FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Tony Ching went up for a kill against UC Santa Barbara last night at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Warriors swept.
Warriors earn As Hawaii senior Brian Nordberg predicted, it was indeed a lopsided match.
expected sweep
No. 2 Hawaii improves to 20-5
MPSF standings
with win over UC Santa BarbaraBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comMatches between Hawaii and UC Santa Barbara have been one-sided affairs the last three years and yesterday was no different.
A crowd of 4,140 at the Stan Sheriff Center watched the Warriors sweep the Gauchos 30-23, 30-17, 30-28. The second-ranked Warriors improved to 20-5 and 14-5 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play. The 15th-ranked Gauchos drop to 9-18 and 4-15.
"We played well. We had some mental errors," setter Kimo Tuyay said. "We needed to stop some runs. But overall we're working on some things. We need to work on some hustle plays, but we won the game and that's what counts.
"The motivation was there. We weren't slacking. We played hard. We served pretty well today. Our serving has been helping us pull through these matches."
The Warriors seemed to slack in the beginning.
Hawaii took advantage of five UCSB hitting errors to open a 9-0 lead in Game 1. When Nate Wack finally put away a ball for the Gauchos, the crowd celebrated with UCSB. A nine-point lead in rally scoring is usually a decent cushion, but the Warriors gave up points as quickly as they got them. The Gauchos overcame their stage fright and were within one (21-20) after a kill by Michael Kennedy. That was the closest UCSB would get, as Hawaii closed out the game with a 9-3 run.
"That was bad because we took a good portion of that game off. They were just struggling horribly," Warriors coach Mike Wilton said. "They can play, they can absolutely play.
"We were being efficient and somehow we became human and got to thinking they weren't so good. We were real up and down. In and out. Efficient, inefficient."
But Hawaii's serving bailed the Warriors out again. Hawaii managed three aces in Game 2, one each from Tony Ching, Eyal Zimet and Costas Theocharidis, and forced UCSB into a predictable offense. The Warriors blocked five balls and held the Gauchos to a .061 hitting percentage for the game. With Hawaii leading 15-12, Ching's ace started a 6-1 run that was highlighted by two thunderous kills from Delano Thomas. The Gauchos weren't heard from again in the game.
"In a lot of matches this year, we've had a lot of trouble coming out of the gate and getting on a roll in the first game," outside hitter Keith Busam said. "All year long, we've only had three or four matches we've come out and played well right off the bat. We made some bad choices.
"Hawaii's a pretty good blocking team. We've seen serving like that. We just haven't seen it out of four of the six starters. Eight aces is pretty good."
The Gauchos were pesky in Game 3, refusing to let the Warriors pull away. Hawaii had match point when UCSB made a final run off consecutive blocks by Justin Adams and a kill by Busam to pull within one at 29-28. But after a timeout, Zimet blasted his eighth kill of the match to end it.
Nordberg, who transferred to Hawaii from Santa Barbara, finished with three kills.
Ching, who had five aces, and Theocharidis led Hawaii with 12 and 13 kills. Sophomore Adam Ulfers had 12 kills for the Gauchos. The rematch is today at 7 p.m.
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MPSF standings
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pepperdine 17 2 .894 20 3 BYU 16 4 .800 18 5 Hawaii 14 5 .737 20 5 Pacific 12 7 .632 18 10 Stanford 10 8 .556 13 11 Northridge 11 9 .550 17 10 Irvine 10 9 .526 17 9 UCLA 9 10 .474 14 12 Long Beach State 9 11 .450 15 12 Santa Barbara 4 15 .211 8 18 USC 2 17 .105 6 22 San Diego 1 18 .053 5 19 Yesterday
Pacific def. San Diego
Hawaii def. Santa Barbara
Northridge def. La Verne
Stanford def. Long Beach State
Hawaii def. UCSB
30-23, 30-17, 30-28
Gauchos (9-18, 4-15) g k e att pct. bs ba d Kowalski 3 0 0 0 .000 0 1 6 Wack 3 7 6 23 .043 1 1 2 Ulfers 3 12 9 29 .103 0 5 5 Busam 3 9 2 18 .389 0 3 5 Kennedy 3 7 3 18 .222 0 3 2 Adams 3 4 0 10 .400 0 5 1 Jensen 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Zegarra 2 0 1 5 -.200 0 0 0 Mansfield 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 9 Totals 3 39 21 103 .175 1 18 30
Warriors (20-5, 14-5) g k e att pct. bs ba d Tuyay 3 3 1 4 .500 1 2 5 Zimet 3 8 1 15 .467 1 3 8 Theocharidis 3 13 5 32 .250 1 1 7 Ching 3 12 2 23 .435 0 2 8 Nordberg 3 3 2 10 .100 0 4 0 Thomas 3 7 2 15 .333 0 3 1 Muise 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 9 Azenha 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Totals 3 46 13 99 .333 3 15 38 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- UCSB (1): Busam; Hawaii (8): Ching 5, Theocharidis 2, Zimet 1. Assists -- UCSB (36): Kowalski 34, Kennedy, Adams; Hawaii (42): Tuyay 38, Ching, Nordberg, Thomas, Muise.
T -- 1:42. Officials -- Dan Hironaka, Wayne Lee. A -- 4,140.
UH Athletics
