LONG BEACH, Calif. >> Hawaii coach Mike Wilton knows now that there are serious students on his volleyball team. Hawaii rises to
top of game at PyramidFrom staff and wire reports
The Warriors had an opportunity to go to an amusement park Thursday but opted to skip the outing and study instead. What they studied might have been scouting reports and not school materials as Hawaii seemed to read Long Beach State like an open book yesterday.
Before an animated crowd of 1,230 at The Pyramid, No. 2 Hawaii swept No. 5 Long Beach State 30-19, 30-27, 30-27. The Warriors got their first sweep of the season against a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opponent. It was also Hawaii's first season sweep of the Beach since 1996, when Hawaii won two matches at home.
The Warriors (8-2, 4-2) concluded an 11-day road trip, the longest of the season, with a 3-1 record.
"We did some pretty OK playing. The only disappointing circumstance was letting them off in Game 2," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "We were up 20-14 and we just hit a road block. They made a few plays and we helped them a whole bunch and let them right back into it. But for the most part we were pretty good."
Hawaii outblocked Long Beach State 12 1/2 to 5 1/2 and outhit the 49ers .363 to .235.
It was Greek night at The Pyramid, which made it all too fitting that Costas Theocharidis was the one to silence the heckling crowd. The native of Orestiada, Greece, hit .343 and had 16 kills and two aces to do most of the damage.
The Warriors passed well enough that Hawaii's middles got in on the fun, too. Sophomore Delano Thomas hit .636 with eight kills, while junior Joshua Stanhiser led the team in hitting percentage (.700) with seven kills in 10 swings. Thomas also had a hand in six of the Warriors' blocks.
Wilton wanted his team to focus on blocking and it did, as it held outside hitter Scott Touzinsky in check. Touzinsky went off on Wednesday with 26 kills but had 17 yesterday. Middle David Lee added 12 kills for the Beach.
"We showed some good mental awareness at the net with our blocking," Wilton said. "We were more clear-headed. Sometimes when you struggle, clarity of thought goes right out the window. That always manifests itself in blocking."
Hawaii got a scare in a close Game 1 when senior Tony Ching left the game after tweaking his right ankle. Freshman Pedro Azenha came off the bench and filled in nicely for Ching, who returned later in the match. The Warriors had a slim lead (20-18) but blitzed the 49ers with tough serving. With setter Kimo Tuyay at the line, Hawaii rattled off seven straight points to easily win the game.
The Warriors fended off a late 49er run in Game 2 when Long Beach overcame a seven-point deficit (21-14) to take a 25-24 advantage. Hawaii regained the lead after a timeout when setter Tyler Hildebrand served out and middle blocker Yassir Sliti hit long. The Warriors capped the game with a block of Touzinsky. Critical to the game was Wilton's sub of Tuyay early in the game.
"We like our hitters to be able to hit balls, so we had to make a change," Wilton said. "Kimo was pitching a no-hitter for a while. He really struggled with his location so fortunately we brought Daniel (Rasay) into the rescue. Then we had to replace Daniel with Kimo. They did a great team thing as far as giving us a lift."
Game 3 seesawed back and forth with neither team managing more than a three-point lead. A Thomas kill evened the score at 18. There were six more ties after that (the last at 26-26) but the Warriors managed to avoid extending the match by completing the game with a 4-1 run.
Hawaii returns home today at noon. The Warriors don't get much of a break. They host Cal State Northridge on Thursday and Friday. The 12th-ranked Matadors are rolling after beating UCLA in five last week and upsetting top-ranked UC Irvine 3-1 yesterday.
Notes: With his two aces yesterday, Theocharidis notched the 100th ace of his career to tie Yuval Katz as the Hawaii career leader.
MPSF standings
MPSF Overall W L PCT W L PCT Pepperdine 6 0 1.000 8 1 .889 Brigham Young 6 1 .857 6 1 .857 Pacific 4 1 .800 7 4 .636 UC-Irvine 5 2 .714 12 2 .857 Hawaii 4 2 .667 8 2 .800 CS-Northridge 4 3 .571 8 4 .667 Long Beach State 3 4 .429 7 5 .583 Stanford 3 4 .429 5 6 .455 UCLA 2 5 .286 5 6 .455 USC 1 5 .167 3 7 .300 UC Santa Barbara 1 6 .143 3 9 .250 UC San Diego 0 6 .000 3 7 .300 Yesterday
Cal State Northridge def. UC Irvine, 23-30, 30-26, 31-29, 33-31
UCLA def. UC Santa Barbara, 30-26, 31-29, 30-22
BYU def. UC San Diego, 30-28, 30-28, 30-27
Hawaii def. Long Beach St., 30-19, 30-27, 30-27
Today
Pacific at Pepperdine
Stanford at USC
UC San Diego at BYU
Hawaii def Long Beach State
30-19, 30-27, 30-27
Warriors (6-2, 2-2 mpsf)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Tuyay 3 1 0 1 1.000 0 5 1 Zimet 3 6 2 12 .333 0 1 5 Theocharidis 3 16 4 35 .343 1 2 3 Ching 3 5 6 13 -.077 0 2 2 Thomas 3 8 1 11 .636 0 6 0 Stanhiser 3 7 0 10 .700 1 3 0 Motter 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 6 Azenha 3 5 2 9 .333 0 2 0 Bender 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Rasay 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Totals 3 48 15 91 .363 2 21 18 49ers (7-5, 3-4 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Wootton 3 5 5 15 .000 0 0 3 Coe 3 6 4 13 .154 0 4 3 Hildebrand 3 0 1 2 -.500 0 1 7 Touzinsky 3 17 9 32 .250 0 1 4 Sliti 3 7 3 14 .286 0 3 1 Lee 3 12 2 21 .476 0 2 4 White 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Hagstrom 2 0 0 1 .000 0 0 0 Kijewski 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Meine 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Budinger 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Munoz 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 2 Totals 3 47 24 98 .235 11 0 25 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- Hawaii (2): Theocaridis 2. LBS (1): Touzinsky. Assists -- Hawaii (47): Tuyay 33, Rasay 9, Ching 2, Zimet, Stanhiser, Motter. LBS (47): Hildebrand 45, Coe, Munoz.
T -- 1:21. Officials -- Bob Oshita, Verna Klubnikin. Attendance -- 1,230.
UH Athletics
