COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF THE PACIFIC
Brian Zodrow had 44 kills as his team beat No. 5 UC-Santa Barbara and lost to No. 6 Cal State Northridge.
Zodrow hoping
to come homeThe Saint Louis School alumnus
wants to play in the NCAA final four
at the Stan Sheriff Center
Brian Zodrow of University of the Pacific in California was honored on Monday as the national men's volleyball Player of the Week.
What could be better than that for the 2001 Saint Louis School graduate from Kahaluu?
"Getting to come home in May to play in the NCAA final four at Stan Sheriff Center," he said. "I've always dreamed of that."
Zodrow led the Tigers to a four-game upset of No. 5 UC-Santa Barbara and a two-points-per-game loss to sixth-ranked Cal State-Northridge to earn the award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
He got 20 and a career-high 24 kills in the two matches, hitting .423 and averaging 6.29 kills per game for the week.
"I was feeling extremely relaxed and confident," Zodrow said. "On every ball set to me, I knew I was going to put it away."
Zodrow did not start playing volleyball until his junior year at Saint Louis and was on the varsity one season. "I really developed the last two years," he said.
Pacific coach Joe Wortmann said he recruited Zodrow because "he has the whole package -- wonderful family, a good student, and a lot of fast-twitch muscle fiber, which makes for an explosive arm swing. It was all very enticing."
In addition to his attacking power, Zodrow ranks 14th nationally in service aces with .417 per game after a career-high five aces against UCSB. His solo block, followed by an ace, was the turning point in Pacific's upset.
After playing 23 games the past two years, senior Adam Catania (Mililani '99) has won a starting middle blocker role for Pacific. "He came into Game 3 at Long Beach two weeks ago and got five kills in five attempts," Wortmann said.
BACK TO TOP |
Locals lead
Missouri ValleyFour of the seven starters on
the men's volleyball team are
from HawaiiWITH only about 60 men's college volleyball teams in the nation, there are not myriad opportunities for the many quality players who come off the high school and club courts of Hawaii.
While men's volleyball programs shut down with disturbing frequency for financial or gender equity reasons, one new one was born two years ago and its coach is actively courting talent from Hawaii.
Four of the seven starters (including the libero) at Missouri Valley College are from Hawaii, as are five others, including three on the junior varsity.
Coach Ed Johnson has signed one current senior so far and is working hard on at least five others.
He wants Hawaii players because "they are well-trained, very disciplined athletes.
"Frankly, you don't get that from mainland coaches. I think it comes from the culture."
Hawaii talent has helped Missouri Valley go 8-3 in its second season and climb to No. 5 in the Tachikara NAIA coaches poll.
"The kids from Hawaii are very good passers, in form and technique," Johnson says.
An example is junior libero Wade Miura (Waianae '00), who transferred to Missouri Valley when Marycrest of Iowa closed (not only the program, but the entire university).
"He is our top passer and leads the team in serve receive statistics," Johnson says.
Starting setter Christopher Kaneko (Pearl City '03) averages 12.4 assists per game.
Sophomore David Hoke (Kamehameha '02 of Kailua) is hitting better than .400 from the right side and Johnson expects him to "take over the leadership role the next two years."
Freshman middle Kapena Wong (Pearl City '03) leads the team in attack statistics (hitting over .450 and averaging 2.9 kills per game). "He's been a great surprise, a great catch," Johnson said.
Sophomore Chandon Chesebro (Hilo '02) is Missouri Valley's designated server and defensive specialist.
On the junior varsity are Justin Himori (Mililani '03), Daniel Cunningham (Damien '03) and David Beatty (Radford '03), while Justin Pedrina (Kalaheo '02) practices with the Vikings while he brings up his grades so he can play.
Setter Jacob Reis (Kalaheo '02) is on a church mission.
Parker's Robert McNamara of Kamuela is the first Hawaii player to sign from the class of 2004.
