Warriors A power outage at the Stan Sheriff Center yesterday made the Hawaii volleyball match an interesting affair on Valentine's Day. But before the electrical failure, outside hitters for Hawaii and Cal State Northridge were already putting on a spectacle.
black out
Matadors
No. 1 Hawaii makes up
for a loss to Cal State Northridge
on Thursday with a sweepBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comA crowd of 3,408 braved the rain and the traffic to watch a lights-out slugfest between Hawaii seniors Costas Theocharidis and Tony Ching, and Northridge hitters Joe Nargi and Tamer George. Top-ranked Hawaii rebounded from a terrible loss on Thursday to sweep eighth-ranked Northridge 32-30, 30-20, 30-28.
Theocharidis finished the match hitting .533 with 20 kills. The All-American has been the Warriors' kill leader in eight of 11 matches this season, but Ching made it clear that he wouldn't be denied. Most of his swings made a booming thud on the court as he collected a career-high 21 kills.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Pedro Azenha hit one past Cal State Northridge's Nils Nielsen last night. The Warriors swept the Matadors.
"We felt comfortable with the guys on the court," Ching said. "We made some changes from last night. Everybody did a great job. It was a great team effort. Everybody stepped up and played together. We struggled at times, but we stuck together and we still got the win.
"We've been getting wake-up calls all season, and I think it's about time we get fed up with it. We had a good talk last night. We don't want to lose no more, at least not playing the way we did."
Warriors coach Mike Wilton revamped the lineup three-and-a-half hours before game time. At libero was Eyal Zimet, Hawaii's best passer. Zimet passed nails and played solid defense. The lineup could be something to keep for the future as Pedro Azenha filled in well, too, with 10 kills and two aces.
"The boys came to play tonight," Wilton said. "The difference in the locker room between last night and tonight was two entirely different beasts. We only had enough energy for Game 1 last night. Tonight, the energy was sustained.
"Ordinarily, coaches don't give their system a complete makeover like this and implement it three-and-a-half hours before game time with no practice. But it went pretty well. That's a lineup that gives us a lot of firepower. My concerns were that the system we used last year were good enough for a national title, but we needed to make a change."
A day after the setting was called atrocious by Wilton, junior Kimo Tuyay set things straight. Tuyay dished 53 assists as Hawaii outhit Northridge .485 to .354.
"When someone comes into your house like that and you don't play too well, we don't like when people come in like that and embarrass us like that," Tuyay said. "We came out on fire. We should be playing like that all the time."
There was no set Ching couldn't put down in Game 1. The 6-foot-2 senior hit .727 with eight kills in 11 swings and no errors. The Matadors got seven kills a piece from George and Nargi. Neither team was able to take control as almost every point went back and forth. The power failure happened in Game 1 with the score tied at 30-30.
Theocharidis blasted a kill off the Northridge block but before the ball landed, the lights flickered and then there was darkness in the arena. There was a brief dispute whether the point should count or be replayed but referee Wayne Lee ruled that the ball was already sailing out of bounds when the lights went out.
After a 25-minute delay, the match resumed only to end 30 seconds later. Theocharidis blasted his 10th kill of the match to end the game. His hitting line (10-1-13) in Game 1 was just as impressive as Ching's.
"Neither team could stop each other in Game 1," Wilton said. "There was not one block."
There wasn't much drama after, either. The Matadors (9-5, 5-4) went quickly in Game 2 as Nargi (16 kills) and Tamer (14 kills) cooled off. Game 3 was close but Ching and Theocharidis delivered kills at the end to seal Northridge's fate. Theocharidis also became Hawaii's career leader in service aces in Game 3 with his 101st career ace.
The Warriors travel to Brigham Young next week for a pair of conference matches against the Cougars.
Notes: Former Warriors Dejan Miladinovic and Vernon Podlewski attended the match. Podlewski received an invitation to try out as a libero with the U.S. national team.
Hawaii def. CSU Northridge
32-30, 30-20, 30-28 MATADORS (9-5, 5-4 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Nielsen 2 2 2 9 .000 0 0 2 Nargl 3 16 5 24 .458 0 1 3 Douglas 3 7 1 12 .500 0 0 0 Tramblie 3 1 1 3 .000 0 1 3 George 3 14 4 28 .357 1 1 9 Arneson 3 8 1 14 .500 0 4 2 Waite 1 0 0 2 .000 0 0 0 Hansen 3 4 3 7 .143 0 1 1 English 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 4 Allen 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Pedraza 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 3 52 17 99 .354 1 8 24 WARRIORS (9-3, 5-3 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Tuyay 3 0 1 1 -1.000 0 1 3 Theocharidis 3 20 4 30 .533 0 2 5 Azenha 3 10 3 24 .292 1 1 1 Ching 3 21 1 30 .667 0 1 7 Thomas 3 8 1 12 .583 0 4 1 Stanhiser 3 5 1 12 .333 0 1 1 Zimet 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 4 Bender 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Nordberg 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 3 64 11 109 .486 1 10 22 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- Hawaii (4): Azenha 2, Theocharidis, Bender. CSUN (0). Assists -- Hawaii (57): Tuyay 53, Ching 2, Azenha, Stanhiser. CSUN (48): Tramblie 44, Nargl 2, English 2.
T -- 2:03. Officials -- Wayne Lee, Ernest Ho. Attendance -- 4,821.
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