Southern California's North Gym has been compared to a matchbox, but it has yet to ignite the Trojans' volleyball team. Warriors better not
look past TrojansBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comAt 5-13 overall and 2-10 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play, the unranked Trojans have struggled mightily this season.
USC has mustered only two wins in the conference after finishing 10th nationally last year. And of the five overall victories USC has tallied so far, none has been against Division I competition. The Trojans won three straight vs. UC Santa Cruz, UC San Diego and Cal Baptist, before losing 10 of their next 11 games.
It was not the season expected of USC with three starters back, including All-American Brook Billings. The senior leads the team in hitting and serving (4.70 kills per game, 19 aces) but has been the only offensive weapon of note.
But as poor as USC's record might be, Hawaii has had its problems against teams ranked below it, having lost to Loyola-Chicago and Long Beach State. The Warriors (10-3, 7-1) seem to be developing a habit of taking some opponents too lightly.
The Warriors will have the chance to see if any improvement has been made in that area tomorrow and Saturday when they play the Trojans. Both matches start at 5 p.m. Hawaii time.
"There's going to be carnage from me if they do that (overlook USC)," Wilton promised. "Every match, every practice we need to use to get better.
"We seem to play more focused and intensely on the road, than we do at home. There's too much niceness in the Stan Sheriff Center. We need to have people swearing at us I suppose."
Hawaii will definitely get that, with some of the Warriors looking forward to the heckling.
Setter Kimo Tuyay remembers the Warriors' last game in the confines of the matchbox and he wasn't even in a Hawaii uniform.
Tuyay was a senior in high school when he saw the 2000 Warriors lose in the first round of the MPSF playoffs. The defeat didn't deter him from coming to Hawaii and he's been looking forward to his opportunity to light up the gym.
"That's a great gym to play in," Tuyay said. "It's so small. I've always wanted to play at USC. That's the only gym they've ever played in and there's so much tradition there. All the hecklers get all crazy.
"We're looking forward to that. Our team will respond very positively to all the heckling. We have a bunch of talkers on our team."
But unless they can back up the talk, the Warriors, who are coming off a home split with Long Beach State last week, could find themselves on the wrong end of their second road trip this season.
"We made that mistake a couple of times and we paid dearly," Dejan Miladinovic said. "I think we'll have that in mind. I hope we learned something from these losses and regardless of standings, USC is always a tough club. They can explode one night, so we have to take them seriously.
"On the road, it's all business. We don't have any kind of distractions. We're going to be even more focused than we are for the home games. There's nothing else to do really."
Miladinovic ranks USC's North Gym as one of the worst places in the conference to play. He said it doesn't even compare to a practice gym. But he added that the facilities don't matter, noting, "There are no tough gyms, there are (only) tough teams."
Notes: USC leads the all-time series 25-21 and has won the last three matches played on its campus. ...Hawaii eliminated the Trojans from the first round of the playoffs last year. ...The Warriors arrived in Los Angeles yesterday without Tony Ching, who was suspended indefinitely for violating team rules. ...Ching missed Hawaii's first road trip when he was rehabilitating a shoulder injury.
Who: at USC UH volleyball
When: Tomorrow and Saturday, 5 p.m. Hawaii time
TV: None
Radio: Live, 1420 AM
Internet: kccn1420.com
UH Athletics
