[UH VOLLEYBALL]
|
BYU gets sweep It should have been the Hawaii volleyball team's night, but nobody told BYU.
revenge on UH
Senior night turns sour when the
Warriors can't repeat Friday's featBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comThe Cougars snuck in and spoiled senior night for Dejan Miladinovic and Vernon Podlewski. Before a crowd of 5,916 at the Stan Sheriff Center, the Cougars swept the Warriors 30-27, 30-28, 30-27.
Hawaii finishes the regular season with a record of 20-7 overall and 17-5 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Warriors host Long Beach State on Saturday in the first round of the playoffs. BYU improves to 22-6 overall and 16-6 MPSF. The Cougars clinch fourth place in the conference outright and will also host in the first round.
Senior night began with a special chant from Vili the Warrior and his son to honor Miladinovic and Podlewski. And in introductions, the Warrior starters dropped to their knees so that the 5-foot-8 Podlewski could seem taller than his teammates just once.
After that it all went downhill. The Warriors struggled with fundamentals again, missing serves and shanking passes. Setter Kimo Tuyay didn't get much to work with offensively. BYU outhit Hawaii .328 to .293.
After struggling Friday, Mike Wall led the Cougars with 20 kills. Joaquin Acosta hit .479 with 12 kills.
And the Warrior defense that carried the team the previous night didn't get a chance to do much. Hawaii was outdug 41 to 31.
"We didn't have it in any way, shape or form," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "We didn't have focus."
"Why do you want to ask me about tonight?" Costas Theocharidis said. "We didn't execute the way we can. They were more motivated than us."
Hawaii and BYU battled all of Game 1. Neither team had more than a two-point lead until the end.
The Warriors seemed to have the upper hand late in the game when they took a 27-25 lead after a block by Delano Thomas. But the Cougars scored five straight points to close out the game. Hawaii's attack stalled and BYU seized the opportunity.
Game 2 was almost a carbon copy of Game 1.
The Warriors and the Cougars exchanged points and small scoring spurts. As in Game 1, Hawaii froze after it scored its 27th point. BYU served tough again to stifle the already struggling Warrior attack.
Rafael Paal blasted an ace that ping-ponged off four Hawaii players to give BYU game point. The game ended two plays later on a kill by Chris Gorny.
"We couldn't sustain anything, and they played a lot better tonight," Wilton said. "There were things we talked about in the game plan that we didn't have the cognition to do."
BYU coach Carl McGown agreed.
"It was something as simple as we just played better," McGown said. "A whole bunch of it was we played better. A small part of it is that everyday we're at sea level, we play better. We got pretty fragmented last night and lost our composure."
It was the Warriors who lost composure yesterday. In Game 3, service errors killed Hawaii. The Warriors missed four out of five during one stretch that helped BYU build an 18-14 lead. Miladinovic kept Hawaii in the match with timely kills, but he jump-served long to end the match.
Costas Theocharidis had 15 kills but is still struggling to find his rhythm from the right side. Miladinovic hit .591 with 14 kills to ease the load. The senior added eight blocks and will probably own all of Hawaii's career blocking records when the season ends.
Podlewski led all defenders with nine digs.
"They've been wonderful," Wilton said. "They work hard everyday in practice. They've given it their all. They've had wonderful careers."
The loss did not diminish the occasion for the seniors. "Five years is a long period of time," said Miladinovic who was draped in the Yugoslavian flag and covered with lei. "And one match can't spoil it. The match wasn't of that much significance for us. We had already secured the No. 2 spot. After the match, the response of the crowd was just overwhelming. I totally forgot about it.
"(Senior night) is tradition and it is special for every senior. Just to be greeted and treated like this is special. I enjoyed it. I've enjoyed every single moment I've been here. I'm enjoying a couple more weeks. We are on a mission. It was a little setback tonight, but maybe it'll be beneficial for us. It might be a little wake-up call. It might ground us a little bit. We were flying high after the UCLA series."
30-27, 30-28, 30-27 Brigham Young def. Hawaii
COUGARS (22-6, 16-6 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Wall 3 20 6 37 .378 0 1 6 Acosta 3 12 1 23 .478 0 1 6 Gorny 3 12 2 18 .556 0 5 2 Paal 3 3 2 12 .083 0 1 9 Moreno 3 3 1 4 .500 0 4 7 Slabe 3 5 3 11 .182 0 1 4 Mayol 2 3 5 10 -.200 0 0 1 Alleman 1 2 1 4 .250 0 0 0 Pessoa 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 6 Totals 3 60 21 119 .328 0 13 41 WARRIORS (20-7, 17-5 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Miladinovic 3 14 1 22 .591 0 8 2 Tuyay 3 1 1 3 .000 0 4 2 Zimet 3 6 2 18 .222 0 3 3 Theocharidis 3 15 5 37 .270 0 1 7 Ching 3 10 5 20 .250 0 4 6 Thomas 3 3 1 13 .154 1 3 1 Chala 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Podlewski 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 9 Delgado 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Nordberg 1 0 0 3 .000 0 0 0 Totals 3 49 15 116 .293 1 23 31 Key--g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces--BYU 3 (Wall, Paal,Moreno). Hawaii 0.
Assists--BYU 59 (Moreno 50, Acosta 4, Paal 3, Wall, Alleman). Hawaii 48 (Tuyay 41, Miladinovic 2, Podlewski 2, Theocharidis, Ching, Nordberg).
T--1:47. Officials--Dan Hironaka, Wayne Lee. A--5,916.
UH Athletics