps the greatest factor in the Hawaii volleyball team's win against top-ranked Penn State had nothing to do with what happened on the court.
Sure, the fifth-ranked Warriors performed well in a 30-21, 30-22, 30-27 sweep of the top-ranked Nittany Lions. But Penn State didn't look like the team that Hawaii split two matches with in the fall.
"We played good our last match and we played good again," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "When we went back there in the fall, we didn't play so great. We thought they were pretty good. Maybe the plane flight counts for something."
Travel might have been the reason why the Nittany Lions looked out of sync. Their flight from Dulles to Los Angeles fought 150 mph headwinds the whole way and arrived 15 minutes after their connecting flight to Honolulu was suppose to take off. They boarded that plane, which was being held for them, but then dealt with turbulence most of the way.
Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said that there is much for a team to overcome when it has to travel far and play in front of a partisan crowd.
"It's very tough to come out here and play," Pavlik said. "These guys (Penn state) face pressure here that they don't face any place else. I'm talking about competitive pressure. They're on TV, big crowd, everybody rooting for the Warriors."
The Nittany Lions appeared as though they had stage fright on opening night in front of the 4,145 people at the Stan Sheriff Center. The feeling was surely familiar. Penn State has played in the Outrigger Invitational all eight years and lost its opener every time but one.
"We just got our butts kicked," Pavlik said. "They passed the ball real well and we got real tentative with our serving the way the match started with those two missed serves in a row.
"We let Hawaii get into a rhythm. And anytime you do that, you're asking for trouble. If you give Kimo (Tuyay) passes, he's going to make your block look bad."
The Warriors, on the other hand, handled their blocking assignments well, stuffing Penn State eight times. The Nittany Lion blockers looked clueless, posting only one and a half blocks as Hawaii outhit Penn State, .562 to .247.
The Warriors grooved well with setter Tuyay running a balanced attack and every player hitting above .400.
Costas Theocharidis led Hawaii with 21 kills while Delano Thomas added 11 kills.
30-21, 30-22, 30-27 Hawaii def. Penn State
NITTANY LIONS (1-1, 0-1 OHVI)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Hodge 3 1 2 4 -.250 0 0 2 Quinones 3 3 1 4 .500 0 1 2 Slenker 3 8 3 14 .357 0 1 0 Guerra 3 8 10 23 -.087 0 0 2 Koljesar 3 14 4 20 .500 0 0 4 Keil 3 5 1 9 .444 0 0 0 Mattei 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 3 Schnelder 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Rojas 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Matthews 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Hawkins 3 2 1 3 .333 0 1 1 Totals 3 41 22 77 .247 0 3 15 WARRIORS (2-1, 1-0 OHVI)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 3 7 1 9 .667 0 3 0 Tuyay 3 0 0 0 .000 0 1 3 Zimet 3 7 2 12 .417 1 0 3 Theocharidis 3 21 1 30 .667 1 0 1 Delgado 3 8 2 12 .500 0 5 0 Thomas 3 11 2 16 .562 0 3 0 Muise 1 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 Podlewski 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 5 Gleason 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Nordberg 1 0 1 1 -1.000 0 0 0 Totals 3 54 9 80 .562 2 12 12 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--Penn St. (2): Quinones, Koljesar. Hawaii (none). Assists--Penn St. (41):Quinones 36, Bowles 4, Mattei 2, Hodge, Slenker, Koljesar. Hawaii (51): Tuyay 46, Podlewski 2, Miladinovic, Delgado, Thomas.
T--1:23. Officials--Marvin Hall, Burt Fuller. A--4145.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii