[UH VOLLEYBALL]

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's Eyal Zimet had 10 digs against UCLA last night as Hawaii won 30-19, 30-20, 30-20.

Warriors deal
Bruins a bruisin’

Third-ranked Hawaii dominates
No. 2 UCLA from the outset
on its way to a sweep

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By Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.com

It had been 14 years since the Hawaii volleyball team swept the conference season series vs. UCLA.

And though the Bruins still lead the overall series 41-12, the Warriors started to chip away at that record and perhaps at a little bit of the UCLA mystique with their second win in a row over the Bruins.

Before a thunderous crowd of 6,452 at the Stan Sheriff Center yesterday, Hawaii swept UCLA 30-19, 30-20, 30-20.

Third-ranked Hawaii improves to 19-6 overall and 16-4 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Warriors have won four in a row and take over second place in the conference. They'll likely flip-flop in the rankings with the Bruins next week. Second-ranked UCLA slips to 23-6 and 15-5.

"Just hearing that word (UCLA) really fires you up," Costas Theocharidis said. "We have the worst losing streak against them.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's Tony Ching had 11 kills on 18 attempts last night.

"(But) we got them last night. That's why they were tired and really down. The whole weekend was the first match. They have a bunch of injuries, but the good thing is we played well. We're reaching our peak. That's a great boost for us for the upcoming games."

They should be confident. The Warriors were nearly flawless in every category.

Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said Hawaii made a few adjustments from the first match, but not many.

"We did do some things differently," Wilton said. "We played well enough so we're in system. Tony (Ching) had a great hitting night. Eyal (Zimet) kind of got back in the swing of things. We played a good volleyball match.

"(And) this past week in practice we started stressing to Kimo (Tuyay) to get balls to the middle on less-than-perfect passes."

Tuyay ran a balanced attack with three players in double-digit kills. Theocharidis pounded 14 kills from a new position. He started the match at opposite, which allowed Ching to start on the left side. Ching contributed 11 kills and hit .389.

And the Warrriors' middle blockers weren't just a factor on defense. Delano Thomas crushed 11 kills with no errors to hit .733. Middle blocker Dejan Miladinovic also posted no errors with seven kills.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Delano Thomas had 11 kills on 15 attempts with no errors.

"We had energy from last night," Miladinovic said. "We realized we can beat those guys. It was just a confidence booster."

The Warriors didn't need a wake-up call to start the match yesterday. Hawaii pounced on UCLA early and pinned the Bruins to the ground.

Nothing went right for UCLA. The Bruins missed serves early and struggled passing.

The Warriors led 6-2 in Game 1 and never let up. Hawaii took control of the game after a 6-1 run brought the score to 22-13. The Warriors outhit the Bruins .429 to .138 in the first game.

Hawaii only got better in Game 2. Three straight kills from Theocharidis, Zimet and Thomas helped the Warriors break away from a 6-6 tie. Despite playing out of position, Theocharidis took over the game with eight kills and continued to push Hawaii forward.

Game 3 was over pretty much from the beginning. The Warriors led 7-3 and continued to hammer at the UCLA defense.

"Hawaii played amazing," UCLA setter Rich Nelson said. "They hardly made any mistakes. We were not fired up."

Hawaii plays Brigham Young next weekend. Warrior seniors Miladinovic and Vernon Podlewski will be honored Saturday following the match.

Notes: In other MPSF action, Pepperdine defeated UC Santa Barbara 3-2 to stay on top of the conference.

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Hawaii def. UCLA

30-19, 30-20, 30-20

Bruins (23-6, 15-5 MPSF)

	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Russell	3	8	5	18	.167	0	1	1
Smith	2	1	4	7	-.429	0	0	0
Sepulveda	2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Nelson	3	2	0	3	.667	0	3	1
Mount	3	8	7	26	.038	0	0	5
Komer	3	13	4	22	.409	0	1	4
Kraushaar	1	1	0	3	.333	0	0	2
Johnson	3	5	3	16	.125	0	3	0
Garrett	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Prahler	2	0	2	4	-.500	0	0	2
Pena	1	4	0	8	.500	0	0	0
Shrader	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	8
Totals	3	42	25	107	.159	0	8	23

WARRIORS (19-6, 16-4 MPSF)

	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Miladinovic	3	7	0	11	.636	0	6	1
Tuyay	3	2	0	3	.667	0	1	6
Zimet	3	5	3	9	.222	0	2	10
Theocharidis	3	14	2	30	.400	1	1	0
Ching	3	11	4	18	.389	0	3	7
Thomas	3	11	0	15	.733	0	1	3
Chala	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Podlewski	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	3
Totals	3	50	9	86	.477	1	14	30

Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.

Aces -- Bruins (1): Garrett. Hawaii (1): Theocharidis. Assists -- Bruins (42): Nelson 36, Mount 2, Johnson 2, Komer, Shrader. Hawaii (44): Tuyay 39, Miladinovic 3, Zimet 2.

T -- 1:28. Officials -- Wayne Lee, Ernie Ho. A --7358.

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