Among other colleges with a heavy presence of players from Hawaii on their men's volleyball teams are Graceland in Iowa and La Verne in southern California.
Seven of the 13 names on Graceland's varsity roster are from Hawaii. They are:
Senior Preston Keliihoomalu of Honolulu, junior Conan Salanoa of Aiea, sophomores Donan Cruz of Wailuku and Jason Aguinaldo of Makakilo, and freshmen Al Dupont of Pearl City, Gabriel Maunupau of Mililani and Joseph Vierra of Wahiawa.
Multisport athlete Van Dorsey, a Roosevelt alum, is on the junior varsity roster.
At La Verne, where the program is so respected that teams like UCLA have the Leopards on their schedule, there are four players from Hawaii.
Sophomore Rickey Estrada of Kailua, state co-Player of the Year for Kamehameha in 2001, all-stater Jarrett Day (Kamehameha '02) of Hilo and Elliot Naito start and Liko Tubbs is a back-up senior setter.
BACK TO TOP |
Mililani's Himori enjoying
college life on mainlandFor Justin Himori, attending college 3,976 miles from his home in Mililani has been an adventure with no downside so far.
Himori is starting at outside hitter on the men's junior varsity volleyball team at Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo., and coach Ed Johnson sees him as possibly the next varsity libero.
"Missouri Valley was one of the few schools offering me a scholarship for volleyball," said Himori, who graduated with honors (3.8 GPA) from Mililani High last May.
"It was one of the best offers I got -- about $11,000, part for volleyball and part academic," Himori said. That left $6,000, and all but $1,000 of that is covered by loans and grants, he said.
"There are a lot of Hawaii kids here (he estimates 50 in the student body of 1,400) and the upperclassmen have all gone through homesickness, so they help out the younger guys a lot.
"The weather is completely different from home," he said.
"We had 4 inches of snow the past week. It's a treat for the freshmen."
Himori said he and teammates Kapena Wong and Daniel Cunningham went sledding Thursday night.
He has helped bring his culture to Missouri Valley, too, performing Samoan slap dances such as the haka at shows and introducing his mainland teammates to Spam musubi and Hawaiian Sun soda.
BACK TO TOP |
Lee is nation’s unanimous
No. 1 at 133 poundsIt took Travis Lee 1 minute, 31 seconds to pin his Ivy League opponent yesterday in Ithaca, N.Y.
He is going to have to find tougher matches to prepare him to try for a second straight NCAA championship next month.
Lee became the unanimous No. 1 at 133 pounds in the national collegiate wrestling rankings after his 7-4 win over No. 3 Mark Jayne of Illinois on Monday in the National Wrestling Coaches Association All-Star Classic at Cedar Falls, Iowa.
The Cornell junior from Liliha (Saint Louis '01) has a 28-1 season record after yesterday and 95 victories in his career, the sixth most in Cornell history.
Yesterday he had Columbia's Steve Sutton on the canvas for more than a minute before ending the match.
On Monday he used his favorite knee pick to take a 5-1 lead and held off Jayne's comeback composed of three escapes.
Lee has five more dual meets before the centennial Eastern Collegiate Championships March 6-7 and the NCAA Championships March 18-20.
Lee won the NCAA 125-pound championship last year.
TENNIS
UCLA junior Chris Lam of Palolo received the United States Tennis Association Sportsmanship Award for men yesterday at the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle.Lam, who was home-schooled, was chosen for the annual award by the 16 participating coaches for "displaying outstanding sportsmanship and exemplifying the spirit of college tennis during the course of the tournament and throughout his career."
Lam plays No. 2 singles for the Bruins and won a pivotal match to help UCLA beat Mississippi 4-3 in last night's semifinals (the Bruins will face Illinois in the final today).
He is No. 18 in the ITA national singles rankings, the highest ranking ever achieved by a player from Hawaii.
Stanford's Amber Liu, the 2003 NCAA singles champion, won the women's award.
