Warriors IRVINE, Calif. >>Two years ago, Hawaii stared down an 0-2 deficit at UC Irvine and came back to pull out a 3-2 victory. This time, there would be no comeback.
swept out of
Crawford Hall
Star-Bulletin staff
The top-ranked Anteaters demonstrated how dominating they can be as they bid uno, dos, adios to the second-ranked Warriors in the confines of cozy Crawford Hall. A standing-room, capacity crowd of 700 watched UCI sweep Hawaii 30-20, 30-26, 30-25 and avenge Friday's loss in the Bren Events Center. The win was only the Anteaters' second in 22 previous meetings with the Warriors.
"I brought (the comeback) up. I have to admit it," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "I brought it up because it was the only thing I could say to them to give them something to think about positively.
"We did a very good job of squelching all of our comebacks and our attempts to arrest control. That was disconcerting. It was unforced errors on our side that kept us from keeping any pressure on them."
With the loss, Hawaii draws another split in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation series. The Warriors (6-2, 2-2 MPSF) didn't do any of the things they did right during Friday's win.
Hawaii's passing was fragile and its blocking non-existent. UCI had three times as many blocks (15.5-5) as UH and it had its way offensively too.
The Anteaters (11-1, 4-1) found the missing diversity in their offense. Setter David Kniffin ran a balanced attack, led by opposite Jimmy Pelzel, who had 16 kills. Outside hitter Spencer Bemus went from invisible to invincible. Bemus hit .500 with 14 kills.
The Anteaters had fewer unforced hitting errors and they attacked the Warriors from the serving line. UCI had six aces while Hawaii got one each from senior Tony Ching and freshman Pedro Azenha.
"We just had a bad night. I give credit to UCI," Wilton said. "They played a little better than they did in Games 2 and 4 which were close last night. We were kind of worse than we were in Game 2."
Indicative of Hawaii's problems was senior outside hitter Costas Theocharidis' hitting line of 7-8-17 (-.100) which Wilton said is possibly the only time that the three-time All-American has hit negative in a match. Sophomore Delano Thomas and senior Ching each had nine kills. Thomas saw only 13 sets in the match.
Hawaii never recovered from a horrible beginning in Game 1. UCI had a quick 6-0 start that set the tone for the match. The Warriors were respectable in Game 2 but couldn't make the crucial plays when the game got close.
Hawaii had opportunities in Game 3 but its passing collapsed again. Midway through the game, Wilton pulled starting setter Kimo Tuyay, Theocharidis, and senior Tony Ching, but nothing worked.
"They just were on us from the start. We stood around waiting to see what they were going to do," Wilton said. "By the time we figured out what they were going to do, it was probably too late.
"They just came at us with their serving and we couldn't get them in trouble with ours. It was a nightmare in terms of being out of system. I don't think we had a hitter in double figures. Costas hit negative which is historical. Eyal was having trouble passing. All of our passers were having trouble."
It was not the way the Warriors wanted to play before heading into another important conference series.
Hawaii will stay on the mainland for two conference matches against Long Beach State next week.
UC Irvine def. Hawaii
30-20, 30-26, 30-25ANT EATERS (11-1, 4-1 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Bemus 3 14 2 20 .500 0 1 2 Pelzel 3 16 3 29 .448 0 5 4 Vislay 3 8 2 13 .462 1 4 0 Kniffin 3 1 1 4 .000 0 2 2 Tucker 3 6 2 12 .333 2 6 5 Marchewka 3 3 2 11 .091 0 7 0 Ford 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 3 Gemise-Fareau 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 3 48 14 89 .382 3 25 16 WARRIORS (6-2, 2-2 mpsf)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Tuyay 3 2 2 5 .000 1 1 1 Zimet 3 4 2 7 .286 0 0 0 Theocharidis 3 7 9 20 -.100 0 1 3 Ching 3 9 4 21 .238 0 0 3 Thomas 3 9 1 13 .615 1 2 2 Stanhiser 3 5 3 10 .200 0 1 1 Motter 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 6 Azenha 1 4 1 7 .429 0 0 2 Bender 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Rasay 1 0 0 0 .000 0 1 0 Totals 3 40 22 83 .217 2 6 19 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- UC Irvine (6): Pelzel 2, Bemus, Vislay, Kniffin, Marchewka. Hawaii (2): Ching, Azenha. Assists -- UC Irvine (46): Kniffin 40, Marchewka 2, Pelzel 2, Bemus, Vislay. Hawaii (36): Tuyay 29, Rasay 5, Zimet, Theocharidis.
T -- 1:22. Officials -- Bob Oshita, Ken Taylor. Attendance -- 700.
