|
Warriors clean Hawaii coach Mike Wilton presented Long Beach State assistant coach Andy Read with a hat made of ti leaves at the start of yesterday's match.
up act, avenge
loss to LBSU
Hawaii avenges Wednesday's
defeat with a sweepBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.com
That was about the only thing the Hawaii volleyball team gave Long Beach State.
Before a crowd of 3,791 (4,954 tickets issued), Hawaii rebounded from a bad loss on Wednesday to soundly defeat Long Beach 30-18, 30-25, 30-22.
Hawaii improves to 10-3 overall and 7-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Long Beach drops to 7-9 and 5-5.
The Warriors suffocated the 49ers at the net early and never let up. Hawaii gave a much more spirited and energized performance. Wilton never had to think about bringing his dog to the match -- as he joked about after Wednesday's match -- as his players played with much more hustle.
"It was like night and day. It was great. It was awesome," Costas Theocharidis said. "We tried to boost Kimo's confidence. We were pretty determined and we said we were going to play as hard as we can.
"We knew if we brought our "A" game, we were going to win. We executed the way we knew we can and it was easy."
The passing was almost flawless and Hawaii's blockers made it easy for the team to play defense.
And there was a noticeable improvement in the setting. After a forgettable night on Wednesday, Kimo Tuyay collected 34 assists and set Hawaii to a .442 hitting percentage. Long Beach was held to just .146.
Theocharidis led Hawaii with 12 kills, while Eyal Zimet chipped in 10 kills.
"Kimo was on his game tonight," Wilton said. "That kid has so much ability and he's been struggling. We tried to let him know that he's our guy. When he plays that way, it's like throwing gasoline on the fire for the rest of the team. They get really animated.
"We had another good blocking night and we passed and Kimo ran the offense well."
Hawaii outblocked Long Beach 15 1/2 to four.
The Warriors outhit the 49ers .464 to .032 in Game 1. Hawaii posted six blocks in the game, but in reality the Warriors touched or rejected nearly every 49er attack. Hawaii built an 11-3 lead by winning the battle at the net. The Warriors had three stuffs, four kills and an ace by Costas Theocharidis. The other three points were from Long Beach's hitting errors. Hawaii increased its lead to a 10-point advantage at 25-15 and cruised the rest of the game.
Nicholas Marbach, the Beach's top hitter on Wednesday, was pulled from the game after hitting -.400 at the beginning. In fact, the Hawaii block plagued Jeff Wootton and Tim May, who both hit for a negative percentage.
Hawaii made it pretty obvious that it was going to continue to control the match with its blocking. The Warriors added four blocks in Game 2 and continued to frustrate the Beach's hitters. And when the ball got by the block, defenders Eyal Zimet and Vernon Podlewski dug most balls that came their way, including three straight blasts by Scott Touzinsky.
A tip by Theocharidis ended Touzinsky's nightmare and gave Hawaii a 14-10 lead. The Warriors surged ahead to a 25-18 advantage after two 49er errors. But Marbach kept the Beach in the game with two kills that cut Hawaii's lead to four at 28-24. He finished with 17 kills, but was the only source of offense for the Beach.
The Warriors reached the midway point of Game 3 with a kill by Dejan Miladinovic. Hawaii didn't have to do much besides put the ball in play as Long Beach miscommunicated and ended up in various melees on the court. Seldom-used middle blocker Geronimo Chala even subbed in for Delano Thomas and served three points to bring Hawaii to 24-15. Long Beach never threatened as Hawaii closed out the match.
"My dog's disappointed. He thought he was going to play," Wilton said.
Hawaii travels to USC next Friday.
Note: Following the match, middle blocker Geronimo Chala proposed to his girlfriend, Nicole Costa. She said yes as his Warrior teammates surrounded them on the court. ... Warrior reserve Ryan Woodward celebrated his 21st birthday yesterday. ...Hawaii coach Dave Shoji and the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team were honored with a plaque from Sears for winning the Western Athletic Conference tournament and reaching the regionals of the NCAA tournament.
30-18, 30-25, 30-22 HAWAII DEF. LONG BEACH ST.
49ERS (7-9, 5-5 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Wootton 3 7 11 23 -.174 0 2 6 Ekins 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 May 3 4 6 12 -.167 0 2 0 Touzinsky 3 8 4 20 .200 0 1 4 Marbach 3 17 6 31 .355 0 0 9 Lee 3 7 2 14 .357 0 1 4 Kijewski 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Blain 3 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 3 Slitii 1 0 0 0 .000 0 1 0 Meine 2 1 1 2 .000 0 1 0 Caldwell 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Munoz 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 5 Totals 3 45 30 103 .146 0 8 33 WARRIORS (10-3, 7-1 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 3 5 0 12 .417 1 6 2 Tuyay 3 5 0 7 .714 1 3 2 Zimet 3 10 1 14 .643 0 5 4 Theocharidis 3 12 3 31 .290 1 2 4 Delgado 3 6 1 10 .500 0 5 5 Thomas 3 6 1 11 .455 0 4 0 Chala 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Podlewski 3 0 0 1 .000 0 0 2 Totals 3 44 6 86 .442 3 25 19 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--49ers (2): Wootton, Touzinsky. Hawaii (5): Theocharidis 2, Tuyay, Zimet, Delgado. Assists--49ers (43): Blaine 41, Ekins, Marbach. Hawaii (40): Tuyay 34, Delgado 5, Zimet.
T--1:45. Officials--Wayne Lee, Dan Hironaka. A--3,791.
UH Athletics