Wednesday, January 23, 2002

[ UH VOLLEYBALL ]

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Miladinovic, Wilton know
UH can play better

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By Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.com

Despite going 2-1 in its own tournament and upsetting then-No. 1 Penn State, the Hawaii volleyball team wasn't satisfied with its performance in last week's Outrigger Invitational.

Middle blocker Dejan Miladinovic graded the Warriors' combined performances as a C-plus. Miladinovic says Hawaii needs to focus on improving its serving and passing but that the other aspects of Hawaii's game -- hitting, blocking and defense -- were pretty good. Miladinovic also said that the tournament isn't that much of a predictor for the season.

"It's not much of an indication," Miladinovic said. "Every single year, we've lost to UCLA, often times very badly. It doesn't really matter. Our shape will be rising. We're always able to beat UCLA sometime in the season. They're a good team. There's no shame to lose to them. It's a shame to play like that."

The Warrior passing broke down and allowed four aces in Saturday's match against UCLA. Hawaii sent setter Kimo Tuyay scrambling all over the court chasing down errant passes.

Hawaii coach Mike Wilton made a similar assessment and plans to devote more time to volleyball basics. Wilton says that he'll up the time the Warriors spend on serving and passing from 25 minutes to 35 or 40 per practice.

Wilton, however, was not concerned with Costas Theocharidis' uncharacteristic hitting performance (.156, 12 kills) in Saturday's final.

"(The tournament) showed that we need to serve and pass a lot more," Wilton said. "It also showed a lot of good things. It showed that Costas can have an off-night and other people can pick up the slack. He has a bad performance once or twice a year so I'm not making too much of it."

Injury report: Outside hitter Tony Ching will miss the Warriors' upcoming road trip. The 6-foot-2 junior missed last weekend's Outrigger Invitational with a torn tendon in one of the muscles in his right shoulder.

Ching's status was day-to-day last week, but he will now miss three weeks with a strained right shoulder.

Hawaii trainer Michelle Landis said that the injury is unrelated to Ching's shoulder surgery last October.

Hawaii plays No. 2 Stanford next Tuesday and Wednesday. The Warriors follow those matches with two against Pacific.

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UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii