UH wakes up LOS ANGELES >> Hawaii senior Tony Ching made the most of his first match at Pauley Pavilion.
to beat
UCLA in 4
From staff and wire reports
The Warriors' outside hitter missed Hawaii's last trip to UCLA two years ago but came up big yesterday as No. 2 Hawaii beat No. 8 UCLA 22-30, 30-22, 30-24, 30-23. Ching put the UCLA block on the carving board with 17 kills and a blistering .682 hitting percentage.
A smallish crowd of 990 watched the Warriors improve to 14-5 and 8-5 for a modest four-match win streak. UCLA drops to 13-10 and 8-8. The rematch is today at 5 p.m.
"This is step one. We have another night, hopefully we play well again," Ching said. "We played well as a team. We didn't come out mentally prepared. It was a good wake-up call for us. Everybody looked at each other and we didn't like that feeling, so we stepped up and came to play in the second game until the end."
All-American Costas Theocharidis provided most of the venom for Hawaii, ripping 25 kills and hitting .477. Ching also heated up on his serving with two aces and several serving runs that forced UCLA out of system.
Setter Kimo Tuyay, who is now 4-1 against the Bruins, distributed an incredibly balanced attack with four hitters receiving 22 sets and Theocharidis getting 44 swings. Delano Thomas (12 kills), Eyal Zimet (11 kills, .409) and Brian Nordberg (11 kills, .364) also managed double-digit kills.
"We were real sleepy," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "We were playing in slow motion. We made a nice upgrade during Game 1 and started playing better, and that momentum carried through the last three games.
"We passed well and served, and reduced it to those two skills. ... We just settled in, just got focused and started playing."
Hawaii started painfully in the match as UCLA raced out to a 10-5 lead The Warriors trailed by at least four the rest of the way, with freshman Matt McKinney, a redshirt basketball player who joined the volleyball team last month, shredding the Warrior defense in Game 1. McKinney fired shot after shot down the line and hit .778 in the game with seven kills.
The Warriors didn't flinch from Game 1 and turned up the intensity in Game 2. A Theocharidis ace gave Hawaii a fast 5-1 lead and Ching delivered nine kills in nine swings to hit 1.000 through two games.
The Warriors executed when it counted to pull out the pivotal Game 3. With the score knotted at 20, Hawaii scored four of the next five points to pull ahead for good. The score was 16-13 in Game 4 when the Warriors blitzed the Bruins with a 7-3 run to stay comfortably ahead the rest of the way.
"A lot of guys did different things to help a lot," Wilton said. "Tony definitely had a great match. We just played Warrior volleyball. We passed and we served. I think that was what it was.
"I'm not going to pretend it was some kind of monumental accomplishment. We just played good volleyball."
This victory wasn't monumental because Hawaii has won the last three contests against UCLA. Before that, the Warriors were a woeful 10-41 against the Bruins.
"Hopefully, the trend (of beating UCLA) continues," Ching said. "You kind of have to establish your credibility. Last year was a prime example. They were a really good team and we took it to them. That got over a big mental hump for us and now we're more comfortable when we play against them.
"The first two years I was here there was a lot of mental humps when we played UCLA ... and now we've established ourselves and we're much more confident when we walk in the gym and have to play them.
"It's a nice win but we have to look past it and move to the next game. It's not getting over that hump anymore. It's business."
Hawaii def. UCLA
22-30, 30-22, 30-24, 30-23
WARRIORS G K E ATT PCT. BS BA D Tuyay 4 2 0 4 .500 0 3 8 Zimet 4 11 2 22 .409 0 3 9 Theocharidis 4 25 4 44 .477 1 1 4 Ching 4 17 2 22 .682 1 4 7 Nordberg 4 11 3 22 .364 0 5 3 Thomas 4 12 9 22 .136 0 5 0 Muise 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 9 Bender 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 4 78 20 136 .426 2 21 40 BRUINS G K E ATT PCT. BS BA D Garrett 4 5 4 12 .083 0 0 9 Acosta 4 21 7 41 .341 0 3 5 Morrow 4 5 1 12 .333 2 2 0 Nelson 4 0 1 3 -.333 1 0 5 Pena 4 10 0 21 .476 1 2 3 McKinney 4 16 8 36 .222 0 1 1 Russell 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Dodd 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Prahler 1 4 0 4 1.000 0 0 1 Shrader 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 8 Kraushaar 3 2 0 3 .667 0 0 0 Totals 4 63 21 132 .318 4 8 32 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- Hawaii (3): Ching 2, Theocharidis; UCLA (4): Pena 2, Nelson, Russell.
Assists -- Hawaii (74): Tuyay 68, Nordberg 2, Zimet, Ching, Thomas, Muise.
T -- 1:45.
Officials -- Marvin Hall, Ron Stahl.
A -- 990.
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